Vanilla Cream Filled Doughnuts

Really happy with the way this turned out.
Crisp exterior yet soft and fluffy inside, that vanilla pastry cream! 

Thanks to my KitchenAid stand mixer I've become acquainted with the joys of bread making. While I have been curious to try it for some time, it really is just the laborious task of kneading the dough that has put me off doing it--and I don't know, for some strange reason I've always thought of yeast as a very exotic ingredient that would be hard to come by (weird). 

This isn't the first time  I've worked with leavened breads. Classic bagels were my first foray to the subtleties of working with flour and yeast and I must say, I'm hooked. I love every aspect of it: from creating a living sponge by activating the yeast to the patience-testing task of letting the dough proof and double in size. It's so simply, yet so satisfying in many ways.

So yesterday, I thought of trying out doughnut making of the yeast variety. The parallels with bagel making were quite similar and I just looked forward to the idea of deep frying instead of baking dough this time. So off to Google I went to search for a recipe I like. I found Joanne Chang's recipe on Martha Stewart's website to my liking. I've never actually heard of her  until now and after the success I've had with her doughnut recipe I'm eager to get my hands on her recipe books.

I didn't really have 3 1/2 or 4 inch cookie cutter so I just used the mouth of a glass tumbler to cut out the rolled dough about half an inch thick. I was able to get nineteen 3-inch pieces out of the recipe after reusing the scraps as well, so, not bad. The dough is pretty malleable and easy to work with once dusted with flour, so you won't have any problems working with the scraps. 

As for the filling, I just stuck with the standard vanilla pastry cream (I'm proud to say that  I've become quite good at making this smooth custard/pudding, it really has a lot of uses!) but I'm eager to try out different flavors next time.