Daring Bakers in October: Boston Creme Doughnuts

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge the Daring Bakers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann, and Epicurious.



After a year and three months, Matt is really starting to get into this whole Daring Bakers thing. On the first of October he actually remembered and asked about the new challenge, and upon hearing "doughnuts" he cocked his head to the side with a thoughtful look. "A good one! I like doughnuts. Boston Creme Doughnuts! But the cream has to be the real vanilla custard kind, not that yucky too-sweet whipped white frosting, and make sure you put a nice chocolate glaze on top too." A demand request for chocolate-and-vanilla was no surprise at all but in the face of such unabashed certainty, what else could I do but laugh and acquiesce?



We were given the choice between two recipes, one yeast-raised and the other a more cake-like buttermilk doughnut.  With Boston Creme in the cards, though, yeast-raised was the only option to create a light, puffy round of dough.



I used Dorie's awesome pastry cream to fill the donuts and a simple chocolate glaze for the topping.  Though deep-frying is my least favorite cooking method because it makes me and the whole apartment smell like grease, sometimes it's absolutely worth it.   On their own, these doughnuts are just barely sweet, but combined with the silky vanilla filling and the chocolate on top, the end result was both heavenly and husband-approved.



You can find a printable version of both Daring Bakers recipes, plus a bonus pumpkin doughnut recipe, here.