Golden Fried, Jam-Filled Doughnuts!
·Make the starter
Put both types of flour and the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and stir together. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the lukewarm milk. Crumble the yeast into the milk, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave for about 10 minutes, until bubbles start forming on the surface of the milk.
Add the egg and butter
Add a pinch of salt, the egg and the melted butter to the bowl. Just make sure the butter isn't hot!
Rum and vanilla
Pour in the rum and vanilla extract, or alternatively use vanilla seeds or homemade vanilla sugar - whatever you like and have on hand.
Let the dough rise
Fit the dough hook and knead the dough. Don't worry if it seems a bit looser than you're used to - it will only be slightly sticky. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm spot for about an hour, until it has doubled in size.
Roll out the dough
Sprinkle a little fine plain flour onto your work surface. Tip the dough out onto it and roll into a sheet about 1 cm thick, or even a touch thinner - the doughnuts will puff up a bit more as they proof.
Cut out rounds
Cut out rounds using a cup, a glass or a round cutter - whatever size you fancy. I made mine really tiny. Gather up the leftover dough, knead it together, roll it out again and cut out more rounds. Keep going until you've used up all the dough.
Let them proof
Cover the cut-out rounds with a tea towel and leave to proof for another 30 minutes. I can confirm from experience that if you get busy and forget about them, it's absolutely fine even if they end up proofing for an hour and a half.
Fry in oil
Heat a fairly deep layer of oil in a saucepan - around 8 cm is fine. Place the proofed rounds into the hot oil with the side that was facing up while proofing (and has dried out slightly) facing down first.
Drain on paper towel
Fry until golden, then flip and fry the other side until golden too - it only takes a moment. I fry mine at about three-quarters of my hob's maximum heat. Lift the doughnuts out onto a plate lined with paper towel to soak up the oil, then let them cool.
Filling
I filled my doughnuts with homemade apricot jam using a piping bag fitted with a filling nozzle. Finally, dust the finished doughnuts with icing sugar.
