CREAMY PISTACHIO CUSTARD DONUTS
Your weekly pistachio fix ...
Welcome back to Unfiltered Flavours! This week on issue #29 we’re making these pillowy pistachio custard filled donuts.
Donuts are probably up there with one of my favourite dessert items. Especially when it’s a donut that’s done well. The key to the best donuts is to make a dough thats light and airy, yet not oily. When it comes to donuts I dont think theres anything worse than a super dense and oily donut.
When making a cremeux it seems scary because you see the use of gelatin and panic, but it’s simple. It’s exactly like making a custard and I pretty much use similar measurements. I use a little less sugar for the filling because the donut itself is covered in sugar and you want the flavours to be balanced.
It’s crucial that you use a pistachio butter! Like peanut butter, but pistachio. You can use pistachio cream, but you’ll need to adjust the sweetness and take into consideration that it won’t be as potent. You also need to keep in mind that not all pistachio butters are equal, so you may find that your end result with your cremeux is a little too thick, you can loosen this up with a splash of double cream when whisking to loosen it up. Though, I don’t think you’ll need to as a cremeux is supposed to be thick enough to pipe like butter cream almost.
You also want to ensure you don’t lose the pistachio hit too. You will need a thermometer for this and the key is ensuring you get this to 82°c ish. You can somewhat tell by eye when the eggs are cooked into the base of the custard because it will thicken. You can pull it at 80°c because you will get some carry over temperature, but you have to watch this because if you don’t you’ll scramble your eggs and 6 eggs yolks is a lot of egg yolks to waste. So yeah, this recipe requires a thermometer to be safe, but if you’re serious about improving your cooking then you should be using one anyway. They’re less than £10 on Amazon and completely worth the investment.
Recipe and measurements
This recipe yields around 12-14 donuts.
Cremeux:
3g gelatine (250 bloom strength, which is high)
20g cold water
450g double cream
1 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
50g caster sugar
80g pistachio butter
Method
You want to rehydrate your gelatine powder in cold water and let it sit whilst you work on the custard filing.
Add your split vanilla pod to your double cream with a pinch of salt. Let this heat up gently (do not boil!)
Whisk your egg yolks and sugar together until slightly pale, then gradually add your hot cream carefully to your eggs. This will temper your eggs and ensure they don’t scramble.
Now return this back to the pot and whisk constantly on medium heat until reaches 80°c-82°c then remove from the heat and strain IMMEDIATELY (if you don’t, the bottom will continue to cook and scramble)
Once sieved, whisk in your pistachio paste and gelatine. Allow this to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours to set (overnight is best)
Then to loosen simply whisk using an electric whisk or by hand and transfer to a piping bag.
Dough:
475g bread flour
45g caster sugar
9g instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
160ml warm whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
45g unsalted butter (room temp)
Caster sugar (for coating)
Method:
In a stand mixer bowl, add the flour, sugar, yeast, salt. Mix so the ingredients are evenly dispersed. Then combine the warm milk with the vanilla and eggs. You really need to ensure the milk is warm to the touch and not hot. Yeast thrives in warm temperatures, so if the milk is too hot, you'll kill your yeast and scramble your eggs.
Combine the milk mixture with the dry ingredients and mix for 3 minutes or until it’s just combined.
Gradually add the cubes of butter into the dough and mix for another 8 mins. This will allow some gluten structure to form and give us the perfect bite.
The dough should be smooth but just a tad sticky. Use your counter to form the dough into a tight ball, then place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and/or a clean damp tea towel.
Leave to prove for 1-2 hours, or until your dough has doubled in size. If your kitchen is cold, a great tip that will help is turning your oven on full blast for a minute, then turning it off. Let your dough prove in the oven as it creates the perfect warm environment.
Now knock the air out of your dough and portion into 60g balls. I like to place these on individual square pieces of parchment paper (double the size of the ball) this just makes it easier to place into the oil later.
Then cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove until doubled in size.
Then fry at 170°c for 3 mins per side. When you place the dough into the oil use the parchment paper. After a few seconds it will separate from the dough and you can carefully remove it with tongues.
Place the cooked doughnuts on a wire rack lined with kitchen towel. Then cover with the caster sugar after a minute or two. Then leave to cool completely before filling.
A good tip for filling doughnut it’s using a chopstick to make the hole, then move the stick side to side to move the dough away. This creates a good pocket for the filling
Its optional, but I like to pipe the donuts so the custard is a little exposed on the outside and then finish with a sprinkle of crushed pistachio