This post was made in collaboration with Imerco
Rudolph Christmas donuts – a recipe for homemade Christmas donuts with glaze and decoration. Fluffy donuts with a hint of the classic Christmas spices cinnamon, ginger and cardamom. The donuts are dipped in a donut glaze made with melted butter, which gives it a slightly translucent, crackly and crisp texture that tastes wonderful with the fluffy donut. The glaze has cocoa in it, which suits the lightly spiced donuts and gives them just the right colour, because as you can probably see, they are decorated as Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. His antlers are small pretzels, which you can break or leave whole, and a couple of sugar pearls and an M&M make his eyes and red nose.
These donuts are a fun and cosy baking project for the whole family, but remember that frying the donuts in hot oil is not a job for children. The deep fryer I use is from Imerco’s own Cook & Baker range. It is a handy machine that doesn’t take up much space and is very easy to use. It has a built-in thermostat with an indicator, so you can easily see when the oil has reached the right temperature. You can set the thermostat between 140 and 190°C, and I fried these donuts at about 180°C.
The deep fryer can be used for many other things too. I also use it for crispy churros, and of course in savoury cooking, where it is perfect for homemade fries or crispy chicken. Always a hit. Enjoy!
Tip: Fry the cut-out donut holes and roll them in cinnamon sugar.
Rudolph Christmas donuts
Ingredients
Instructions
Dough
Mix flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger in a bowl.
Dissolve the yeast in a little of the lukewarm milk in another bowl. Add the rest of the milk, the eggs and the melted butter and stir well.
Add the milk mixture to the flour. Bring the dough together and knead until it is shiny, smooth and comes away from the bowl. If you knead on the table, put a little oil on the worktop so it doesn’t stick.
The dough should be soft and slightly sticky and must not get too dry.
Let the dough rise under a slightly damp tea towel until doubled in size, about 1-1½ hours.
Donuts
Turn the risen dough out onto a floured table and dust a little flour on top.
Roll the dough out to 1.5 cm thick and cut out donuts with a large cutter, about 8 cm.
Place the donuts on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cut a hole in each with a small cutter, about 3 cm.
Gather the dough and repeat rolling and cutting until there is no dough left.
Let the donuts (and the cut-out holes) rise again under a slightly damp tea towel for about 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a deep fryer. Check the oil is hot by dipping a toothpick in it; it should bubble around the toothpick.
When the oil is hot, carefully add 2-3 donuts at a time.
Turn them when they are light golden and fry on the other side, about 5-6 minutes in total.
The oil must not be too hot, or the donuts will get too dark on the outside before they are cooked through. I fried them at about 180°C.
Lift the donuts out with a slotted spoon and drain them on a plate lined with kitchen paper.
Donut glaze
Warm milk and butter in a small saucepan until the butter melts. Add icing sugar and cocoa and whisk thoroughly into a smooth glaze.
How to decorate the donuts
Dip the donuts in the glaze. Place them on a wire rack to drip off and decorate with pretzels, red M&M’s and silver sugar pearls. Let the glaze set before serving. Enjoy!
Please write a comment