Kentish Ale Doughnuts

Last year, I gave you Jasmine Green Tea Macarons for Valentine's Day. I talked about how it can all be a bit brash and over the top. I went delicate and about as fancy as I get. 

This year, I've steered away from the fancy. Doughnuts. Deep fried. Made with a comically named ale which I definitely picked for it's smooth malt flavour and not the fact it said Friggin on the bottle. Proper man doughnuts. 

Based on this recipe

Ingredients

Doughnuts

340gr strong white bread flour

50gr caster sugar

1tsp table salt

1 x 7g fast action dried yeast (1 sachet)

190ml ale (I used Friggin in the Riggin from the Nelson Brewery in Kent) plus extra for the glaze (see below)

1/2tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

65ml thick Greek yoghurt

60gr melted butter

Glaze

100gr icing sugar, sifted

60ml ale

Method

1, Sift the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Fit a dough hook attachment and give it a quick blend to mix it all together.  

2, In a small saucepan, heat the ale gently to body temperature. 

3, Turn the stand mixer on to a medium speed and then slowly pour in the ale.

4, Still with the mixer running add in the egg yolks, one at a time, followed by the yoghurt and then the melted butter. 

5, This is a really wet dough and it needs to be "kneaded" until its springy and elastic. This is why I made mine in a stand mixer.  You probably could do this on the worktop with a dough scraper but it will be one hell of an arm work out.  It will lose some of the stickiness but not all of it. 

6, Transfer into an large oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave on your kitchen counter, at room temperature, until it rises and doubles in size.  

7, When the dough has risen, turn it out onto floured work top. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and flattened with your hands until it is just under an inch thick, you won't need a rolling pin as the dough is very soft.  Loosely cover with cling film and leave for 10 minutes while we sort out the oil. 

8, Fill a wok, large saucepan or deep frying pan with about 2-3inches of flavourless cooking oil.  Clip on a thermometer because it's really important to keep the temperature of the oil constant, it heats up ridiculously quickly and if you cook a doughnut in it will brown up very quickly and still be raw in the middle. A crime against doughnuts. 

9, You need to bring the oil temperature up to 180o/c. Keep an eye on the thermometer, as you fry the amount of oil will decrease so will heat up faster.  You might need to top up the oil.

10, When you're ready start frying, uncover the dough, gently pat back down to just under an inch, cut out your shapes, I made rings and doughnut holes and fry on each side until golden brown.  Put straight onto a wire cooling rack covered with kitchen towels. 

11, Make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar and ale together until smooth and lump free.  When the doughnuts are completely cold, dip the top in the glaze, give it a little shake to remove the excess and place on a wire cooling rack so the rest of the excess can drip off.  You can double dip them after the first layer of glaze has dried a little.