Brown Butter Glazed Doughnuts with a Hazelnut Chocolate Crunch

Doughnuts are a food that brings me complete joy. I love making them, frying them and of course, eating them. A really good, simple glazed doughnut can’t be beaten. These brown butter glazed delights are so light, it’s difficult not to guzzle them all up at once. They look like little pillows. I love a square doughnut because it means no re-rolling of dough, which in turn means no wastage. The hazelnut chocolate crunch adds that extra texture I sometimes miss with a glazed doughnut as well as some added nutty flavour. A real treat and a lovely baking project for a weekend.

Ingredients - makes 9 doughnuts
Doughnut Dough:
Dough recipe from Bread Ahead
255g strong flour
1 lemon zest
30g caster sugar
3/4 tsp dried instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
75g warm water
2 eggs
60g unsalted butter, room temperature
1lt vegetable oil, for frying

Hazelnut Chocolate Crunch:
60g unsalted butter, room temperature
65g caster sugar
65g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
30g ground hazelnuts
1/2 tsp flaky salt

Brown Butter Glaze:
90g unsalted butter
320g icing sugar, sieved
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp runny honey
80g boiling water

Method
The day before:
For the doughnut dough; place the flour, lemon zest, caster sugar, dried yeast and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Briefly mix the ingredients together before adding in the water and eggs. Knead the dough on medium-high speed for 5 minutes using the dough hook attachment. Turn off the mixer, cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer onto low speed and gradually add in the butter a little at a time, waiting for the butter to be incorporated into the dough before adding the next piece. Once all the butter has been added, scrape down the bowl and turn the speed up to medium-high for 5-8 minutes. The dough should form a shiny, smooth ball that slaps around the bowl when being kneaded.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise somewhere warm for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch the dough back, re-cover and refrigerate overnight.

For the hazelnut crunch; pre-heat the oven to 170°C. Place all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and toss together with your hands. Using your fingertips, work the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a streusel crumb. You’ll know it’s been worked enough when you’re able to press pieces together into a dough in your hand and you have no lumps of butter. Tip it out onto a lined baking tray and separate it into small clumps. Bake for approx. 20 minutes until crunchy, checking every 10 minutes to chop up and rotate the crumb with a small palette knife (or spoon) to ensure even baking. Leave to cool completely before storing in an airtight container until needed.

The day of frying:
Have two baking trays ready and nine squares of baking paper cut at 4x4inches.

Roll the doughnut dough out to a 9.5inch square on a lightly floured worktop. Trim the very ends off so that it is perfectly square. You should have a 9x9inch square. Cut the square into three 3inch strips and cut each of those into three squares at 3inches wide. You should be left with nine 3x3inch squares. Place each doughnut onto a piece of baking paper and arrange on your baking trays with space between them. Dip a 3cm round cutter in some flour and cut a hole in the middle of each doughnut. Keep the holes that you’ve cut out and fry them later along with the doughnuts. Gently cover with loose clingfilm and leave to rise for 40minutes-1hour in a warm place. They should be puffed and not spring back when lightly touched. I like to use the little cut out holes as a good indicator for how proved my doughnuts are, as it can be a little hard to tell on the larger ones sometimes.

While you’re waiting for the doughnuts to rise, you can brown the butter for the glaze. Place the butter into a saucepan over medium heat. Cook the butter, whisking occasionally, until it begins to form a foam on top and smell lovely and nutty. It should be a beautiful golden colour. Remove it from the heat and leave to cool at room temperature until needed.

When you’re nearly ready to fry your doughnuts, fill a large saucepan with the vegetable oil. You want to have a good few inches of oil to fry in. Set the pan over medium heat until it comes to 170°C on a digital thermometer. Have a baking tray or chopping board ready, lined with kitchen towel and a cooling rack set over the top for the fried doughnuts to drain on.

Fry the doughnuts by lifting them by the corners of the baking paper and lowering them into the oil, being very careful not to touch the hot oil. Leave them to fry for a minute before removing the paper with metal tongs. Fry each side for a few minutes until golden brown. Make sure to keep an eye on the temperature so you can adjust the heat to keep it at 170°C. This is really important for even cooking. Try not to overcrowd the pan so that they can fry evenly too. I usually fry two at a time. Once cooked, carefully remove the doughnuts from the oil, using tongs, and place them on the cooling rack to cool and drain.

Once all of the doughnuts are fried, you can finish the brown butter glaze. Place all of the ingredients, apart from the boiling water, into a bowl and whisk together. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the brown butter pan to get all of those caramelised milk solids! Whisk in the boiling water. Use the glaze immediately, dipping each doughnut into it on both sides and setting back onto the rack to let any excess glaze drip off. I like to dip my doughnuts twice to make sure I get a good amount of glaze on them.

Sprinkle each doughnut with a generous handful of the hazelnut chocolate crunch before the glaze sets. Leave to completely set before serving. Best served on the day they’re made.