Nutella Mousse Doughnuts

Pillowy soft doughnuts, rolled in vanilla sugar and filled with light and delicate nutella mousse. If there is any dessert to indulge then this is it!!

Ever since I’ve made these sinful doughnuts, I’ve invited myself a lot of trouble. Seriously now, A & A want them every single day. what are you kidding me?? Doughnut making is a lot of effort, hey i’m not scaring you, its so much fun at the same time.

But then life is all about good food, good things and everything good, isn’t it! Well that is what I believe and good food for me is what keeps me going, make things positive and everything worth. For me food is also about learning a lot of new things everyday, like I learnt these sinful doughnuts today.

Mom, I still cannot believe you made these. I will eat them all – Arnav

I have never been a doughnut girl but Athena & Arnav can eat them every single day and sometimes 2 – 3 at a time, I mean it’s insane but this is how they love doughnuts. When the other day Arnav told me mom why don’t you make them at home, so every time we don’t have to go out and get them. I had no answer as making them is so time consuming and requires patience.. I had tried working with yeast in the past but then it proved to be total disaster. Later after a lot of study I learnt it was all about getting the right yeast. Blogger in me wouldn’t let me leave out a few things just because some experiments were a failure. So, a few days back I made yeasted Garlic Parmesam knots which turned out pretty good and that gave me some confidence to play with yeast. Still the fear of failure on my mind I took it up as a challenge and here they are soft fluffy and so delicious doughnuts. Yes, I’m a super happy girl today and now this gives me confidence to play with yeast more and more.

My kids love doughnuts as I love dark chocolate, so for them it was a real surprise once they got to eat them after school. We will never buy them again was the verdict and tomorrow it has to be with strawberry fillingJ. Now I seriously need to invest in a stand mixer, kneading with hands for 30 minutes is not that easy every time, a good arm exercise.

Now about the Nutella mousse filled doughnuts, the dough needs basic pantry staples, flour, sugar,
butter, yeast, egg, milk. Hear I’ve used active dry yeast fell free to use instant yeast as well. For the filling I used Nutella mousse, so light and airy, for a chocolate lover like me a delicate and delicious chocolate hazelnut filling inside the brioche was heaven. I made these doughnuts for A & A and my blog with no intentions of eating any but I ended up eating 3 of them. So guilty now, couldn’t help as they are so good.

Kneading the dough and proofing is a very important step here. Kneading the dough is very important as it helps in the formation of gluten, so knead for a good 30 minutes & no less than that. So knead, knead and knead and if you have a stand mixer your job is easy else do it by hands and it is a good arm exercise as well J, so no short cuts please. The dough needs to be proved twice so be prepared for the whole day exercise. I’m not scaring you as at the end everything is worth and be ready for the appreciation you will be receiving after this. So once the dough is well knead transfer it to a bowl which has been oiled a little, cover it with a cling film and keep it in a warm place (I kept the bowl inside the oven) and let it proof for a good 3 – 3/12 hours or until double in size. Do not rush this important stage. So once the dough has been proofed we shall roll it cut rounds using a cookie cutter. Transfer the roundels onto a parchment lined baking sheet and again we put it back into the oven for second proofing which is for about 1 – 1/12 hour. Here the dough will rise again. For the proofing of the dough find any warm place, I choose to put the dough in oven as the temperature is dropping here and the oven was the good place to warmth to the dough.

Another important thing to check here is the yeast, I used active dry and the yeast will have to activate it in warm water before adding to the flour. If you are using instant yeast add it directly to the flour along with other ingredients. Given sufficient proofing time the doughnuts actually fluff up and are very soft and fluffy. The doughtnuts that I am talking about here are the Italian style known
as Bomboloni. They are very light and airy coated with sugar and stuffed with any pastry cream, fruit compote or mousse. I filled my doughnuts with the most delicious, light and delicate Nutella mousse. The recipe has been adapted from Megan, a very talented pastry chef from The Hint of Vanilla Blog.

Doughnuts are exciting and the process is even more exciting, so what are you waiting for I’ve head to your kitchen and make them.

Total Time : 5 hours 15 minutes

Servings : Makes 8 doughnuts

Author : Fingers Are For Burning

Nutella Mousse filled Doughnuts

Ingredients for Doughnuts

· 518 grams all purpose flour

· 12 grams active dry yeast

· 74 grams sugar

· 9 grams salt

· 212 grams whole milk @ room temperature

· 111 grams eggs (about 2 large eggs)

· 1 tbsp vanilla extract

· 55 grams unsalted butter @ room temperature cut into cubes

Ingredients for Nutella Mousse

· 1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

· ½ cup nutella

Canola oil for frying
Vanilla sugar for dusting

Instructions for doughnuts

· Let’s start by activating the yeast. In a bowl add warm milk (should be warm enough to dip the finger, too hot and too cold will kill the yeast), 1 tsp sugar and the yeast, mix and set aside for 10 min. It will be frothy, if not throw away and start again.

· Take a large bowl, place the flour and the activated yeast and mix for 15 seconds using hand blender with dough hook. Add the remaining ingredients except for the butter and mix on low for 4 minutes. Add butter few pieces at a time, incorporating well with each addition. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

· Turn the flour on a lightly floured work surface and knead for good 30 minutes till you get a smooth dough. If you have a stand mixer your job is easy or knead by hand like me.

· Fold the left side of the right and right over left, then top to bottom and bottom to top. Now you have a package, place the seam side down in a lightly greased bowl. Let it proof for 3 – 3/12 hours or until double in size in a warm place.

· Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to a lightly floured work surface and roll to an 11 inch wide circle. Using a 3.5 inch cookie cutter cut the roundels and transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet. With the remaining dough get as many mini doughnuts.

· Loosely cover the baking tray with cling wrap and again put it back into the oven for second proofing for about 11/2 hour.

· Heat the canola oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Have a cooling rack and vanilla sugar near you.

· Now remove the cling wrap and gently pick up one doughnut at a time a place it in the hot oil, max 3 doughnuts at one point of time. Fry for 2 minutes then flip and fry for another minute till golden brown, taking care not to over brown them.

· Remove the fried doughnuts and place on cooling rack, allow to cool for 5 minutes, then dust with vanilla sugar.
Repeat the process with all the doughnuts.

· Take a piping bag fitted with circular piping tip and transfer the nutella mousse onto it. Using a pairing knife make small incision on each doughnut. Insert the piping bag and pipe as much as the mousse the doughnut would allow. A little mousse would ooze out
when the piping bag is pulled. Repeat with all.

· Sit back and enjoy.

Instructions for mousse

While are dough has been kept for first proofing, let make our Nutella mousse. Place a bowl and your whisks into the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes.

Take the nutella in a small bowl and soften it in a microwave for about 25 – 30 seconds.

Take the bowl out of the freezer and add chilled whipping cream and whisk using a handheld mixer until the cream thickens and peaks form.

Add the softened nutella into the whipped cream and gently fold the mixture until smooth and well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes :

1) For the filling you use any fruit compote, jelly or any pastry cream of your choice, making sure there are no lumps else it will be difficult to pipe.

2) Do not cut down on the kneading and proofing time, else you will not get fluffy and soft doughnuts.

3) Oil should not be too hot other the doughnuts will be over browned which we do not want.

2) Best eaten the same day.

Thanks so much

Xo,