Daniel Pfyl, senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic's Food Design Institute, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier.
This month, he makes Mini Jam Berliners for a sweet treat with one word of advice - eat the hole side first if you want to avoid coming to a sticky end.
Mini Jam Berliners (doughnuts)
Makes 24
Ingredients
500g flour
10-15g dry yeast
50g sugar
250g lukewarm milk
3 large egg yolks
100g lukewarm melted butter
pinch sea salt
750ml oil for frying
jam of your choice for filling
caster sugar for dusting
Method
1. In a small bowl whisk together about one third of the milk, a pinch sugar and the yeast until the yeast is dissolved. Set aside in a warm place until the surface starts to bubble.
2. Sieve flour and salt into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook.
3. Add the egg yolks, remaining milk, sugar and melted butter.
4. Mix on low speed until combined then add the first yeast and milk mixture. Continue mixing until it forms a dough. Mix on medium speed for 6-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Spray a clean bowl with cooking spray and then add dough, cover with plastic wrap and rest again in warm place for at least 30 minutes or until dough had doubled in size.
5. Knead briefly, let the dough rest, well covered with a kitchen towel, on a floured tray or baking mat.
6. Turn the dough on to a floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll the dough out until it is about 1cm thick.
7. Using a dough cutter, cut out rounds of dough, re-using and rolling the extra dough until all is used.
8. Transfer the rounds to a floured baking tray, cover them with a kitchen towel and let them rise for a final time in a warm place until double in size - about 45 mins to 1hr.
9. To fry the doughnuts, heat oil in a deep fryer (or deep pot) to 175degC. Line a tray with paper towels and fill a bowl with caster sugar for rolling. Fry the doughnuts in batches, close the lid after sliding the dough into the pan. The developing steam helps lift the doughnuts, giving them a lighter ring.
Turn only once if possible and continually monitor the oil temperature. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
10. Remove them from the fryer and drain on the paper towels.
11. Cool for a couple of minutes before cutting a small hole in their sides and filling them with jam using a long piping nozzle. Then roll them in the sugar.
Check earlier Cooking 101 columns at www.odt.co.nz and search for "cooking 101''.
More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com
If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know.
Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 715, Dunedin, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
