Baked Jam Doughnuts

I love the jam doughnuts from Sainsbury's. They're so soft, so tender - and not too sweet. And they're cheap too! Not very healthy perhaps, but nice to have for lunch (or as a snack!) once in awhile, hehe. I especially like to bring them home and pop them into the toaster oven for about 5 minutes. They get all warm and crispy on the outside, yet soft in the inside. Sooooo good.... I have no idea why I like jam doughnuts, yet HATE jam on normal bread.

Since I like them so much, its of course of no surprise that I would want to *make* jam doughnuts. Now, the thing is, doughnuts are usually fried and while I'm not against frying (my diet is probably one of the more unhealthy ones out there :P) the cost of oil here is much more than what I would like to spend, haha. So when I found a recipe for *baked* jam doughnuts, I thought, "Well... that's an idea."

This recipe is apparently adapted from a Weight Watcher's recipe, the main difference being that more milk is used in the adaptation, and less yeast. More milk sounds good to me, so I followed the first recipe, hehe. Here we go~!

What you need:
500g plain flour
Pinch of salt
50g caster sugar
7g instant yeast (I had a 6g packet)
1 egg, beaten
250ml lukewarm milk
Jam, of your choice
Caster sugar, extra

What you do:

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in 50g sugar and yeast.
2. Make a well in the flour. Add the beaten egg. Add milk and mix into a dough.
3. On a floured board, knead the dough until soft - about 5 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 20 portions and roll into balls.
5. Place on a greased baking tray, cover with clingwrap or a damp teatowel and leave the dough to double in size in warm place.
6. Bake in a 220 degree celcius oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until well risen and browned. Cool slightly.
7. Make a small incision in the doughnut and fill with a teaspoon of jam (a syringe or narrow spoon works well). Brush lightly with water and roll into the extra sugar.

I got 16 doughnuts from this. Which was lucky, because that just about fit my baking tray. :) They got a bit squished during baking, but still managed to retain their shape, which is good, I guess. The picture below illustrates some of the steps from above. :D Including a rather blurry one taken through the grimy window of our oven, haha. It needs a good cleaning, looks like. :P



This was my first time making bread, and I thought it was rather simple, hehe. Although, since this required only one rising, I suppose it took a shorter time than usual. I was a bit worried in the initial kneading, but the dough slowly got less sticky and more elastic. Woohoo~! Although... I can't remember whether it was bread that you're supposed to be rough with. I know that you're supposed to handle pastry gently, but bread....? Not sure...

The hardest part was actually the sifting of the flour! Haha! I only have a teeny tiny sifter, so it took a lot of effort. My arms were hurting at the end. Putting the jam in was also a bit messy and took a bit of time, but not too much effort, so it was okay, I guess :) I had to put the tray of balls in my room so that it could be close to the heater and stay warm. :P I guess it worked, hehe. So here's the end result! Pretty??? :D :D :)



As pretty as they look though, I was pretty disappointed with this. The bread part was too bland, while the jam was much too sweet. It wasn't as tender as the Sainsbury's one, but I was expecting this. It was still fluffy, but a touch too tough. But that's to do with my "skillz" in bread-making, I'm sure. The taste though was not my fault, or so I believe, hehe. I followed the instructions exactly. I admit that baked doughnuts wouldn't be as nice as fried ones, but at the very least, the bread of this one should have *some* taste? To me, it just tasted of flour and water, meh. Sort of like the "bread" we made when we went camping last time, haha. Cooked flour, and not much else. :( Oh well, back to the drawing board, I guess.

Or maybe not. I can, of course, just buy them from Sainsbury's for 12p now (less than 40 cents Brunei). For that price, its not worth the effort of actually making them, hehe. Although I might want to try fried ones someday. But for now, I'll just buy them. :D

Quote of the day: I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughtnut... I don't need a receipt for the doughnut. I give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. To some skeptical friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't get that doughnut, I've got the documentation right here... It's in my file at home. ...Under 'D' '.