Strawberry Shortcake Doughnuts

Listen, every few months I like to pop in here and remind you that it’s time to make the doughnuts.  Literally and figuratively.  

This Spring marks the 1 year birthday of my sweet little brunch book, OVER EASY?  Does one throw a birthday party for a book? Certainly not.  But you can’t stop me from making doughnuts about it.

I’ve surrounded myself with strawberries the past few weeks.  I’ve made more strawberry pies that I can count (well… fourteen to be more precise), I’ve got strawberries in my salad, in my smoothies, and I’m likely just a few decisions away from adding strawberries to my bath water… so, stick with me, everything is fiiiine. 

To celebrate the one yearedness of OVER EASY I made the Strawberry Shortcake doughnuts from the book.  Have you peeped em in there?  They’re somewhere between the Praline Bacon and the Lavender Egg Bread – two other great ideas for weekend brunching, don’t you think?  

These days feel like Brunch days, don’t they?  I hope you’ll dust off your copy of Over Easy (it can’t be that dusty, really) and make yourself some sweet strawberry treats, preferably in doughnut form.

This sweet yeasted dough, made tender my with egg yolks, milk, and butter, is my favorite dough to work with.  It’s soft and amiable and I’m deeply convinced someone needs to figure out how to make a pillow out of this dough… like a sleeping pillow.  I’m here for it.

For a step-by-step of the dough making, check out these gems: Banana Cream Pie Doughnuts. It’ll give you the confidence to put that dough hook to work.  

Once the dough has doubled in size, we’ll roll the dough into about a 3/4-inch thickness and use a biscuit cutter to create these 3-inch rounds.  These will rise, lightly covered on the counter for about 20 minutes while the fry oil preheats.  

You’ll need about 3-inches of oil to deep fry.  Enough room for the doughnuts to float as they fry for even browning. 

I use a heavy bottom cast iron pot and a fry thermometer to bring the oil to temperature and maintain it.  

We’ll fry the doughnuts at 350 degrees F.  That’s important.  Hot enough to for the doughnuts to fry to golden and cook through.  If the oil isn’t hot enough, the doughnuts will absorb too much of the oil as it cooks and that’s pretty… well, ick.  

Fresh from the fryer and dusted generously with powdered sugar.  I mean… this is an utterly delicious place to stop, but I promise that it gets even better from here. 

When the doughnuts are cool enough to handle… spoiler alert – it will feel like an eternity – slices an opening through the center, leaving half of the doughnut attached.

Like you might slice into a pita, ya know?

Pinch the sides of the doughnut and coax a big spoonful of sweetened whipped cream inside.  

Mmmmmm Hmmm.

And some lightly macerated strawberries to join the whipped cream.  

It doesn’t get better than this.

Actually… hold that thought. It could get better than this say, with chocolate sauce and/or choppedpistachios.  

But that really would be gilding lily and since when do we do that? 

It’s time to make the doughnuts, wouldn’t you say?  These little puffs are as good as strawberry shortcakes get!  

Thank you to each of you that has cooked from Over Easy this past year.  I see you brunching hard on Instagram and honestly, it lights up my heart.  

Love to you and Happy Spring! 

Photos with friend and fellow doughnut lover: Jon Melendez. 

Strawberries and Cream Doughnuts

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Ingredients

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For the Doughnuts:

• 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1 cup whole milk, warmed
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 ¼ to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
• 2 quarts canola oil, for frying

For the Strawberries:

• 1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the Whipped Cream:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• powdered sugar for dusting

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Instructions

For the dough:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, stir together the yeast and warm water until the yeast has dissolved. Let it rest for 5 minutes, until foamy.
2. To the yeast, add the warm milk, butter, egg yolks, 3 ¼ cups flour, sugar, and salt. Turn the mixer on low speed and mix for about five minutes, until a soft dough forms. Add the remaining ¼ cup of flour if the dough is too wet. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes more until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Stop the mixer, remove the dough hook, and gather the dough in the center of the bowl. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour to keep a crust from forming. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 ½ to 2 hours.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll it out into a 12-inch round that’s about ½-inch thick. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out as many circles as you can and put tem onto a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover the doughnut with a kitchen towel and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until slightly puffed, about 30 minutes. Don’t re-roll the scraps; they’ll be tough.

For the strawberries:

1. In a small bowl combine the strawberries and sugar. Let sit for 20 minutes at room temperature. Set aside.

For the whipped cream:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together the cream, vanilla and powdered sugar on medium speed until the mixture forms soft peaks. Set aside in the refrigerator.

To fry the doughnuts:

1. in a medium saucepan fitted with a deep-fry thermometer and set over medium heat, have about 2 1/2-inches of oil to 350 degrees F. Working in batches of two or three, fry for about 2 minutes total, turning occasionally until puffed and golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Return the oil to 350 degrees F between each batch.
2. Assemble the doughnuts right before serving. To assemble, slice horizontally through each doughnut, leaving the end of each doughnut uncut so the doughnut stays together. Dollop whipped cream into each doughnut, add strawberry slices. Repeat with all of the doughnuts and dust the top of each doughnut with powdered sugar. Enjoy immediately! They’re delicious!

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