Bavarian Cream Donuts
These Bavarian Cream Donuts are light, fluffy, and filled with the most flavorful Bavarian cream! Perfectly fried and dipped into a sugar coating, every bite of these delicious donuts is full of flavor and the best texture. They're SO good!
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast one packet
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar divided
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter melted and slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
- 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling out the dough
- canola oil for frying
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Bavarian Cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream cold from the fridge
Instructions
Make The Dough
- Warm the milk by placing it in a bowl in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, or until warm to the touch (but not boiling).
- Pour the warmed milk into a large mixing bowl (or electric stand mixer bowl) and add the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar. Lightly stir together with a fork or whisk and let sit for 5-8 minutes until foamy. If the mixture doesn’t become foamy after 10 minutes, discard and make a new batch of milk-sugar-yeast mixture.
- With the whisk attachment (or handheld whisk) mix in the eggs, egg yolks, remaining sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract just until combined.
- Mix in the flour, salt, and cinnamon until a tacky-sticky dough forms.
- Sprinkle flour on your counter. Knead the dough on the counter until smooth, adding up to 2-3 tbsp extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
- Grease a large bowl with some oil or cooking spray. Transfer the smooth ball of dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise at room temperature in a warm/room temperature place for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
- ****While the donuts rise, prepare the Bavarian cream, recipe below!***
- Prepare 2 baking pans and line with cut squares of parchment paper.
- Once the dough has risen, transfer the dough, punch it down and transfer to a floured work surface. Roll until it’s about 3/4” thick.
- Use a round cookie cutter about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter (or top of a glass cup) and cut out donut rounds. Place the cut-outs onto the prepared parchment squares on the baking sheet.
- Re-roll any dough scraps and cut out more donut rounds.
- Lightly cover each donut-dough pan with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise for 1 hour.
Fry The Donuts
- Twenty minutes before the donuts finish rising, add enough oil to a heavy-bottom large pot to fill it halfway. Heat over a medium flame until the oil reaches 375°F on a candy thermometer or instant read thermometer. While the oil heats up, line a plate, baking rack or baking sheets with paper towels to set the donuts onto later.
- Once the oil is hot fry the donuts: Carefully use a slotted spoon to lower 1 donut (with the parchment) at a time into the hot oil (adding up to 4-5 donuts per batch) and fry for just under a minute on each side, or until each side is a golden brown color. *Remove the parchment paper from the oil as soon as it releases from the donut using tongs, and discard.
- Transfer cooked donuts with the slotted spoon to the prepared paper-towel lined pan/plate. Continue frying batches of donuts until they’re all cooked.
Fill Donuts
- Add 1 cup sugar to a ziplock bag or shallow bowl. While donuts are still warm, add 1 donut at a time to the sugar and toss so it is well coated in the sugar. Transfer back to the paper towel after.
- Once donuts are fully cooled off, after about 30 minutes, fill each donut with the cold bavarian cream filling. Use a straw to poke a hole in the side of each donut. Then, fill a piping bag with the Bavarian cream and pipe it into the punctured hole on the side of the donut.
- Enjoy right away!
Make The Bavarian Cream
- To a medium saucepan, add the milk and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it begins to boil, immediately turn off the heat, remove from the heat and set aside, otherwise it will boil over.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until light and pale, about 2 minutes.
- Slowly pour in about 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture, whisking until incorporated.
- Slowly stream in the remaining milk mixture as you whisk everything together.
- Pour everything back into the now-empty saucepan and whisk over a medium heat until it becomes thick, about 3-5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract.
- Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, press it right onto the cream, and cool for 15 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Whip the heavy cream in an electric mixer with a whisk attachment or with a whisk by hand, until nearly stiff peaks form.
- Take the pastry cream out of the fridge and mix around to loosen it up.
- Fold the pastry cream into the heavy cream in 2-3 additions, until it is well combined. Place back into the fridge until ready to use!
Nutrition
Calories: 251kcal
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