Here’s the thing, i’m not a huuuuge fan of donuts, BUT sometimes i get an intense craving for one, and the ones that i usually go for take a VERY long time to bake, but are so amazing its worth it. And they are – Brioche Donuts. Yes.. if you have never had a brioche donut, then you are missing out in life. lol No jokes, this is the creme de la creme of donuts!! Absolutely love it!  The basis recipe for the brioche dough is taken from the book : Baking at République. I have edited it just slightly, and then i’ve created my donuts from it. It takes a while to make, but trust me, its sooooooo worth it! 🙂

Here’s how you bake them!

INGREDIENTS :  

For the brioche donut dough –

• 220g butter, cut into cubes, at room temp
• 420g plain flour
• 75g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 32 ml milk
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 10g fresh yeast
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

For the Salted Caramel Cream filling – 

• 1/2 cup Salted Caramel – recipe link –> click here
• 200 ml cream, whipped, cold in fridge

To Fry – 

• Vegetable Oil

To Coat – 

• 150 g sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

METHOD : 

Brioche Donut Dough –  

1. Heat up your milk so it reaches finger warm (~37C), add in the yeast and mix until fully blended in. Then in a bowl fitted with a dough hook, combine the eggs and the milk/yeast. Mix until all eggs are broken up and mixed in well with the milk/yeast.
2. Add the flour, salt and spices. Mix on low speed (my kitchen aid low speed is a 2) until all ingredients are incorporated. Then scrape down the sides, and turn the speed to medium (4 on a Kitchen aid) and start adding in the sugar. The dough should start pulling off from the sides, and look stringy. Mix for about 8-10 minutes until the dough starts looking a bit softer.
3. Turn the stand mixer off, and add in all the butter. Star mixing at low speed (kitchen aid : speed 2) for about 8 min, then turn the speed to medium (kitchen aid 4) for roughly 5-6 min, or until the dough becomes glossy and smooth, but not super sticky. The dough will be a bit sticky, but as long as it’s not wet and overly sticky you’re good.
4. Take a large bowl, coat with some vegetable oil, and place the dough into it. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest for 30 min. Once rested, dust your table with some flour and place the dough on it. Gently press the dough out into a rectangle, roughly 4 cm in thickness, and then fold one end into the center, then the other end to the center – this is called a ‘book fold’ – here are images for reference :
5. Then place it back into the lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size. (This can take anywhere from 30min to 50 min). Once doubled, then take the dough out again, and repeat the ‘book fold’, place back into the lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place into the fridge for 12 hours, or over-night.
6. Once the dough has chilled, take it out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out to roughly 4 cm thickness, and then using a cookie cutter, (mine was 6 cm in diameter) cut out your donut shapes. Place them onto a tray lined with baking paper, cover with plastic wrap (lightly) and leave to rise for roughly 30-40 min, or until doubled in size.
7. During this time you can prepare your sugar & cinnamon coating – just mix them up together in a medium sized bowl. Then heat up your oil in a large saucepan to 170C.
8. Once the donuts have doubled in size, place three donuts at a time into the hot oil, and let cook for 2 min on each side. Take out onto a plate covered with tissue to take the excess oil off, then roll the donuts into the sugar/cinnamon coating, and leave to cool COMPLETELY in a wired wrack, before filling.
9. While they are cooling, mix your salted caramel and whipped cream together, cut the donuts in half, lengthwise, and fill a generous amount of salted caramel cream, drizzle a little slated caramel on top, and VOILA! They’re ready!

Enjoy!