Glazed Brioche Doughnuts

Craving something yeasty, buttery and deep-fried? 
Silly question. The correct answer is ALWAYS! 
As if doughnuts (by the way, none of that 'donut' spelling around here, please!) needed additional oomph, these ones are made from a super-easy rich brioche dough that's packed with egg yolks, rum and butter making these babies as light as air and full of flavour! 

Incase you can't tell, I had a ridiculous amount of fun making these! While kneading the dough, all I could think of was colour schemes and glitter - oooh and sprinkles! Maybe silver - no gold! Pink with the blue or no wait, how about swirly frosting! I dug up every sprinkle, pot of glitter and food colouring I could find (unrelated side note: anyone know how to remove that edible glitter off clothing?!).

Besides doughnuts, you could use this dough recipe for a few different things; here in South Africa we have big puffy round doughnuts without holes called 'Vetkoek' (literally translated means 'fat cakes') which we fill with jam or savoury mince. You could make them similiarly (without the holes) and pipe jam, Nutella or buttercream inside. Dredge them in cinnamon-sugar, cover them in chocolate - oooo or dip them in caramelized white chocolate! 

Glazed brioche doughnuts
Makes 24

200ml milk
50g fresh yeast (10g instant yeast)
4 large eggs
1kg cake flour
100g butter, softened
100g castor sugar
50g honey
pinch of salt
Finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
4 egg yolks
50ml rum
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

GLAZE
275g icing sugar, sifted
Few drops lemon juice
Food colourings of your choice
1-2 tbsp hot water
Sprinkles, to decorate

Place the milk and yeast in the bowl of a mixer and stir to dissolve. 
Add the eggs, flour, butter, sugar, honey, salt and zest. 
Using a dough hook, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until a soft, smooth dough forms. Cover with clingfilm and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Mix in the egg yolks and rum then cover again and allow to rise in a warm place until puffy and doubled in size. 
Knock the air out of the dough by kneading it gently then roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1 cm thick. 
Using a 7cm round cutter (or drinking glass) cut out rounds from the dough, then cut out a smaller hole from the middle (I use the back of a large piping nozzle for this). 
Place the doughnuts on a floured baking tray and cover with greased clingfilm. 
Prove in a warm place until doubled in size and puffy.

TIP: For best results I preheat my oven to about 50 degrees celcius and place a large dish of boiling water in the bottom of the oven then I place my covered tray of doughnuts in the warm humid oven to prove. 

Preheat the oil to 180 degrees celscius (or when a cube of bread dropped into the oil turns brown in 10 seconds) and place the doughnuts upside down in the hot oil. 
Fry on one side for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown, then flip over and cook the other side. 
Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen towel. Allow to cool. 

TIP: At this stage you can dredge them in cinnamon-sugar - while they're still hot!
Make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice, colouring and enough hot water to form a paste that runs slightly. 

Dip the tops of the doughnuts in the glaze, allowing most of the glaze to run off before placing on a wire rack. Decorate with sprinkles and allow to set. 
Enjoy on the same day (why am I even telling you that, they'll be gone in one day!)

Honey and oat toast with caramel macadamia spread

By now we're all pretty used to food trends and how they work. It's a simple formula; take something that we eat everyday and gourmet-ify it. It's been done to cupcakes, burgers, hotdogs, and of course the dear cronut (the love-child of a croissant and doughnut) and now, we have... gourmet toast. Also known as 'artisan toast' and 'hipster toast'. 

Toast has been popping out of our toasters for ages without anyone getting excited about it. Most of us actually consider it a pretty mundane breakfast. Well, that was before some hipsters in San Francisco decided to turn it into a big deal and charge customers $7 a pop. 

But we're not talking about putting government white loaf in a toaster here, or spreading it with boring jam or peanut butter. This is the real deal; sourdough bread, thickly cut, toasted to perfection and spread with hand-churned butter and organic jam. While I'm a big fan of going back to the way our grandparents used to eat with food being handmade and seasonal with honest ingredients, I'm not sure I'd pay $7 for a slice of toast. I mean, all it takes is a toaster and we can make it at home ourselves, but I suppose that misses the point, if we did that, who would be there to see us eating #hipstertoast? 

But let's forget the hashtag for now, if you'd like a damn good piece of toast, then give this recipe a try. The bread is delicious and the spread is uberly decadent. 

Honey and oat toast with caramel macadamia spread

Makes 2 loaves

120g porridge oats

4 tbsp honey

30g unsalted butter, chopped

360ml boiling water

500g stoneground white bread flour

250g stoneground wholewheat bread flour

1 tbsp salt

10g instant dry yeast

360ml warm water

120g oats, for rolling

Caramel macadamia spread

300g good-quality white chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp vegetable oil

100g macadamia nuts

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the oats in a bowl and drizzle over the honey. Add the butter, pour over the boiling water and stir to mix. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. 

Place the flours, salt and yeast in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the cooled porridge mixture and warm water and mix to form a soft dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size in a warm place. 

Once doubled in size, knock the dough down and divide into two. Roll each piece of dough out then roll up and pinch the end piece to stop from unravelling to form two sausages. Roll the dough loaves into the oats then place in two standard greased loaf tins (you could also make the loaves more rustic and leave them unshaped). Leave in a warm place to double in size again. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes or until the crust is golden, the bread feels light and the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. Invert the loaves on to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make the caramelised white chocolate, preheat the oven to 120C. Spread the chocolate on a baking sheet and drizzle with the oil. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes then remove and stir with a clean, dry spatula. Continue to cook for 30-60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Don’t worry if the chocolate looks lumpy and chalky at some stage, it will smooth out and caramelise. 

In the meantime, roast the macadamia nuts lightly then placing in a blender or coffee grinder. Process on high speed until the nuts begin to form a smooth paste (you can add a drizzle of vegetable oil if the paste doesn't begin to form). If you're a patient person, a pestle and mortar would also do the trick.

Once the chocolate is golden brown, stir the macadamia spread. If it’s still lumpy you can place it in a food processor to smooth it out and add a little cream or oil if necessary. Store in a jar at room temperature. If the spread hardens, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it, then stir in a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil. 

To make the toast, cut the bread into thick slices and toast under a preheated grill until the outside is crisp but the inside is still soft. Serve with lashings of caramel spread. 

Chocolate hazelnut cinnamon twist

Carbs, chocolate AND sugar all wrapped up in a sugary cinnamony (that's totally a word) crust and twisted together with toasted hazelnuts? This, my foodie friends, is surely what heaven tastes like. And smells like, because the aromas that waft from your oven will certainly make you friends! This bread smelled so good, I fanned myself with the oven in the hopes that the spicy chocolatey-ness would cling to me and act as a delicious perfume. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.  

But back to the bread. It's super easy and versatile. If you want to swop out the Nutella (why on earth would you want to do that?!) then you could spread the dough with thick custard or stick to the simple cinnamon sugar. Go nuts with the nuts and use almonds, pecans, walnuts - whatever your heart desires. And don't be fooled by those intricate-looking twists - this bread is dead easy to make. Almost as easy as eating it!

Chocolate hazelnut twist 

Serves 8-10

3 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

¼ cup sugar

60g butter or margarine, softened

10 g instant yeast

1 large egg, beaten

½ cup lukewarm water

1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (ie. Nutella)

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g hazelnuts, skinned and toasted

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

30-45ml espresso or strong coffee

Preheat the oven to 180C. Combine the flour, salt and sugar then rub in the butter to form rough breadcrumb texture. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the beaten egg and just enough water to form a soft dough. Knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes or with an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle about about 1/2cm thick. Spread a thin layer of chocolate spread over the dough and leave a 1cm border around the edges.Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the chocolate along with the toasted hazelnuts, pressing the nuts into the dough. Beginning at the longest side of the rectangle, roll the dough into a long cylinder. Cut the cylinder in half lengthwise down the middle and open it up to expose the layers. Twist the two pieces around each other to create a plait. Form into a ring on a lined baking sheet, folding the ends under each other. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until golden brown and when tapped the bread makes a hollow sound. Mix the icing sugar and coffee together to form a smooth drizzling consistency then dribble the icing over the slightly cooled wreath and serve.

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