Breadhead Friday: Doughnuts

I'm expanding Breadhead Friday to include all things made with yeast, and in this case, I'm adding doughnuts.  They're very time-consuming, from making the dough to letting it rise twice to cutting, shaping, frying, filling, and decorating.

But if you have the inclination and gumption, they're worth it.  

At a kitchen store a few years ago, I bought a two dollar doughnut cutter for the traditionally-shaped doughnuts (with a hole).  For the jelly-filled, I used an empty, clean tuna can with a hole in the middle to let the air out when pressing down.

The recipe I used is a basic paczki dough.  Paczki are Polish doughnuts, usually filled with cream cheese, jelly, or other fruit filling.  My only alteration to the dough was letting it do its first rise in the fridge; if I use this recipe again, I'll let it do its second rise in the fridge instead.  

Frying in a pot of oil

A different batch frying up

For the frosting, I did a chocolate ganache and a confectioner's sugar glaze, both similar to these recipes from King Arthur.

Jimmies aren't necessary, but nice to have

Unfortunately, I learned too late in the process that the doughnut-filling device I typically use went missing; it probably didn't survive one of the several moves we've done over the last few years, so I had to forego the filling on the solid doughnuts.  

Rolled in sugar right out of the fryer

By doughnut-filling device, I mean a 99 cent plastic squeeze bottle.  Like this one.  For fillings without seeds, they're perfect.  I'll have to get some more someday.

One batch of dough made this many doughnuts

There's no way we could eat the entire batch, so most of them ended up in the freezer.  They'll keep.

And, of course, the crumb shot