If you can’t go all out and make your own doughnuts at Christmas when can you?! Our yeasted doughnuts are stuffed to the brim with a delicious Lavazza coffee cream - because there’s nothing better than coffee and doughnuts!

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the dough 
500g strong white bread flour
60g caster sugar
10g fine sea salt
7g packet instant dried yeast
4 medium eggs 
150ml milk
125g softened unsalted butter
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

For tossing
100g caster sugar
½ tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coffee

For the coffee cream
7 medium egg yolks
100g caster sugar
45g cornflour
550ml whole milk
25g coffee beans
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla paste 

For the candied chestnuts
180g bag chestnuts, roughly chopped 
100g caster sugar
Pinch sea salt

Instructions

Put all of your dough ingredients apart from the butter into a large mixing bowl attached to a stand mixer, and using the dough hook attachment knead for 6-8 minutes, until the dough starts to come together. Let the dough rest for five minutes.

Restart on a medium speed and slowly add the butter, a piece at a time, until the dough is soft and the butter is incorporated. Keep kneading for a further five minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, turn the dough out and pull one corner into the middle, followed by the opposite corner and do the same with the other two. Return your dough to the bowl seam-side down, cover with cling film and leave to prove somewhere warm until it has doubled in size. (1 - 2 hours.) Turn out and knock back the dough, then repeat the folding technique, return to the bowl seam-side down, re-cover and put into the fridge to chill overnight.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to push out the dough to make a rough rectangle approx 3cm thick. Using a 3 inch pastry cutter cut 12 rounds (you will need to re-roll the off cuts) and place them on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper, leaving plenty of room between them as you don’t want them to stick together while they prove. Cover lightly with oiled cling film and leave for 2 - 4 hours to rise once more.

Whilst the dough is proving make the coffee cream. In a pestle and mortar, bash the Lavazza espresso coffee beans and break them up into large fragments and set aside.

In a saucepan over a medium-low heat add the milk and half (50g) of the sugar. When the milk begins to just boil, add the crushed coffee beans, turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain the milk through a fine-mesh sieve (some grounds are fine) and discard the coffee beans. Place the milk back onto a medium heat and bring to a simmer.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the remaining half (50g) of the sugar, the egg yolks, and cornflour until the volume has increased and they are pale in colour. Pour some of the hot milk onto the yolks, whisking constantly, then pour this back into the saucepan and cook over a medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon. (And it reads 83 degrees on a thermometer.) Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla paste, whisk to combine until the butter is incorporated. Allow to cool and place in the fridge until needed.

To make the candied chestnuts make a stock syrup with the sugar and 50ml of water. Bring to 117 degrees then tip in the chestnuts and salt. Stir continuously until well coated and the sugar crystallises around the chestnuts and turns white and grainy. Pour onto a baking sheet to cool and harden.

Now to fry the doughnuts. Using a deep-fat fryer, or a heavy-based saucepan bring the vegetable oil to 170°C.

Once ready, cut the greaseproof into squares around the doughnuts, and carefully turn them into the oil. If the dough sticks to the paper, leave it on as it will come off in the fryer, (just be careful when removing them with a set of tongs). Fry in batches of 2 or 3 so as to not overcrowd the oil. Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown, they will puff up and float. Remove from the fryer onto kitchen paper, then toss them in a bowl of caster sugar mixed with the cinnamon and ground coffee. Cook the remaining and set aside to cool before filling.

To fill the doughnuts, using a small knife make a decent hole in the crease of each one. Fill a piping bag with the coffee cream and pipe into the doughnut until swollen, sprinkle the chestnuts over the visible cream and put the remaining into a bowl to sprinkle as you dig in!!

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