After having read a fantastic book: Me me at the cupcake cafe, by Jenny Colgan I decided to try a recipe which was in the book [it's not only a fun read but has good recipes which are easy to follow!]
The recipe for 'Helena's secret doughnuts' is directly from the book, but I made some changes to make it gluten and lactose free:
900g plain flour ->
I used Schär mix C
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt ->
I didn't use any
1 1/2 tsp grated ginger -> book states to use fresh ginger
400 grams sugar
2 oz crystallized ginger
500g well-shaken buttermilk -> I
used Minus L lactose free milk and added some lemonjuice for the sour taste
60 g unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
45 cl lime curd -> I made my own as in the Netherlands only lime curd is available [
this is the recipe I used]
1-Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 3/4 grated ginger in a large bowl
2-Whisk together 300 gram sugar and remaining 3/4 grated ginger in a shallow bowl ->
this is for topping the doughnuts, however, I had about 3/4 left so I am pretty sure half of this would be plenty
3- Pulse remaining 100g sugar with crystallized ginger in a food processor until ginger is finely chopped ->
I didnt have crystallized ginger so I just used some more grated ginger and I didn't have a food processor thus I grated it on a fine grater which was fine for me
4- Transfer the pulsed sugar mix to a bowl and whisk in buttermilk, butter and eggs until smooth
5- Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and stir until a dough forms, dough will be sticky ->
After two stirs I couldn't stir anymore so I started kneading earlier
6- Turn out dough on to a well-floured surface and knead gently just until it comes together, 10 to 12 times, then form into a ball
7-Dust worksurface and ball with flour, then roll out dough into a 13-inch round (about 1/3 inch thick) with a floured rolling pin
8-Cut out rounds with a floured cutter and transfer to a lightly floured baking sheet
9-Gather scraps and reroll, then cut out additional rounds (re-roll only once) ->
I didn't have much rolling space so I took a little bit of fresh dough each time and added the scraps from the last batch which worked fine
10
-Heat oil in a wide heavy pot until a splash would result in third-degree burns
11-Carefully add rounds, one at a time, to oil and fry, turning over once, until golden brown, one and a half to two minutes in total per batch ->
I have no idea how they did this with only 1 tbsp vegetable oil, I would have 3-4 doughnuts per round in the pan and they would soak up the oil like crazy, I would have about 1/2 cm oil layer and would fill it up every 2-3 rounds, my doughnuts also took about double the time, usually about 2-3 minutes per side
12-Transfer to paper towels to drain
13-Cool slightly, then dredge in ginger sugar ->
I wet my doughnuts on top by dipping my fingers in a bowl of water and spreading 4-5 water drops over the top and then dipping it in the sugar. This made the sugar stick better to my doughnut
14-Gently slice doughnuts in half and spoon lime curd on the bottom half, top with the second half of the doughnut ->
Most of mine were too thin to slice so I put to on top of each other, this was very filling and next time I will try to make them a little thicker and perhaps add half a tsp of both baking powder and baking soda to increase the height of the doughnuts. The rounds I had made thicker were suitable to slice like a shoarma bread [I didn't dare slice them all the way open as it is still glutenfree and I was to afraid it would collapse otherwise].
The doughnuts were delicious although I think the recipe can probably be adjusted more to make them even better!
Below are pictures corresponding with the numbers of the steps:
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| Step 8. Cutting the rounds |
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| Step 11. Frying the rounds |
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| Step 13. Dredge rounds in sugar |
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| Final result |
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| Enjoy!! |
