Milk-chocolate doughnuts

Fluffy home-made doughnuts are among our favourite things. In this case, we’ve added a little cocoa to the dough and doubled up on the chocolate with a glossy chocolate glaze. We’ve decorated ours with a mixture of crunchy toppings for extra texture – chocolate malt powder, chocolate shards and chocolate biscuit balls. Customise yours with whatever takes your fancy. Don’t be shy.

Prep time 30 mins, cook 25 mins (plus proving, cooling)

Makes about 14 (pictured p87)

14 gm (2 sachets) dried yeast

600 gm (4 cups) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

110 gm (½ cup) caster sugar

80 gm butter, at room temperature, coarsely chopped, plus extra for greasing

40 gm Dutch-process cocoa, sieved

2 eggs, at room temperature

360 ml lukewarm milk

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Chocolate malt powder, chocolate shards and chocolate biscuit balls, to serve

Milk-chocolate glaze

75 gm caster sugar

250 gm couverture milk chocolate, finely chopped

50 ml pouring cream

1 Stir yeast and 70ml lukewarm water in a bowl to combine and stand until mixture begins to foam (5-7 minutes).

2 Combine flour, sugar, butter, cocoa, eggs, 1 tsp fine sea salt and yeast mixture in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add milk and knead on low speed until a sticky dough forms (4-5 minutes; dough will be quite wet). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, dust top with a little extra flour, form into a ball, transfer to a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1-1½ hours).

3 Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll to 1.5cm thick. Cut out rounds with a floured 8cm-diameter cutter, then cut out holes with a 2.5cm-diameter cutter. Place 2cm apart on trays lined with baking paper, cover and stand until doubled in size (45 minutes to 1 hour). Reroll scraps and repeat.

4 For milk-chocolate glaze, stir sugar and 60ml water in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and cook without stirring, brushing away sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until dark caramel (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, add 60ml water (be careful, hot caramel will spit), return to heat and stir until smooth. Remove from heat, add chocolate and a pinch of salt, stand for 5 minutes, then add cream and stir until smooth. Cool briefly.

5 Heat oil in a large saucepan or deep-fryer to 180C. Deep-fry doughnuts in batches, turning once, until darkened, puffed and cooked through (3-4 minutes; be careful, hot oil will spit). Drain on paper towels and cool for (4-5 minutes).

Dip tops of doughnuts in warm chocolate glaze, place on a wire rack and scatter with toppings. Doughnuts are best eaten on the day they’re made.