Black Forest doughnuts recipe

1. Place the flour, sugar, yeast, eggs and 125ml warm water into a mixer with a dough hook or paddle and mix for 5 mins until the dough is very soft. If you don’t have a mixer, you can use a large bowl and knead by hand (this may take up to 10 mins).
2. Let the dough rest for a minute or two in the mixer or bowl while you melt the butter, then start the mixer again and gently add the melted butter in a thin stream. Mix well for another 5 mins until the dough is glossy, smooth and elastic and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Again, this can be done by hand by kneading the butter into the dough.
3. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and set aside in a warm place to prove for 30 mins until roughly doubled in size. Once proved, remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm, then chill in the fridge overnight.
4. The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and cut into 10 equal pieces, kneading each a little and shaping into rounds. Put on a lightly floured baking sheet, spaced well apart, then cover again with lightly oiled clingfilm and set aside in a warm place to prove for 1-2 hrs until roughly doubled in size.
5. Pour the oil into a large saucepan so it’s about half full, then heat to 170°C using a thermometer, or when a small chunk of bread turns pale gold in 30 seconds.
6. Put the 100g caster sugar in a bowl ready for dusting, then carefully place the doughnuts into the hot oil using a slotted spoon in groups of 2-3 and fry for 2 mins on each side until golden brown. Remove using a slotted spoon and put directly into the bowl of sugar, tossing to coat, then arrange on a cooling rack.
7. While the doughnuts are cooling, put the cherry jam into one piping bag and the whipped cream into the other and snip a 1cm hole at the end of each bag.
8. Take a cooled doughnut and make a small incision with a sharp knife at one side, all the way to the centre of your doughnut. Now take a teaspoon and insert it into the hole until the cup of the spoon reaches the centre, then twist the teaspoon 360 degrees and pull out the dough centre; discard.
9. Take the piping bag of jam and pipe about 1 tbsp of jam into the centre, then do the same with the cream, ensuring the doughnuts are plump and full of filling. Place them back on the cooling rack.
10. Put the icing ingredients into a small bowl with 2-3 tbsp of water and mix well until the icing is thick and glossy and coats the back of a teaspoon. Drizzle each doughnut with 1 tbsp of the icing in a tight zigzag pattern. Then, using a potato peeler, shave thin shavings of plain chocolate from the side of the bar onto a plate. Using a teaspoon, sprinkle the shavings on to the doughnuts. Serve with fresh cherries (optional).

See more Showstopper baking recipes