Diced! Dessert Bracket: Blueberry Filled Baked Doughnuts

I announced earlier that in honor of March Madness, I decided to create a dessert bracket with 16 styles of desserts. I’ve invited 16 great chefs to each take a category and make a recipe to enter into battle. I ranked the 16 based on my view of which was the favorite and like any bracket, the favorites are matched against the lower seeds. I won’t give you my seeding because I do not want to artificially impact your choices.

I will post a pairing each week on Wednesday and Thursday and open the polls for voting. The polls will be open from Thursday until the following Wednesday (before the next pair posts). The winner of each matchup with the most votes will move on to the next round and the chef will produce another recipe for their new matchup. The overall winner will receive any prizes I can acquire. To date the winner will receive:

• Dodo Book for Cooks
• A beautiful Bamboo Cutting Board with a Butterfly Motif, graciously donated by competitor Lindy (The Kozy Nook)

This week’s pairing is:

Cupcakes vs. “Other” Desserts (Not in other categories)

Today we have Poonam from Crafty Cook with a tasty doughnut just for you…

Doughnut unto others, what you doughnut others to do unto you. Unless they really are doughnuts 🙂 Food puns are fun. Food contests are way more fun!

I’m rather new to the blogging world, so when I got the opportunity to enter ‘Diced! Dessert Bracket’ on rantingchef.com I happily hopped in. The category I received from Pat for this contest –was ‘Others’ which is a bit different (it includes Doughnuts, Flan, cannoli, churro, crème brulee, elephant ears, cream puffs) from what I usually tinker with but interesting. So after a bit of experimentation in the kitchen this is what I’ve zeroed on – Doughnuts. And what’s nicer than plain ol’ doughnuts? Baked FILLED Doughnuts.

I’m partial to baked over fried. Any day! And not just because it’s healthier, but I don’t like the oily aftertaste left behind in my mouth. The recipe I’ve taken is from: The Eccentric Cook. Some that I’ve made are filled with blueberry jelly, others with Nutella, and some with a bit of both (which also turned out yum!).

Blueberry Filled Baked Doughnuts

Here’s what you need:

1 egg

¼ cup sugar

1 cup warm milk

1 Tbsp. dry yeast

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour – (I needed more than 3 cups)

1 stick butter

1 can Blueberry pie filling (though you may need only 4 tbsp. of it)

Piping bag (to fill the doughnuts)

Powdered sugar (to sprinkle over prepared doughnuts)

 

In a large bowl beat the egg with the sugar. Add the milk, yeast, salt and vanilla.

Add about 2 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Here you may want to ditch the electric beater because the yeast and flour together form a very thick mixture. You’d be better off mixing this my hand, though it does take a bit of effort. Add in the rest of the flour till the dough is soft and moist but not sticky. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rise for an hour. The dough would have increased in size.

Now roll it out on a clean, slightly floured surface and cut out holes with a round cookie cutter. Place the dough in the doughnut pan and let it rise for about 20 minutes in a warm environment.

When they rise to double the size bake them in a pre heated oven at 200°C (392F) for about 15 minutes. Add or take a few minutes if the nice golden brown colour has not yet come on the doughnuts.

Here’s the fun & messy (for me at least) part – now poke your doughnut (horizontally) from end to end with the chopstick. The blueberry filling would have to be blended before piping into the doughnuts, as it’d get stuck in the nozzle otherwise. Fill the blended preserve into the piping bag and fill it from both ends of the poked area. I found that filling it from one end did not ensure the filling went all the way through. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top of the warm doughnuts.

Have fun making this and experiment with fillings you like. If you liked the recipe as much as I liked it, please do vote for me.

Poonam Rao is a manic foodie who always seeks new answers to “What’s cooking?” Given her rich tastes, it is believed she was born with a silver spoon of banana flambé with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. To get a taste of what’s on Poonam’s back burner, visit Crafty Cook .