Melktert-Filled Doughnuts
Melktert-filled doughnuts: The perfect dessert with family
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: South African
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 8 servings
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Resting Time: 190 minutes
Total time: 4 hours 10 minutes
Ingredients:
Doughnuts:
- 1½ cups white bread flour or all purpose cake flour
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp castor sugar
- 50 g unsalted butter or margarine (melted)
- 1 large egg
- 100 ml warm water
- sunflower oil or canola oil (for frying)
- Milk tart custard filling
- vanilla extract or essence
- 2 cups full fat milk
- 6 egg yolks
- ¾ cup castor sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose cake flour
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Cinnamon sugar coating:
- 1 cup castor sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Method:
Doughnuts:
- Combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.
- Mix the egg, butter and water in a separate bowl.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour mix and combine using a spoon or your hands until you have a wet but elastic dough.
- Cover the bowl with cling wrap or a tea towel and allow it to rest in a warm place for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, the dough should be less sticky and more workable after resting.
- Work the dough using simple folding motions for 3 minutes.
- Cover the dough and allow to rest for another 20 minutes.
- Repeat steps 4 & 5 until the dough has a soft smooth surface.
You will know the dough is ready when it springs back when poked. - Shape the dough into a ball, place it back into the bowl and cover.
- Allow final resting for 1½ hours.
- Flip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball (do not work the dough).
- Using a sharp knife, cut the dough and measure out each doughnut to a weight of 70 grams with a kitchen scale.
- Roll the doughnuts into individual balls with your hands and push lightly between your palms so that they have a disc shape.
- Place the doughnuts on a tray, spacing them not too close to one another.
- Cover the doughnuts and allow them to rise for 20 minutes or until double in size.
- Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan or fryer on medium-low heat.
- Fry the doughnuts until golden brown, roughly 2 – 3 minutes on each side.
- Allow the doughnuts to cool completely on a paper towel.
Cinnamon sugar coating:
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the castor sugar and cinnamon.
- Generously coat the doughnuts with cinnamon sugar.
Milk tart custard filling:
- In a saucepan, add the milk and vanilla and slowly bring to a boil.
- In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until just combined.
- Add the flour and mix it well.
- Take the just-boiled milk and pour it in small amounts into the egg mixture, making sure to keep stirring while adding the milk so that the eggs do not curdle.
- Once the milk and eggs are combined, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat.
- Keep stirring the custard until it becomes thick.
Be careful not to let the bottom of the custard burn. - Take the saucepan off the heat and mix in the butter.
- Pour the thickened custard into a bowl and cover the surface of the custard with cling wrap to prevent skin from forming.
- Leave in the fridge to cool.
- Once cooled, fill a piping bag with the milk tart custard filling and pipe it into the doughnuts, either from the side or bottom of the doughnut.