Recipes

Cuisine: American
Course: Dessert
Cooking Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:
MAKES ABOUT 24 SMALL DOUGHNUTS:

• 300ml warm milk
• 75g melted butter
• 1 x 7g sachet of fast action dried yeast
• 450g plain flour
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 egg beaten
• 50g caster sugar
• Extra caster sugar with a large pinch of cinnamon for coating

FOR THE CRANBERRY AND ORANGE DIPPING SAUCE:

• 300g fresh cranberries, rinsed
• 200g sugar
• 150ml orange juice
• 100ml water
• 1tsp freshly grated ginger

Method:
I took my deep fat fryer out of hibernation for these sugar coated beauties. I tried to make them using a saucepan filled with hot oil but found it hard to control the temperature of the oil, causing the doughnuts to burn before they were cooked – so it's definitely a job for the plug-in fryer.

Put the flour, sugar, salt and dried yeast in a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Add the milk and gently warm the milk until tepid, then mix in the yolk. Stir this into the dry ingredients. Roll into a ball then knead on a floured board for five minutes, until springy. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave it in a warm place for an hour or so. The dough will almost double in size.
Knock back the dough and break it into 25g balls. Place on a baking tray and allow to prove for another 30 minutes, covered with a clean tea towel.

Meanwhile heat the oil in the deep fat fryer to 180 degrees Celsius. Gently lower the dough balls one at a time into the hot oil, in batches of two or three, and fry for three to five minutes, or until golden-brown, and then carefully turn over. Remove from the hot oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Scatter a thick layer of caster sugar onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle over a large pinch of cinnamon and mix. As you take each one from the oil, roll it in the sugar to coat These can be made a few hours in advance, and reheated in a low oven for 10 minutes. Serve warm with cranberry sauce.

To make the cranberry sauce, place the cranberries, sugar, ginger, orange juice and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat and let the mixture come to the simmer until the cranberries start to burst. Let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent cranberries from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Remove from the heat and process in a blender until smooth. Using a spatula, push the blended sauce a little at a time through a fine mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. Discard the contents of the strainer. Cover the sauce and refrigerate until needed. If it thickens too much, you can thin it out with a little water.

Photography: Shane O Neill
Food styling: Leona Humphries, onefineplate.com

Labels: Dessert