The best doughnuts ever

 This is a recipe from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver.

It normally comes with a spiced sugar coating, but I don't bother with that. I prefer to dip the donuts in chocolate as this goes really well with the citrus flavour of the pastry.

This recipe makes a lot of doughnuts (around 25 or 30 if I remember correctly) and they're only good for a day as they become quite dry quickly.

Ingredients

1x7 g sachet dried yeast

70g caster sugar

500 g plain flour

315 ml whole milk, warmed until tepid

zest of 2 lemons

zest of 1 orange

80 g unsalted butter, softened and cubed

1 litre vegetable oil

Method

Put the yeast in a bowl with a tbsp of the caster sugar and a tbsp of the flour and mix in the warm milk. Put in a warm place for about 15 mins until the mixture becomes frothy.

Put the rest of the sugar and flour, lemon and orange zest and butter in a bowl. Add yeast mixture and use a spoon to bring it all together then use your hands to mix it into a ball. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour. Knead the dough for 5 mins or so until it's smooth and silky. Pop it into a bowl, cover with a clean damp cloth and leave to rise for about 1 hour. 

When the dough has doubled in size, give a bit of punch. Then on a floured surface, roll the dough out until it's an even 1 cm thickness. Using a little cutter or a small glass (app 5 cm) cut about 25 little circles and pop them on to a greased baking tray to rise again, making sure there is a sufficient gap between each of them. Cover with damp tea towel and allow to rise for about 45 mins.

When the dough has doubled in size again, use a chopstick to make a little hole in the centre. Now, heat the vegetable oil in a large deep saucepan then fry your doughnuts until golden brown (about 2 mins). Place the cooked doughnuts on kitchen paper to absorb some of the oil, then glaze them.

Glazing

Chocolate

Melt dark, white, and / or milk chocolate in a bain marie, then dip the doughnuts on them. You can add some sprinkles on top while the chocolate is still soft.

Lemon and sugar glaze

In a bowl, mix icing sugar with a little bit of lemon until you have a thick liquid. Dip the top of the doughnuts in that liquid.