CREAMED JAM DOUGHNUTS

A cream doughnut after school was always such a treat for me. You can get so many different flavours now, but I still don’t think you can beat this classic. The dough is enriched with sugar, butter and egg, making it beautifully sweet and light. Once fried, the warm doughnuts are rolled in sugar, then filled with whipped cream and jam. Fantastic.

Makes 12

For the dough

• 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust

• 8g fine salt 40g caster sugar

• 30g butter, cut into small pieces, softened

• 1 large egg 12g fastaction dried yeast

• 100ml milk

• 140ml water

To cook

• Sunflower oil, for deep-frying

For coating and filling

• 150g caster sugar

• 200ml double cream

• 100g seedless raspberry jam

Put all the ingredients for the dough into a large bowl and stir for 1 minute, using one hand or a wooden spoon, until the mixture comes together as a rough dough. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes until silky and smooth. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a large plastic bag and leave for 2 hours until well risen.

Line two large baking trays with baking paper. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 75g pieces. Flatten down each piece then fold it over. Place one piece in a cage formed by your cupped hand on the work surface and move your hand in a circular motion to roll it lightly but firmly into a smooth, taut ball; don’t use flour on the surface as the dough will slide – you want it to grip. Repeat to shape the rest.

Place the dough balls on the prepared baking trays, cover each tray with a large plastic bag and leave to prove for 1 hour until roughly doubled in size. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or other deep, heavy pan (it should be no more than one-third full) over a medium heat to 180°C (check with a cook’s thermometer, see tip left).

Deep-fry the dough balls, 2 or 3 at a time, in the hot oil – they should start to take on colour within a minute. Fry, without moving, for 3 minutes, then turn over with a spoon, and deep-fry for a further 2-3 minutes until golden brown all over.

Spread the sugar out on a tray. Remove the doughnuts from the pan, using a slotted spoon, and drain on kitchen paper. Immediately put the doughnuts on the tray, sprinkle with sugar and turn to coat all over. Place on a wire rack. Once all the doughnuts are fried and coated, leave to cool for 2 hours.

Whip the cream until holding (almost stiff) peaks and put into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle. Slice each doughnut vertically through the middle, about two-thirds of the way down. Pipe in a spiral of cream. Put the jam into a paper piping bag, snip off the very tip and pipe a zigzag of jam on top of the cream.