Donuts

Ingredients:

For the donuts:

250g Strong White Bread Flour,plus extra for flouring (2 cups)

25g Sugar (2 tbsp)

20g Unsalted Butter, softened (1 tbsp)

1 large Egg

7g Fast Acting Yeast

5g Salt (1 tsp)

75ml Warm milk (1/3 cup)

3-5 tbsp. Warm Water

Sunflower oil, for deep frying

For the icing:

200g Icing sugar

1- 2 tbsp. Milk

Lemon zest (optional)

Salted Caramel Sauce

Chocolate Ganache

Procedure:

1) For the donuts, place all the ingredients into a large bowl (except the sunflower oil) with three tablespoons of water. Stir with your hands to make a dough.

2) Gradually add another another tablespoon of water and massage in the bowl for four minutes.

3) Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4) Place into a bowl and leave to rise for 40 minutes, covered with a damp tea towel.

5) Tip the dough out, again onto a very lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half.

6) With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough quite thinly to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds using an 8cm/3¼in straight sided round cutter, then use a 2cm/¾in cutter to cut holes out of the middle.

7) Spin each donut on your index finger to expand the hole.

8) You should be able to cut out about eight doughnuts from this dough. Place all circles onto an oiled baking tray, loosely cover with cling film, not allowing it to touch the top of the donut and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

9) Preheat a deep fat fryer, filled with sunflower oil to 180C/350F (Caution: hot oil can be dangerous; do not leave unattended.)

10) Drop each donut in separately, cooking each side for about a minute or until golden-brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil. Leave to cool.

11) For the icing, gradually add cold water or milk to the icing sugar. It will eventually turn into a thick paste. Stir in the lemon zest.

12) When the whole donuts have cooled, brush the tops of the donuts with the icing. Sprinkle over a little more lemon zest. Or dip in salted caramel sauce or chocolate ganache. Leave to set on a cooling rack, to cool completely.