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How to make the world’s best doughnuts at home

There are doughnuts, and then there are doughnuts.

Justin Gellatly knows the difference.

A star baker at London’s Bread Ahead bakery, the British chef is famous for his finger-lickin’ good, flavour-filled version.

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From London’s iconic Borough Market, Gellatly and fellow baker Matt Jones churn out sugar-coated balls of dough in various tantalising incarnations, from banoffee pie-flavoured to honeycomb-filled.

Gellatly’s baking prowess even has a royal stamp of approval – he made the breakfast buns for William and Kate’s 2011 wedding spectacular.

justin gellatly donuts banoffee

The banoffee pie version of the doughnut.

To make your own version of the Brit baker’s coveted doughnuts, all you need is a few supermarket ingredients, a bit of patience and a big sweet tooth.

You will need…

• 500g strong white bread

• 60g caster sugar

• 10g fine sea salt

• 15g fresh yeast, crumbled

• 4 eggs

• Zest of ½ lemon

• 150g water

• 125g softened unsalted butter

• About 2 litres sunflower oil (for deep-frying)

What to do

DAY ONE

1. Put all of the dough ingredients apart from the butter into an electric mixer and mix on a medium speed for 8 minutes, or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball.

2. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for 1 minute.

Screen Shot 2015-03-11 at 10.44.02 AM

Gellatly’s donuts stuffed with vanilla custard.

3. Start the mixer up again on a medium speed and slowly add the butter to the dough – about 25g at a time.

4. Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5 minutes, until the dough is glossy, smooth and very elastic when pulled.

5. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to prove until it has doubled in size.

6. Knock back the dough, then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight.

DAY TWO

7. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into about 20 pieces.

8. Roll them into smooth, taut, tight buns and place them on a floured baking tray, leaving plenty of room between them as you don’t want them to stick together while they prove.

9. Cover lightly with cling film and leave for about 4 hours, or until about doubled in size.

10. Get your deep-fat fryer or heavy-based saucepan ready by filling it up to the halfway point with oil and heat to 180°C.

11. When the oil is heated to the correct temperature, carefully remove the doughnuts from the tray by sliding a floured pastry scraper underneath them, taking care not to deflate them, only doing 2 – 3 doughnuts at a time.

12. Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown then place on kitchen paper and toss them in a bowl of caster sugar while still warm.

13. To fill the doughnuts, make a hole in the crease of each one, fill a piping bag with your desired filling and pipe into the doughnut until swollen with pride. Roughly 20–50g is the optimum quantity.

Justin Gellatly is in town for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, which ends on March 15.

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