Are you looking for delicious treats to bring over for a Carnival party? Sonia’s deep-fried doughnuts might be exactly what you need… happy Carnival! Find this and many more recipes on the Giallozafferano App in English http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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I have everything necessary for a Carnival party, I just have to make some great Carnival doughnuts to bring over… let’s see the recipe!
For about 25 Carnival doughnuts:
Ingredients
Carnival doughnuts (20-25)
For the sponge
• less than 1 cup (100 g) of flour
• 1 tsp of malt or sugar
• 1/5 cup (50 ml) of milk
• just under ½ oz (12 g) of fresh yeast For the dough
• less than 1 stick (100 g) of butter
• 4 cups (500 g) of flour (+ as needed for the work surface)
• 6 medium eggs
• 1 cup (200 g) of sugar
• 1 big pinch of salt
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• the grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
For sprinkling
• powdered sugar, to taste
For frying
• peanut oil, as needed
Begin with the sponge: crumble the fresh yeast in a bowl, add the warm milk, the malt, or if you don’t have malt, sugar, and finally the flour.
As you can see, the sponge is ready, now cover with cling film and let it rise for about half an hour in the oven, turned off but with the light on.
Take the sponge, which has risen and doubled in volume… and put the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment; now turn the mixer on the lowest speed… add the sugar… the salt… the vanilla extract, or you can use vanilla powder or the seeds of a vanilla pod… the grated orange and lemon zest… and finally the eggs… and beat until blended.
When the ingredients are blended, replace the paddle with the dough hook… add the sponge… and knead, still on low speed… until blended, then add the pieces of butter, which needs to be very soft.
As you can see, the dough is a bit sticky, so turn it out onto a floured work surface… form into a ball… place in a buttered bowl and let it rise for at least 2 hours; you need at least 2 hours because only a small amount of yeast is used, less than ½ oz, but it will gain in flavour… on the contrary, if you don’t want to wait at least 2 hours, double the amount of yeast, that is almost 1 oz, and it will take less time to rise, but I prefer the other way, because otherwise the yeast flavour would be too strong. So, the oven is turned off, but with the light on.
It’s been almost 3 hours… as I said before the rising process is slow because there’s a small amount of yeast, but… it’s worth it. As you can see, the dough is very soft and quite sticky, so dust the surface with flour and bring it together, in this way, sprinkle some more flour and roll it out… to a thickness of about ½ inch (1 cm).
And now cut out the doughnuts using a round 3-inch (8 cm) cutter… and a smaller one, of about 1 inch (2-3 cm) in diameter… create the doughnut and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; do not throw the cut-out centre away, because, we’ll fry them as doughnut holes, and save the scraps as well, because they can be fried, too, although not beautiful.
As you can see, I’m already frying, the oil is hot but not too hot… so you can start with the doughnut holes… when added to the oil, they should brown slowly, not too quickly. Move on to the doughnuts, drop in 3-4 pieces at a time, and when they turn golden brown on the bottom, flip them over.
Once fried, drain the doughnuts on kitchen paper and sprinkle with white sugar… or powdered sugar… mmmh!
Fried to perfection! Keep in mind: if you have an oil thermometer, heat the oil to 320°-340°F (160°-170°C), and do not add more than 3-4 doughnuts at a time, to prevent the oil temperature from dropping, or your doughnuts will be soaked with oil. Now I’m ready for the carnival party… happy carnival everybody!