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Jelly Doughnuts

By Annie Petito

Published on March 11, 2020

Time

1¾ hours, plus 10 hours resting

Yield

Makes 12 doughnuts

Jelly Doughnuts

Ingredients

Doughnuts

4 ½ cups (22½ ounces/638 grams) all-purpose flour ½ cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) sugar 1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast 1 ½ cups milk 1 large egg 1 ½ teaspoons table salt 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and softened2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

Filling and Coating

1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) sugar 1 ½ cups seedless raspberry jam

Before You Begin

You'll need two large baking sheets and one wire rack for this recipe. You'll also need a 3-inch round cutter and a ¼-inch round pastry tip. For the best results, weigh the flour for the doughnuts. Heating the oil slowly will make it easier to control the temperature when frying. Use a Dutch oven that holds 6 quarts or more.

Instructions

    for the doughnuts

  1. Stir flour, sugar, and yeast together in bowl of stand mixer. Add milk and egg and mix with rubber spatula until all ingredients are moistened. Fit stand mixer with dough hook and mix on medium-low speed until cohesive mass forms, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl if necessary. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 20 minutes.
  2. Add salt and mix on medium-low speed until dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides of bowl, 5 to 7 minutes. With mixer running, add butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to mix until butter is fully incorporated and dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides of bowl, 7 to 13 minutes longer, scraping down bowl halfway through mixing. Transfer dough to lightly greased large bowl, flip dough, and form into ball. Cover bowl with plastic. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Transfer to refrigerator and chill overnight (or up to 48 hours).
  3. Adjust oven racks to lowest and middle positions. Place loaf pan on lower rack. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment and grease parchment. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter. Press into 8-inch square of even thickness, expelling as much air as possible. Roll dough into 10 by 13-inch rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Using 3-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut 12 rounds. Transfer doughnuts to prepared sheet. Bring kettle or small saucepan of water to boil.
  4. Pour 1 cup boiling water into loaf pan. Place sheet on upper rack, uncovered. Close oven and allow doughnuts to rise until dough increases in height by 50 percent and springs back very slowly when pressed with your knuckle, about 1 hour.
  5. About 20 minutes before end of rising time, add oil to large Dutch oven until it measures about 1½ inches deep and heat over medium-low heat to 330 degrees. Set wire rack in second rimmed baking sheet and line with triple layer of paper towels. Using both your hands, gently place 4 risen doughnuts in oil. Cook until golden brown on undersides, 1½ to 2 minutes, adjusting burner as necessary to maintain oil temperature between 325 and 340 degrees. Using spider skimmer, flip doughnuts and cook until second sides are browned, 1½ to 2 minutes. Transfer doughnuts to prepared rack. Return oil to 330 degrees and repeat with remaining doughnuts. Let cool completely, about 20 minutes.
  6. for the filling and coating

  7. Place sugar in small bowl. Spoon jam into pastry bag or zipper-lock bag fitted with ¼-inch round pastry tip.
  8. Working with 1 doughnut at a time, coat all sides of doughnut in sugar and return to rack. Insert paring knife through side of 1 doughnut until tip almost reaches opposite edge. Swing knife through doughnut, creating large pocket. Repeat with remaining doughnuts. Stand doughnuts slit side up in 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
  9. To fill doughnuts, insert pastry tip ¾ inch into opening and squeeze gently until jam just starts to appear around opening, about 2 tablespoons jam per doughnut. Let doughnuts stand in pan for 10 minutes to allow jam to settle. Serve.
Jelly Doughnuts
Photography by Daniel J. van Ackere. Styling by Ashley Moore.

Jelly Doughnuts

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Time

1¾ hours, plus 10 hours resting

Yield

Makes 12 doughnuts

Ingredients

Doughnuts

4 ½ cups (22½ ounces/638 grams) all-purpose flour
½ cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 ½ cups milk
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and softened
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

Filling and Coating

1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) sugar
1 ½ cups seedless raspberry jam

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

Doughnuts

4 ½ cups (22½ ounces/638 grams) all-purpose flour
½ cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 ½ cups milk
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and softened
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

Filling and Coating

1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) sugar
1 ½ cups seedless raspberry jam

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

Doughnuts

4 ½ cups (22½ ounces/638 grams) all-purpose flour
½ cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 ½ cups milk
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and softened
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

Filling and Coating

1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) sugar
1 ½ cups seedless raspberry jam

Test Kitchen Techniques

Why This Recipe Works

Our jelly doughnuts are moist but light with a tender chew and restrained sweetness, thanks to a careful balance of fat, sugar, and moisture in the dough. We chilled the dough overnight—a step called “cold fermentation”—so that it was faster to make the doughnuts in the morning. The dough also developed more flavor and was easier to handle when cold. Shutting the cut doughnuts in the oven with a loaf pan of boiling water—a makeshift baker's proof box—encouraged them to rise quickly; we then briefly fried them on both sides at a relatively low temperature so that they were cooked through by the time they turned brown. We dredged them in sugar, cut a pocket in the side of each doughnut, lined them up in a baking pan to create a “fill station,” and piped in raspberry jam.

Before You Begin

You'll need two large baking sheets and one wire rack for this recipe. You'll also need a 3-inch round cutter and a ¼-inch round pastry tip. For the best results, weigh the flour for the doughnuts. Heating the oil slowly will make it easier to control the temperature when frying. Use a Dutch oven that holds 6 quarts or more.

Instructions

    for the doughnuts

  1. Stir flour, sugar, and yeast together in bowl of stand mixer. Add milk and egg and mix with rubber spatula until all ingredients are moistened. Fit stand mixer with dough hook and mix on medium-low speed until cohesive mass forms, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl if necessary. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 20 minutes.
  2. Add salt and mix on medium-low speed until dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides of bowl, 5 to 7 minutes. With mixer running, add butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to mix until butter is fully incorporated and dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides of bowl, 7 to 13 minutes longer, scraping down bowl halfway through mixing. Transfer dough to lightly greased large bowl, flip dough, and form into ball. Cover bowl with plastic. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Transfer to refrigerator and chill overnight (or up to 48 hours).
  3. Adjust oven racks to lowest and middle positions. Place loaf pan on lower rack. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment and grease parchment. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter. Press into 8-inch square of even thickness, expelling as much air as possible. Roll dough into 10 by 13-inch rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Using 3-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut 12 rounds. Transfer doughnuts to prepared sheet. Bring kettle or small saucepan of water to boil.
  4. Pour 1 cup boiling water into loaf pan. Place sheet on upper rack, uncovered. Close oven and allow doughnuts to rise until dough increases in height by 50 percent and springs back very slowly when pressed with your knuckle, about 1 hour.
  5. About 20 minutes before end of rising time, add oil to large Dutch oven until it measures about 1½ inches deep and heat over medium-low heat to 330 degrees. Set wire rack in second rimmed baking sheet and line with triple layer of paper towels. Using both your hands, gently place 4 risen doughnuts in oil. Cook until golden brown on undersides, 1½ to 2 minutes, adjusting burner as necessary to maintain oil temperature between 325 and 340 degrees. Using spider skimmer, flip doughnuts and cook until second sides are browned, 1½ to 2 minutes. Transfer doughnuts to prepared rack. Return oil to 330 degrees and repeat with remaining doughnuts. Let cool completely, about 20 minutes.
  6. for the filling and coating

  7. Place sugar in small bowl. Spoon jam into pastry bag or zipper-lock bag fitted with ¼-inch round pastry tip.
  8. Working with 1 doughnut at a time, coat all sides of doughnut in sugar and return to rack. Insert paring knife through side of 1 doughnut until tip almost reaches opposite edge. Swing knife through doughnut, creating large pocket. Repeat with remaining doughnuts. Stand doughnuts slit side up in 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
  9. To fill doughnuts, insert pastry tip ¾ inch into opening and squeeze gently until jam just starts to appear around opening, about 2 tablespoons jam per doughnut. Let doughnuts stand in pan for 10 minutes to allow jam to settle. Serve.

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