Bake Off Recipe: Paul Hollywood’s Glazed Doughnuts

Last night’s Bake Off saw the return of bread week – a staple of the show, and a notoriously tricky one. The signature challenge saw the contestants tasked with making monkey bread, a type of pull-apart pastry made with cinnamon sugar. But arguably the bigger hurdle was the technical, where the bakers had to recreate Paul Hollywood’s take on glazed doughnuts. 

Paul’s secrets? He uses self-raising flour to make them extra fluffy, with a vanilla glaze. Some struggled: Pui Man’s were underproved, and she ended up in last place, followed by Lesley in ninth. It was a successful episode, though, for Jasmine, who impressed the judges with her doughnuts – and, indeed, went on to win star baker.

Reckon you could master them? We’ve found the recipe below.

Bake Off Season 16 Episode 3: Paul Hollywood’s Glazed Doughnuts

Ingredients:

For the doughnuts

• 200g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
• 200g self-raising flour
• 5g sachet fast-action dried yeast
• ¾ tsp salt
• 200ml whole milk, warmed
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 75g beaten eggs
• 20g honey
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze

• 600g icing sugar
• 30g deodorised coconut oil, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 150ml whole milk
• For the strawberry icing
• 200g icing sugar
• 3 drops strawberry flavouring
• Pink food colouring
• Water

For the decoration

• Red food colouring
• 100g icing sugar

Equipment:

• 7cm round cutter
• 3cm round cutter
• Proving bags

Method:

1. For the dough, tip both flours into a bowl. Add the yeast and salt, and mix well to combine. You can use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook if you wish.
2. Heat the milk until warm, either in a small pan or in a heat-proof jug in the microwave. Add the butter, and pour into the bowl. Add the beaten eggs, honey, oil and vanilla extract and mix to combine the ingredients. Increase the speed of the mixer to medium or knead the dough until smooth, elastic and starting to come away from the sides of the mixing bowl.
3. Turn the dough out and shape into a neat ball, then place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Cover 2 baking sheets with flour or lightly oiled cling film. Tip the dough onto a work surface and knead for 30 seconds to knock out any large air pockets. Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough out to a thickness of 1.5cm. Using a lightly floured 7cm cutter, stamp out 12 rounds from the dough. Using the smaller 3cm cutter, stamp out a round from the middle of each doughnut. Arrange the rings on the lined or floured baking sheets, leaving plenty of space between each one.
5. Cover the baking sheets and leave to prove for 45mins – 1 hour until doubled in size.
6. Fill a deep fat fryer according to the manufacturer’s guidelines, or a large heavy-based pan, ensuring it is no more than a third full and the temperature carefully monitored. Heat the oil to 175°C/347°F. Line a cooling rack with a double layer of kitchen paper.
7. Fry 3 doughnuts at a time, depending on the width of your pan, for about 1 minute on each side until golden brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted or draining spoon and leave to drain on the kitchen paper for 2 – 3 minutes. Make sure that the oil comes back up to temperature before frying each batch. Leave to cool.
8. For the glaze, sieve the icing sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk. Add the vanilla extract, coconut oil and milk, and whisk for 3 minutes on medium speed until smooth and glossy.
9. Place the doughnuts on a cooling rack set over a lipped baking sheet and pour the glaze over the doughnuts. Leave to set.
10. For the strawberry icing, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the strawberry flavouring, pink food colouring and water one tablespoon at a time until you have a smooth icing of thick dropping consistency. Pour the icing into a shallow bowl and dip 6 of the doughnuts into the icing, to neatly coat the tops. Turn up the right way and transfer to a wire rack.
11. For the decoration, add red food colouring to the remaining strawberry icing and spoon into a piping bag. Snip off the end to a fine writing point.
12. Sieve the icing sugar into a small bowl, then add water one teaspoon at a time until you have a smooth icing of thick dropping consistency. Spoon into a piping bag and snip off the end to a fine writing point.
13. Pipe spiralling circles of white and dark pink icing over the 6 strawberry iced doughnuts.

Recipe from thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk