Grandma’s biscuits turn into perfect doughnuts

Several of Camilla Wynne’s Jam Bake cookbook recipes began as ideas she pulled from her grandmothers’ notebooks and clippings. After they died, she took possession of their recipe collections and pored over their notes, looking for places to start.

“I left Alberta when I was 18. So I realized after that, that I’d never learned enough from them about preserving and baking because they were both so amazing at it. So it really feels like a gift to be able to commune with them from beyond the grave in that way,” says Wynne.

Her paternal grandmother’s handwritten Sachertorte recipe inspired the version Wynne shares in the book, which she fills with apricot and verjus butter. Her maternal grandmother’s angel biscuit recipe — which she doesn’t recall her ever making — became these filled, yeasted doughnuts.

The recipe features an unusual technique, she explains, which is for making leavened biscuits. It results in the same, comforting flavour as a typical yeasted doughnut, “but you don’t have to be quite as precious about it.”

After mixing the dry ingredients with the fat to create coarse crumbs, you stir in the yeast and buttermilk, and put the dough in the fridge for an hour. It’s low effort, high reward, says Wynne.

Directions:

Step 1

To make the doughnuts, heat the water in a small saucepan to just warm, 100°F to 110°F (38°C to 43°C). Whisk in the yeast and let stand for five minutes, until foamy.

Step 2

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed. Increase the speed to medium-low, and mix in the butter and lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Step 3

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, add the yeast mixture and buttermilk, and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

Step 4

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil to 360°F (182°C). Set a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet.

Step 5

On a floured surface, knead the dough five times. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough until it’s 1/2 inch thick. Cut out 10 rounds with a 2 3/4-inch plain cutter.

Step 6

Being careful not to crowd the pan, fry the doughnuts, four or five at a time, for one to two minutes per side, until golden brown. Use a pair of chopsticks to turn them and transfer them to the wire rack. Let cool completely. Step 7

To finish, fill a pastry bag fitted with a small French tip with the jam. Use a spice grinder to grind the freeze-dried strawberries. Transfer the strawberries to a medium bowl, add the icing sugar and whisk them together. Step 8

Once the doughnuts are cool enough to touch (it won’t take long), fill them with one teaspoon or so of the jam, piercing the flattest side with the pointy tip, then roll them in the icing sugar mixture so they are well coated. Step 9

Eat as soon as possible! Like all doughnuts, these are best the day they are made and don’t keep particularly well.

Makes: 10 donuts

“This is the easiest version of yeasted dough I have ever encountered, and the result is as tender as a cake donut,” says cookbook author Camilla Wynne about her angel biscuit doughnut recipe, featured in Jam Bake.

123RF Inspiration can come from a wide variety of places. Camilla Wynne used her grandmother’s recipes to enhance and create different baked goods, including doughnuts based on biscuits.