Italian Donuts with Pastry Cream (Bomboloni)

Ingredients

• For the donut dough 
• 290 g type 45 or 00 pizza flour
• 30g caster sugar
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk (total 75g)
• 90ml whole milk
• 4 g dry yeast (or 12 g fresh baker’s yeast)
• 20g soft butter
• 5g salt
• zest of an organic lemon
• For the pastry cream 
• 250ml whole milk
• 2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg
• 50g white or pure cane sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 30g cornstarch (maizena)
• 30g butter
• For the finish
• Sunflower or peanut frying oil
• 1 bowl of white or cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or vanilla

Preparation 

1. Preparation of donut dough: Prepare sourdough or poolish; in a bowl, add 100 g of flour (taken from the total), baker’s yeast and a tablespoon of sugar. Mix well, add 90 ml of slightly lukewarm milk at room temperature and mix until well blended, cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place.
2. After this fermentation time, add the leaven previously prepared in the bowl of the kneader, the eggs beaten with a fork, the sugar, the remaining flour, the grated lemon zest or the vanilla and the softened butter and start kneading with a hook for about 10 minutes.
3. The ingredients will have to mix and amalgamate to form a homogeneous paste which is a little sticky but which comes off the bowl of the robot if it sticks a lot gradually add flour by teaspoon until you obtain the desired consistency which strongly resembles to a smooth brioche dough.
4. Form a dough, place it in a bowl, cover it with cling film and leave to rest in a warm place for about an hour and a half to two hours depending on the ambient temperature.
5. In the meantime, prepare the pastry cream: In a saucepan, pour the milk and half the sugar (25 g). Scrape the vanilla pod with a knife, and add the seeds of half a pod and the stem to the milk.
6. Bring everything to a boil over low heat to infuse the vanilla well into the milk.
7. In a bowl, put the whole egg or the two yolks with the remaining sugar (25 g) and the vanilla sugar then beat them vigorously with a whisk until the mixture whitens and the sugar crystals are dissolved.
8. Gradually add cornstarch (maizena type) or, failing that, flour, to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix gently so as not to form lumps.
9. Once the mixture is well blended, pour half of the vanilla flavored milk – just boiling – onto the creamer. Mix delicately at first then more vigorously to loosen the cream. When the cream is very soft, pour it back into the saucepan with the remaining half of the milk.
10. Place the pan back on low heat. Mix constantly until the first bubbles appear, which coincides with the thickening of the cream. This must remain flexible.
11. Finally, when the cream is sufficiently cooked, turn off the heat and add the butter, then continue to whip it so that it cools more quickly.
12. To prevent a dry crust from forming on the surface, cover it in contact with cling film then set aside in the fridge.
13. When ready to use, take it out of the fridge, remove the vanilla pod and whisk it again to obtain a light consistency!
14. Shaping and cooking the donuts: Once the donut dough has risen well, divide it into 12 balls of equal size and roll them out on a clean work surface without flour. Place the balls of dough in a dish lined with parchment paper, taking take care to space them out because they will swell after the shoot.
15. Let the donuts rise for about 40 minutes to 1 hour in a warm place away from drafts. Heat a good amount of sunflower or peanut oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan or skillet, the oil temperature should not be too low, otherwise the donuts will absorb too much oil, not too high, otherwise they will be too colorful on the outside and raw on the inside.
16. Fry the donuts, turning them halfway through cooking, then place them on absorbent paper.
17. Coat the donuts in sugar mixed with cinnamon then fill them with pastry cream using a pastry bag fitted with a small tip. Make a small hole in the side of each donut and inject pastry cream about the equivalent of a tablespoon into each donut.