Why not indulge in a sweet and savoury mix-up and make Adam Handling’s amazing cheese doughnuts? Trust us, we’ve tried them – and they’re absolutely worth it.
Makes: six doughnuts
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
30ml whole milk
25g caster sugar
3g fresh yeast
100g of strong flour
1 egg
13g unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
Parmesan cheese, for grating
For the cheese sauce:
10g unsalted butter
10g plain flour
40g cheddar cheese
40g gruyere cheese
40g Montgomery cheese
60ml whole milk
80ml double cream
½ tbsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Method
Start with the doughnuts. Add about a fifth of a teaspoon of sugar to the milk and let it warm to room temperature, and then add the yeast.
Leave it to sit for 10 minutes in a warm environment, which will activate the yeast – the mixture will start to smell like beer.
Next, crack the egg and whisk it, and then pour off just over half. Take this half (the other isn’t needed here), along with the flour, salt, sugar and add them into a mixer with a hook and form a dough.
Slowly pour the milk and yeast mixture and mix until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. Add the butter and mix until fully incorporated. It should still have a sticky consistency.
Now pour the dough into a bowl, cover it with a cloth and leave it to prove somewhere warm for two to four hours.
At this point, you’ll want to start the sauce, which is detailed below. Once proven, refrigerate for an hour.
Flour your chopping board and roll the dough into a sausage shape. Cut the dough into even pieces and roll into 15g balls. Leave to prove for an hour.
Once proven, deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Whilst frying, constantly stir the doughnuts to make them puffy. When they’re a good colour, remove them from the fryer and leave them to rest. Use a knife to make a small hole in them, for filling later with cheese sauce.
For the sauce:
Cook the butter and flour together for 20 minutes on a low heat to make a roux. Add the cheeses and melt slowly. Turn the heat up to allow all the fat to come out – the aim is to avoid any lumps.
Add the milk and stir with a whisk; the sauce should turn from cloudy to shiny. Pour in the cream and cook slowly on a low heat. Now the sauce will look very runny.
Next, add the Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt. Cool it down by pouring it in a bowl and leaving it to rest. Put the sauce in the fridge, then take it out when you start to roll the dough, which will give it enough time to reach room temperature. Pour it in a bag and cut off one corner. Squeeze the sauce into the doughnuts.
To serve, plate up the doughnuts and top them with more of the cheese sauce. Finish by covering the doughnuts with grated parmesan and, if somehow you have some at home, fresh black truffle.
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