Family is over for the weekend and bless-ed Bavarian Cream Doughnuts are the answer. They are, in fact, the answer to more things than one might even think. So while your family piles up on the sectional sofa to re-watch Star Wars – the good ones, not the new ones – for the gazillionth time, make this dough and chill the pudding tonight and make sure you have enough Crisco to fill your deep fryer tomorrow. Bavarian Cream Doughnut
The answer, bismarks are.
Bavarian Cream Doughnuts
Makes about one dozen bismarks.
Bavarian Cream Filling
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups half and half or milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla paste or some vanilla scraped out of a vanilla bean)
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, half and half, and vanilla.
Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until it reaches 180-185°. Don’t let it reach boiling. Take care to not let the pudding burn on the bottom of the pan.
Place the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk them together. Pour a small amount of the milk mixture into the eggs and whisk. Continue whisking small amounts in until all of it is incorporated. Pour the pudding back into the saucepan and place it over medium heat. While stirring often, bring it up to 180-185°F again.
Remove from heat; immediately pour through a sieve into a clean bowl.
Stir the butter into the hot pudding. Allow the pudding to cool to room temperature.
Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill for a few hours. It will last at least a few days.
Chocolate Icing
- 8 ounces dark (at least 70% cocoa) chocolate
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2-3 tablespoons hot water
Heat chocolate and butter in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals – stirring in between each interval – until melted. When finished melting, stir until creamy. Add powdered sugar and hot water. Stir again until smooth. Because, well, glorious. Set aside until ready to frost doughnuts.
Doughnuts
- 2 packages (or 4 1/2 teaspoons) of yeast
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water (not over 110°F)
- 1 cup warm milk (not over 110°F)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 1/2 – 5 cups flour (approximate)
- Enough oil for deep fryer
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and give a quick stir.
Whisk in milk, eggs, butter, and salt until well-mixed. Slowly stir in flour one cup at a time until dough becomes medium-firm; and, as a result, will be perfect to work with.
Knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Only add flour as needed during this process. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes. The dough should be able to be formed into a ball easily.
If using a mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes. Cover and allow to sit in a warm place again for about an hour or until the dough ball has doubled in size.
Cover and allow to sit in a warm place again for about an hour or until the dough ball has doubled in size.
Remove towel and when the dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Let it rise again for about an hour in a warm place covered by the towel again (either that or covered with saran wrap in the fridge overnight).
Planning ahead? Make the dough on Friday night, refrigerate overnight, and serve on Saturday morning!
After the dough has doubled in size again, use about 1/2 cup of dough at a time to form into balls. Flatten the dough balls a bit and place them on a baking sheet coated with non-stick spray. Allow to sit for about an hour in a warm place until doubled in size for one last rise.
While waiting the last half hour for dough balls to rise, place shortening in a deep fryer and turn on to 350°F to preheat. In addition, make chocolate icing and set it aside.
After dough balls have doubled in size, place two at a time into the deep fryer to cook. Don’t cram the fryer too full because this will cool your oil and the doughnuts won’t cook properly. Fry the first side for about 3-4 minutes until deep golden brown then flip to cook the other side until it is also a deep golden brown (about 3 more minutes).
Place fried doughnuts onto a baking sheet that has been lined with a few layers of paper towels and allow to cool almost to room temperature.
Using a pastry bag and a pointed decorating or pastry tip, squirt the chilled Bavarian cream into the middle of each doughnut. Frost the tops of each doughnut with chocolate icing.
This recipe makes about a dozen large doughnuts; or, if you rather, you can stretch the recipe to make more if you’d like to make them smaller.
Bavarian Cream Doughnuts, you complete me.
My favorite quote is “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
It is applicable in so many different use cases. Like, my stomach is saying right now “Only one entry in contest to win a dozen donuts. That’s a lot of donuts and sugar to eat. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
🙂 But I’ll share at the office.
Or, I’ve got a bad feeling about my odds of winning now. Its cupcakes, not donuts 😀
I shared your blog on my page, but wanted to make sure you had at least 667 comments! <3
“HOLD ME!!!”
Well, late to the reply (by about three years or so), but we made the doughnuts and enjoyed them quite a bit (yum). And since “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” is taken…. How about “It’s not my fault, they told me they fixed the hyper drive!” (Or something like that.)
Thanks for the recipe!
Charles Sloane.
The instructions leave out when to add the milk to the filling.
Hi there! The milk is listed in the directions after the sugar, cornstarch & salt. You whisk it into those dry ingredients while it’s still cold. 🙂 Thank you so much for checking!
The best donut I ever had was a Bavarian cream filled maple bar that had crumbled up Bacon on top I just can’t remember where I got it from