Heart Shaped Doughnuts with Hibiscus Cream
Is that time of the year again when I just want to eat super soft heart shaped doughnuts because they are toooo cute. No more reasons needed! But if I’m going to make the case, they are so much fun to make and eat and, thanks to their shape, edges cook quicker and are a bit crispier than the ones of regular circular doughnuts.
I’ve been wanting to experiment with doughnuts made with bread flour for a while now. Bread flour has more protein on it so gluten develops more giving more structure to the dough with fewer eggs needed. Valentine’s Day was the perfect excuse to do just that! These doughnuts ended up super soft, pillowy and tender but still with a lot of texture thanks to the bread flour.
My two super ingredients here were full fat coconut milk and adding a bit of oil to the dough as well. These yeasted doughnuts are just perfect!
I fill them up with a delicate and floral hibiscus pastry cream, very on point for Valentine’s. But you can leave them plain or fill them with lemon curd or chocolate hazelnut spread. Given that Valentine’s day is on a Friday this year, this is the perfect breakfast to make during the weekend and celebrate all the way long!
Recipe notes
1. These are overnight doughnuts! I proofed the dough on a warm corner of my home for about 1 ½ hour, shaped the dough and let the doughnuts chill overnight on the fridge. The next morning I used the oven method to let the dough rise before frying. You can use this method for the first proofing as well, probably it will take 45 minutes to an hour.
2. The technique of proofing the dough in the oven consists of preheating your oven to the lowest setting or temperature. Heat it for a few minutes and then turn the oven off. Wait until the oven has cooled down a bit before putting inside any dough. A good test is to carefully touch the rack. It should be hot but you should be able to still touch it.
3. To keep the oil at a constant temperature while frying, never let it empty because the temperature will increase very quickly. When the doughnuts are ready to take out, take one or two that seem more coked first and replace them with raw doughnuts before taking out the remaining cooked ones.
4. Hibiscus powder is completely optional, but it’s what gives this pretty light magenta color. If you don't use it the cream will have a very light pale pink color. To make your own hibiscus powder, just ground some hibiscus flowers on a Nutri-bullet or small blender. Sift through a tight wave sieve. Pass that powder through the blender again and sift again. Hibiscus powder will always have tiny bits of the flowers but you can repeat this process a third time if needed.
Heart Shaped Doughnuts with Hibiscus Cream
Ingredients
Doughnuts dough
◯ Coconut milk, well mixed and at room temperature or just a bit warm – 1 ¼ cup
◯ Instant yeast – 1 envelop (2 ¼ Tsp)
◯ Raw sugar – ½ cup + pinch
◯ Egg, at room temperature – 1 large
◯ Butter, melted – 1 stick (8 TBSP)
◯ Vegetable oil – 1 TBSP
◯ Fine sea salt – 1 Tsp
◯ Unbleached Bread flour – 4 cups
Hibiscus Pastry Cream
◯ Eggs, at room temperature – 2
◯ Egg yolk, at room temperature – 1
◯ Unbleached all-purpose flour - ⅓ cup
◯ Raw sugar – ⅔ cup, divided
◯ Coconut milk (you may use regular milk as well)– 2 cups
◯ Dried hibiscus flowers – ⅓ cup
◯ Hibiscus powder, optional (see notes)– ½ TBSP
◯ Butter – 2 TBSP ◯ Vegetable or Grapeseed oil for frying
◯ Extra granulated sugar for coating the doughnuts, about 1 ½ cup
Details
Yield: about 14 to 16 large doughnuts
Total Time: 2 hours or 2 hours plus overnight chilling time in between
Active time: 20 minutes
Equipment: stand mixer with the hook attachment, large and deep baking pan, pastry brush
Steps
To make the dough:
Grease a large bowl with vegetable oil.
Pour coconut milk in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment already in place. Gently sprinkle the yeast through the top of the milk and let it soak for about 2 minutes.
Add the sugar, egg, melted butter, oil and salt (important to add the salt last). Mix for 10 seconds just to roughly mix the ingredients. Dump in the bread flour and knead in slow speed for 10 minutes to 12 minutes, until dough looks smooth and is not heavily sticking to the sides of the bowl.
Using a rubber spatula transfer the dough to the large greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic paper. Let the dough rise at a warm corner until it has doubled its size, about an hour.
In the meantime prepare the filling.
To make the hibiscus pastry cream:
In a medium bowl gently mix eggs, egg yolk and flour with ⅓ cup of the sugar. Mixture should be pasty and not completely smooth.
In a medium saucepan combine coconut milk with dried hibiscus flowers and the remaining third of sugar. Heat over medium-low heat until milk is scalding.
In a slow stream, pour about ¼ cup of the milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. Add a bit more and whisk constantly to mix. Finish pouring the remaining milk, not forgetting to whisk constantly while you are pouring it. Transfer mixture to saucepan and return to burner.
Turn heat to medium and whisk slowly but constantly. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes after it starts simmering, until it has a thick pudding consistency. Remove form heat and keep whisking for about 20 seconds to prevent any clumps from forming.
Add hibiscus powder, if using and whisk until combined. Add the two tablespoons of butter and whisk once more until melted. Cover pastry cream directly with plastic paper and place in the fridge to chill.
Making the doughnuts:
Have a large bowl or tray with the granulated sugar for coating ready. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper and dust some flour on them.
Dust with plenty of flour a clean flat surface. Dust your rolling pin and hands as well. Transfer dough onto it and using a rolling pin stretch the dough until you have a rectangle of about ½” thick. Using your selected cutter cut the dough and transfer the doughnut to the prepared baking tray. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough, trying to cut the dough as close as you can so you can yield it as much as possible.
Cover with plastic paper and chill overnight. If doing at the moment, let them rise uncovered either in a warm oven for about 25 minutes or in a warm corner again for about an hour.
If refrigerating overnight, you’ll need to let them rise, again by placing them in a warm turned-off oven (see notes) or by placing in a warm corner until they rise. You will need to let them loose the chill for several minutes before placing in the oven, if using that method.
When you’re ready to fry the doughnuts, fill a deep pot with the oil and heat it to 350° over medium-high heat and decrease it to medium when you reach that temperature.
Prepare a baking tray or counter area with paper towels.
Drop 4 doughnuts at a time in the oil, handling each very carefully so you don't make indentations on the top. Fry for about 30 seconds per side, rotating them with a slotted spatula 2 to 3 times while frying. Retire one or two from the oil and place them on the paper towel. Drop 1 or 2 raw doughnuts before retiring the already cooked ones, always keeping from 4 to 5 doughnuts in the oil (see notes). Repeat the process until you have fried all the doughnuts.
Pass doughnuts through the sugar. Doughnuts need to be warm to get the sugar stuck on them. If frying is taking too long, start sugaring the first batch of doughnuts while the others are frying.
Prepare your decorating bag with a small round point or decorating tool with the filling attachment (see the tool I used to fill doughnuts here) and fill with the pastry cream. Carefully fill your doughnuts through the center and until some cream pops. Place in a large plate (if not eating right away) to prevent them from touching each other and messing the pop of cream.
Store leftover doughnuts in an airtight container on the fridge. Reheat in microwave in 20 second intervals in low power level, between 2 and 3, just enough to make them loose the chill.
