METHOD:  

For the basic donut – 

1. Preparing the dough –  Add sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water (35°C / 95°F), in a large bowl. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes or until the yeast starts to bubble. In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Cut the butter on small cubes.
2. Add flour, eggs, in. Knead well. After about 5 minutes, add the salt. Slowly incorporate the butter cubes and knead well with your hands or in a stand mixer. The dough has to be glossy and smooth.
3. Proofing the dough – Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to proof at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Punch down the dough, then re-cover the bowl. Put in the fridge to chill for 12 – 16 hours or overnight. (If you leave them overnight/16-18 hrs, then your donuts will be easily digested and even more delicious! – but if you just cant wait -which i totally understand! – then just skip this part out)
4. Shaping your donuts – The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut the dough in half, just to make it easier to work with. Roll the dough out to roughly 1.5cm -2cm thickness, on a lightly floured surface, and using a cutter (round shaped, size of your choice)  cut out your donuts (see video below). Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour. Leave plenty of room between the doughnuts to proof. Cover lightly with cling film or a tea towel and leave for about 2 hours, or until about doubled in size.
5. Frying the donuts – Get a cast iron casserole. Fill it up to the halfway point with vegetable oil. Heat the oil to 165 – 175°C / 330 – 350°F. Carefully remove the donuts from the baking tray, take care not to deflate them, and put them into the oil.  Fry for 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on a tray lined with a baking sheet or foil. Set aside to cool before filling them.

For the salted caramel pastry cream – 

1. For the vanilla pastry cream –  Check recipe here
2. For The Salted Caramel sauce – Check recipe here 
3. For the honeycombe – Check recipe here
4. In a large bowl, mix both the vanilla pastry cream, and salted caramel sauce together, until fully combined. Then fold in your chilled whipped cream. Fold carefully, and until its all fully combined.
5. Then put into a piping bag attached with a piping nozzle (I used Ateco 230 2 7″ Bismark)

Filling the Donuts –  

1. Gently hold the donut in your left hand (right hand if youre a lefty!) and with your right hand push through with your nozzle all the way close to the end, but not too close! Choose to push through from the white rim around the donut.
2. Then slowly squeeze in the filling while lifting the nozzle out of the donut. While doing this, you should feel the doughnut getting slightly heavier. Try not to over fill, but honestly there never really is a way to tell, its a matter of trial and error. 🙂
3. Then when its fully filled, make sure to fill a little on the top where the hole is to make it look pretty 😉
4. Then take a piece of your honeycombe and place it ontop of your final piped cream.
5. And there you have it!

Enjoy! 🙂