How to make Crème Brûlée Donuts

Instructions

1. Make the dough

   • In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, the sugar, the yeast, the salt and the nutmeg.
   • Add the eggs, the warm milk (about 100°F (38°C)), the melted butter and the vanilla.
   • Mix with the dough hook until it all comes together into a soft, smooth dough.

   

   • You need
   • 6 cups all-purpose flour
   • ½ cup sugar
   • 1 tbsp instant yeast
   • 1 tsp salt
   • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
   • 2 large eggs
   • 2 cups milk
   • ¼ cup butter
   • 2 tsp vanilla extract

2. Let it rise

   • Shape the dough into a ball and put it in a large bowl.
   • Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 1 ½ hours, until it has doubled.
   • An hour works too, but I usually give it the full hour and a half.

   

   Start a 1 hr 30 min timer

3. Start the pastry cream

   • While the dough rises, let’s make the pastry cream, so it has time to cool.
   • Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and add them to a saucepan with the whole milk.
   • Bring it almost to a boil, then take it off the heat and let it rest, so the milk takes in the vanilla.
   • Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, the sugar and the cornstarch.

   

   • You need
   • 4 ¼ cups whole milk
   • 2 vanilla beans
   • 10 egg yolks
   • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
   • ½ cup cornstarch

   New to this? How to Separate Egg Yolks from Egg Whites

4. Cook the pastry cream

   • Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla beans into the milk and take the pods out.
   • Slowly pour the hot milk into the yolks, whisking the whole time, so it doesn’t cook the eggs.
   • Once it’s all in, pour everything back into the saucepan and cook it over medium heat, whisking constantly.
   • It’s done when it comes to a thick boil and you can see the patterns of the whisk in the cream.
   • Keep cooking and whisking for 1 more minute, to get rid of the cornstarch flavor.

   

   Start a 1 min timer

   See the whisk patterns? It’s done.

5. Butter, cover and chill

   • Take it off the heat and right away stir in the cold butter until it melts in.
   • Pour it into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, pressed so it touches the surface. Otherwise a skin forms on top.
   • Chill it until it’s completely cold, a few hours in the fridge.
   • To speed it up, set the bowl in a bigger bowl of ice water (a cold bain-marie).

   • You need
   • 7 tbsp unsalted butter

   Wrap touching the cream, or it gets a skin.

6. Roll it out

   • Once the dough has risen, sprinkle some flour on your counter and turn the dough out.
   • Press it out with your hands, then roll it into a sheet about ½ inch thick.
   • Try to keep it as even as you can, so the donuts fry evenly.

   

7. Cut the rounds

   • I use a small bowl to cut the circles, but you can use a round cutter if you have one.
   • Adjust the rounds with your hands if they lose their shape, and put them on trays lined with parchment paper.
   • Press the scraps back together, roll them out again and cut a few more.

   

8. Let them rise again

   • Cover the rounds with plastic wrap and let them rest for about 40 minutes.
   • This lets them rise again, so they get puffy.

   

   Start a 40 min timer

9. Heat the oil

   • Pour enough oil into a deep skillet or a heavy pot for the donuts to float.
   • Heat it over medium heat to 350°F (175°C), and check it with a thermometer.
   • Keep checking it between batches, because the temperature drops every time the donuts go in.

   • You need
   • neutral oil

   Never leave the hot oil alone.

10. Fry the donuts

    • Lower them into the oil away from you, 2 or 3 at a time, so the pan isn’t crowded.
    • Spoon some of the hot oil over the tops while the bottoms fry.
    • Flip them once the bottoms are deep golden, after about 1 to 1 ½ minutes, and fry the other side the same way.
    • Tear the first one open to check that the middle is cooked.

    

    Start a 1 min timer

11. Let them cool

    • Move the donuts to a cooling rack and let them cool completely.
    • An extra tip here, I add some paper towels, so they absorb some of the oil the donuts pick up while frying.

12. Fill them

    • Put the cold pastry cream in a piping bag.
    • Push the tip into the side of each donut and squeeze until it feels full and heavy.

    

13. Make the caramel

    • In a small saucepan or skillet, add the sugar, the water and the lemon juice.
    • Stir over medium-high heat only until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring.
    • From here on, swirl the pan instead, and brush down any sugar on the sides with a wet pastry brush.
    • Once it turns amber, about 340°F (170°C), take it off the heat. It keeps darkening in the hot pan, so don’t wait.
    • If it gets too thick while you dip, warm it for a moment over the lowest heat.

    • You need
    • 2 cups sugar
    • 1 cup water
    • 1 tsp lemon juice

    Stop stirring once the sugar dissolves.

14. Dip the tops

    • Hold a filled donut by the bottom and dip just the top into the caramel.
    • Lift it, let the extra drip off for a second, then quickly turn it over, so it doesn’t burn your fingers.
    • Set it down top up and let it rest until the sugar has hardened.
    • And this is how you make crème brûlée donuts.

    

    Hot caramel burns. Keep a bowl of ice water close.