Hello my friends and not-yet-friends,
The time has come to make vegan Boston Cream
donuts.
It's been years since I last had one from
Timmy's but I still remember those soft puffy
donuts, covered with chocolatey glaze and
filled with smooth vanilla pastry cream.
It was one of my favourites.
The most donut-y of donuts are deep-fried,
but I'll also show you the baked option AND
show you how they do in an air fryer too.
Make the pastry cream with a quarter cup of
flour, the same volume of sugar, a couple
tablespoons of a neutral oil like canola,
a little vanilla extract, lemon juice, and
a cup of your favourite plain or vanilla plant
milk.
I like using soy milk as it's the thickest
and makes the creamiest pastry cream, In my
opinion, but other milks work too.
Whisk everything together until no lumps remain,
then heat it up over medium or medium high
heat until it starts to bubble and get thick.
You can actually do this in the microwave
too.
Just zap it for about 2 minutes, stirring
every 30 seconds so it cooks evenly and doesn't
bubble over.
Get a little on a spoon or chopstick and taste
it when it's cool enough.
You want to make sure you've cooked the flour
through so it's not grainy but smooth.
Plus, you can adjust the cream to your taste
by adding a bit of spice or more sweetner
or anything you like.
This is your vegan pastry cream and there
are no rules!
And when you have this rich, creamy pudding
like consistency, set it aside and let it
cool.
This can be made ahead and stored in the fridge
for up to 3 days.
Start your dough by measuring out your flour
properly.
I showed you in my jackfruit Bao recipe how
to do the fluff, scoop, and level method.
But many bakers swear by the spoon and level
method.
You still need to fluff your flour first.
Then scoop it spoon by spoon into your measuring
cup, while taking care not to pack it in.
Then level off with a straight edge.
For me, the two methods are equally good if
you know what you're doing.
The spooning, though, is rather annoying and
I'm lazy.
So I'd rather use my trusty ol' kitchen scale
for accuracy and less effort.
On the less effort note, I'm using my blender's
food processor with dough attachment for this
recipe.
I'm also adding extra gluten flour, AKA vital
wheat gluten, to give the dough more bounce
and strength.
It's not 100% essential but I think it improves
the quality of your final product.
Plus a tablespoon of ground flax.
It also improves the texture of the final
product but if you don't have it, just leave
it out and replace with a tablespoon of regular
flour.
Next in, instant yeast.
Give that a quick mix.
Now you can dump in the rest of the dough
ingredients: sugar, refined coconut oil or
other neutral oils but coconut seems to turn
out best, warm water, vanilla extract, and,
optionally, a dash of nutmeg to give that
donut shop aroma.
Then you can let it go in your food processor
or mixer or give your arms a work out with
a wooden spoon until a nice dough ball forms.
Time for the first rise.
Really, you can leave it in the food processor
or your mixer, just cover it with a damp towel
or something but I decided to take the sticky
dough out first instead of doing it later.
It might be a bit difficult to handle but
you can flour your hands lightly and just
do your best.
You don't have to be graceful, just get the
job done.
Let it rise for about an hour in a warm place
or until it doubles in size.
Put your pastry cream in the fridge in the
meantime.
When your dough has risen, you can take it
out of the bowl and on to a lightly floured
work surface.
Knead it a few times to break down the big
air bubbles that have formed in there.
The dough will get elastic and bouncy again
so we'll give it a rest for 15 minutes.
It's not entirely necessary but I like to
make things easier on my hands so I wait for
the gluten to relax a bit before rolling the
dough out.
I'll use my handy dandy beer bottle rolling
pin, you use whatever you like.
The dough should be fairly soft and easy to
roll out.
Roll it to about half an inch or a little
thinner; I use the width of my fingers as
a guide.
Then cut out your donut shapes.
You could use a proper dough cutter, I'm using
a cup.
For my last donut recipe, I used a large mason
jar ring but since these are filled donuts
without holes, I figure these don't need to
be as large.
Put your cut donuts on to a well floured baking
sheet, or one that's lined with parchment
paper and just a little dusting of flour.
Make sure to space them out so they have room
to expand.
When you've cut out as many donuts as you
can, squish the scraps together and roll out
again to cut more donuts.
Then cover your donuts up with something that
won't stick and let them rise again.
About 45 minutes to an hour.
When the donuts have doubled in size, it's
time to cook them.
If you're deep frying, heat up an inch or
two of canola or other neutral high smoke
point oil in a deep heavy bottomed pan for
even heat distribution.
If you're baking or air frying, check the
description for time stamps to skip ahead.
You want your oil at 350 Farenheit or 176
Celsius.
The digital thermometer I usually use stopped
working so today I'm relying on visual cues.
I use a chopstick and stick it in.
If bubbles form around it, it's hot enough
for frying.
But if the stream of bubbles is so intense
that it seems to mist up, it's a bit too hot.
It's not precise and it's not the best method
but we use what we have!
When you lower the donut in, the oil will
bubble up around it.
Be super careful.
If you're new to deep frying on the stove,
please do only one at a time.
In about 45 seconds, the bottom should be
golden brown and you can flip it.
After about 30 to 45 seconds on that side,
you can remove it, let the excess oil drip
off, then place it on a paper towel lined
rack.
Maybe use more than what I have there.
That was my last piece of paper towel.
Sometimes, the oil will get too hot and you'll
need to lower the temperature.
If your donut puffs up like crazy right away,
chances are the oil is a bit too hot.
It's not a big problem but you'll have some
wonky looking donuts with a huge air bubble
in the middle that will make for a messy cream
donut later but to me, homemade doesn't need
to be perfect.
When all the donuts are done, let them cool
down to room temperature before filling and
glazing.
Let the oil cool down too and when it's at
room temperature, you can strain it and save
the oil for another deep frying session.
Just keep it in a cool dark place to prevent
it from going rancid prematurely.
Deep fried donuts are the standard but baking
or airfrying is easier, quicker, probably
safer, and way lower in fat.
They come out pretty darn delicious too so
even though they aren't the same as the deep
fried version, they are still worth it.
To bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Farenheit or 175 degrees Celsius and when
the oven has reached temperature, bake for 10
minutes and not a second more.
You just want to cook the donuts but not brown
them.
If you're using an air fryer, preheat it a
few minutes or according to the manufacturer's
instructions.
I set mine to 375 this time but 360 or a little
lower could do it too.
While that's going on, lightly oil the pan
and set your dough in.
Then pop them in, set a timer for 4 or 5 minutes
and let it cook.
They come out a little golden on top and really
look more like buns than donuts.
But they will get donut-iter later.
Just wait and see!
When the cooked donuts have cooled to room
temperature, we can fill them.
First, prep the donuts by poking them with
a chopstick.
Move the stick around a little to create a
pocket for the pastry cream.
Your pastry cream is probably quite stiff
from being in the fridge so loosen it up with
a whisk or use an immersion blender like me.
Also, as it sat in the fridge, it may have
gotten some dried up bits so blending helps
to eliminate that.
Otherwise, you might push the cream through
a mesh sieve to make it really smooth.
You'll need a piping bag for this next part.
I've tried using plastic bags with a corner
snipped off but that's way messier so I really
recommend a piping bag of some kind.
Fill the bag up as best you can.
Twist the end and tie it off if you like.
Then insert the tip into the hole you already
made, squeeze, applying even pressure and
fill 'em up!
Bakeries weigh their donuts to make sure they
get filled evenly.
I'm just going by feel.
And sure, you may get some donuts spilling
their guts, but it's kind of half the fun.
Now we have a whole bunch of cream filled
donuts, let's get the chocolate glaze on.
I'm simply using a cup of semi-sweet chocolate
chips that happen to be vegan-friendly and
microwaving at 30 second intervals until they
are melted.
They will still hold their shape so they might
not look completely melted but they're ready.
Add a teaspoon of refined coconut oil and
stir.
See, I told you they were melted.
Carefully dip a donut in, let the excess chocolate
drip off, then back on to a wire rack.
Repeat with the rest.
Beautiful shiny chocolatey perfection.
But they're taunting you.
Unless you want a super messy situation, let
them sit until they are set.
Takes about a half an hour to an hour, depending
on the room temperature.
I'm sure some of you live in super hot places
where this would take forever and it would
be better to refridgerate.
Lucky for me, I filmed this on a very reasonable
26 degree Celsius day and it only took about
half and hour.
Homemade Boston Cream donuts require patience.
And they are so worth it.
These deep fried donuts are so legit.
Plus, you're in charge of the pastry cream
so you don't get those donuts where there's
one bite of cream and the rest is basically
bread.
Speaking of basically bread, the baked version
is also pretty darn good.
The texture is not as donut-y as the fried
version, but with that perfect coat of dark
chocolate and smooth vanilla cream filling,
they really hit the spot.
But the air-fried one is probably the one
I'll make most of the time.
The texture is somewhere between the deep-fried
version and the baked version and the method
is much less work and safer for an accident
prone person such as myself.
All versions are best eaten the same day.
Remember, you can make the pastry cream and
dough ahead of time so there's really no reason
not to serve them fresh.
But it's your donut-making reputation on the
line.
You do what YOU want!
Thanks so much for watching, my friends.
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Bye for now!
