I’ve been dying to make doughnuts for weeks now. I thought this weekend would be the weekend… but it almost wasn’t. I bought a couple of books the other week, one of which was the Top Pot book, as we had some of their doughnuts while visiting our friend in Seattle, I settled on a fairly basic seeming recipe, but switched out the nutmeg and cinnamon for some ginger, as some of my friends are fussy!

We went down to Plymouth this weekend to visit Brother M, and didn’t get back home until 5pm this evening. No time to finally get to purchase a fryer, so I had to do it back to basics style!

p.s. prepare your frying area before you start, layer of foil, layer of kitchen roll, cooling racks to drain the doughnuts on…

Ginger Cake Doughnuts Recipe – adapted from Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker by Mark and Michael Klebeck

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups/ 315g cake/soft flour (plain)

1tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground ginger

2/3 cup/ 130g sugar

2tbsp/ 26g vegetable shortening

1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

2/3 cup/ 165ml milk

Sunflower oil, for frying

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger together into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (I use a beater blade, rather than the standard paddle, as it avoids the hassle of having to scrape down the sides… and I’m lazy), mix the sugar and shortening for 1 minutes on low speed, until sandy. Add the egg and egg yolk, then mix for one more minute until light coloured and thick.

Add the dry ingredients in three separate additions, alternating with the milk, mixing until just combined.

Transfer to a clean bowl and refridgerate, covered with cling film for 1 hour (or up to 24 hours).

Heat the oil in a large fryer, deep pot etc. to 370F/185C.

Roll out the dough gently onto a floured surface to 1/2in/12mm thickness. Cut out doughnut shapes.

Add to the hot oil.

Once the doughnut floats, fry for 60 seconds each side, then remove and drain on paper towels/absorbent paper.

Actually pretty tasty! Quite dense and filling though, so I don’t imagine I could eat more than one at once. Perhaps that’s a challenge? But then these are cake doughnuts, with chemical raising agents, perhaps they will be lighter if I try a yeasted recipe?