An excuse to bring out the strawberry jam

Once upon a time I had a craving.

I went down to the kitchen and opened the pantry doors, pushing aside bottles until I found the one I was looking for: strawberry jam. I picked it up and stared at it a long time. I don’t know why I like to make life harder for myself. I could have just toasted some bread and slathered on the jam, craving satisfied, but I pushed that idea aside. As I held on to the bottle, staring at but not really seeing the label on the jam, a flicker of a memory crossed my mind.

When I was little, my nanny would buy me these munchkin doughnuts from the local Dunkin’ Donuts. Apparently they were a prize for my being a good girl, though I’m pretty sure I persuaded her to buy me some even on my mischievous days. She would buy the light, airy, cakey little doughnut holes in different flavours. The chocolate and bavarian flavours are fantastic, but my favourites are always the strawberry-filled ones. I would always save them for last, savouring the way the powdered sugar melted in my mouth before giving way to the sweet explosion of gooey strawberry.

Flash forward to the present; to me standing there like an idiot with a jar of strawberry jam in hand with only one thing on my mind: I wanted a strawberry-filled doughnut, which was completely weird since doughnuts don’t even come close to the top of the list of things I like to eat. It’s not that I hate doughnuts either. I’m just uncomfortable with the way most of them are drowned in oil fried. But I would be a liar if I said doughnuts taste bad, because they really really don’t. Not especially when they’re filled with glorious strawberry jelly yumminess. So the easy solution was to make a baked doughnut.

I’ve been wanting to make doughnuts for quite some time, to be honest. But I’ve been having the most difficult time finding a doughnut pan! I’ve managed to save a ton of doughnut recipes, but most of them need to be molded into the round shape with the hole in the centre, so until I get a doughnut pan (or a doughnut cutter at the very least!), I reckon very little doughnuts will appear on this blog. But this sure is a mighty good start!

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Jam-Filled Baked Doughnuts

Light and fluffy baked doughnuts to satisfy a craving, minus the grease and guilt. Simply fill it with your favourite kind of jam or filling. The doughnuts are best eaten the same day they are made.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter – for brushing
• Jam of your choice, or custard, for filling
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

• 1. In a small bowl, mix the yeast, the 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1/4 cup warm water. Set it aside until foamy.
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• 2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Pour in the yeast mixture, melted butter, egg, and the milk. Use a mixing spoon and keep stirring until everything is well-combined, for about 5 minutes. The dough will be super sticky, pretty similar to cake batter.
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• 3. Cover the bowl and let the dough proof until double its size. Meanwhile, prepare and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
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• 4. Since the dough is super-sticky, make sure the work table is well-floured. Pour the dough on the table; it would spread out by itself since it's very soft and lumpy. Do not knead or pat it too hard as it will deflate the air bubbles and your donuts won't be that airy.
• 5. Pat the dough lightly to a 2-cm thick round. Dip the round cookie cutter into flour first and cut the dough, using a spatula to help transfer the round dough onto a large baking tray. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. Halfway through the resting period, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
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• 6. Brush the donuts with some melted butter and bake the donuts until lightly brown, about 12 minutes. Cool the donuts on a rack.
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• 7. Prepare a piping bag fitted with a long round cake decorating tip. Fill it up with your favorite jam or custard and pipe it into the donuts. Lightly dust the doughnuts with some powder sugar before serving.
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Notes

Adapted from Jo Cooks blog

And while I have always preferred the cakey kind over the fried versions, I enjoyed eating this bread-like doughnut as well. Pumped full of strawberry jam of course!