These salted caramel doughnuts are so yummy and satisfying. Whip up a batch ASAP and get them in your belly!

One of my boyfriend’s favourite foods is doughnuts so it would have been plain rude for me to not to a doughnut recipe! One of my favourite things is salted caramel so I thought why not combine the two together.

This takes a little forward planning as after you mix the dough together you need to let it sit for at least 6 hours, you then roll the dough out and cut out the circles for the doughnut which then need to be rested for at least another 3 hours and then they’re ready for you to fry up.

To get around these times I made the dough at night, rolled it out the next morning before going to work and then cooked them up when I got home.

Makes 12 doughnuts

Ingredients 

Doughnuts
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2/3 cups milk
3 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
75g butter at room temp
Canola oil (or another flavorless oil) for frying

Salted caramel filling
5 tbsp sugar
25g butter
100ml cream
1 tbsp golden syrup
pinch of sea salt flakes

1 extra cup of sugar for coating the doughnuts.

In a mixer with the dough hook combine the yeast and milk and sit for approx. 1 minute to allow the yeast to dissolve. Add the flour, sugar, salt and eggs and mix on low for 5 minutes. Once the dough has started to come together, add the butter bit by bit and continue mixing for a few minutes until the dough is all mixed together.

Make the dough into a ball, wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

After the 6 hours is up roll your dough out on a floured work surface. Roll the dough out to approx. 2cm thick and using a circle cutter (I used a wine glass because the rim was the perfect size for my doughnuts) start cutting out your doughnuts.

Place on a tray with baking paper, cover with cling wrap and leave at room temperature to rise for at least 3 hours. When the 3 hours are up you can start on the fun part, frying them up!

While you’re waiting for your dough to rise you can whip up the salted caramel. To do this put the sugar into a pot, add 2 tbsp water and heat on a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Increase the heat slightly and cook until the sugar turns to an ambercoloured caramel. Return to the lower heat and add the butter, cream and golden syrup. Stir until the sauce is smooth and thick. Remove from heat and add the salt. The sauce needs to be quick thick to sit in the doughnuts – if you think your sauce is thick enough leave it out on the bench, if you think it could do with a little extra thickening place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now it’s time to fry up these things of beauty. Fill a frying pan with 2cm of oil and heat. Be careful not to heat too high as my first batch cooked too quickly on the outside and then wasn’t cooked on the inside. Maybe do a test doughnut to check you’ve got the oil temperature right.

After you’ve got the oil to the right temperature place your doughnuts in the pan (don’t overcrowd the pan or they’ll stick together). Cook on each side for 90 seconds and then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and allow to cool for a few minutes. Once cool enough to handle coat in the sugar. Leave for 30 minutes to cool.

Once cooled poke a hole in the doughnut with a chopstick (or something similar) and shimmy it around a little to make space for the filling. Fill up a piping bag with a thin nozzle and poke into the hole you made with the chopstick. Fill until you can see the caramel. Repeat process with the rest of the doughnuts and then you’re done.

You could also fill them with chocolate, whipped cream, custard, Nutella. The options are endless. I think my next mission will be making a custard version. Yum!

Enjoy these warm and let me know how you get on X