Brioche Donuts with Vanilla Cream Filling

There's nothing quite like the taste of a freshly made Brioche Donut with Vanilla Cream Filling. A bit crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.

And, as an added bonus, these homemade donuts are filled to the brim with rich, smooth, luxurious vanilla cream. Life just doesn't get any better than that.

You will be so happy you took the leap into home-frying these donuts - and so will your family and friends!

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Don't be Intimidated by Frying Donuts at Home

If you haven't made donuts yourself before or if you're intimidated by the frying part of these Brioche Donuts, please don't be!

It's not difficult, as long as you have the right tools and the right set of instructions. Luckily, you have me to guide you on your homemade donut frying journey!

The two most important tips I can give you for making and frying donuts at home are:

• prepare your workspace and tools before you start
• be patient because good donuts take time to proof

Let's talk about the first tip above: the first step in making any recipe is to read through the recipe completely at least twice before you begin.

This Brioche Donut recipe should be no exception to that.

There are lots of steps - you'll want to know what lies ahead and, more importantly, you'll want to be prepared so everything goes smoothly.

For example, you don't want to get to the part where you need to proof the dough overnight without having thought through the timing (aka, you wanted to have these donuts prepared for brunch two hours from now!).

How to Make Brioche Donuts at Home

After you've read through the recipe twice, make sure you have all the necessary equipment such as:

• a cast-iron pot or dutch oven for frying (they're essentially the same thing, just wanted to give you a couple of options. I use a Lodge and I love it)
• baking sheets
• a candy thermometer for measuring and maintaining the temperature of your frying oil
• a long-handled spider tool for placing the donuts into and removing them from the hot oil

Next, prepare your dough. Be sure to "bloom" the yeast by following the directions in step 1.

This will ensure you have yeast that is active. If nothing happens after 10 minutes, throw it out and start over with fresh yeast (aka, yell to your partner/roommate/next door neighbor to run to the store and buy you a new, fresh bag so your dough will rise properly).

Be sure to knead all the ingredients together well until you have a smooth and glossy dough.

Allow the dough to rise for 2 hours, punch dough gently, then stick it in the fridge overnight.

How to Shape Donuts

In the morning, shape the dough into tight rounds, each about 70 grams.

I like to use a digital kitchen scale to measure out the portions so they're each the same size.

Frankly, this ensures they fry evenly and more importantly, it ensures I get nice photos of identically-sized donuts! Hehe, the life of a food blogger 🙂

If you haven't before shaped dough into tight balls like this, check out this video on YouTube (it's less than a minute long and is super helpful).

Place the rounds onto a baking sheet and let rise again for 2 hours. Then you're ready to fry.

Preparation is Key to Frying Donuts

This is the part where you especially need to make sure you're prepared before you begin. Place your oil into the dutch oven, clip the candy thermometer to the side and heat gradually over medium-low heat.

While the oil is heating, don't stray too far away, but use this time to prepare your setup - arrange a baking sheet lined with paper towels next to the stove top. Get out your spider tool.

Place ½ cup of granulated sugar in a wide dish or bowl and place next to your baking sheet.

Once the oil has reached temperature, very gently pick up one donut at a time, place on the end of the spider, and place it gently into the oil.

I fry three donuts at a time, so as to not overcrowd the pot, but also so that the oil temperature doesn't drop down too much (adding cool donuts to hot oil will do this).

This will result in your donuts absorbing all the oil rather than frying in them. And, believe you me, you do not want this to happen.

Once the donuts have gotten golden brown on the first side, gently flip over with the spider tool and fry for three more minutes on the second side.

Remove from the oil, allowing any excess oil to drip back into the pot, then place on the paper towel-lined baking sheet. Repeat for the remainder of the donuts.

Once the donuts have cooled slightly, roll them in sugar and allow to cool completely before filling.

Piping in the Vanilla Cream

While the donuts are cooling, prepare the vanilla cream. This part should be relatively straightforward following the instructions below.

The goal is to have thick but smooth vanilla cream that is cooled slightly so you can fill a pastry bag then fill the donuts.

If you don't have pastry bags, cut a small hole in the end of a gallon-sized ziptop bag - this works just as well.

To fill the donuts, I like to use a butter knife to cut a hole ¾ of the way through the donut from the side.

This makes it easier to stick the piping tip or end of your pastry bag into the donut and squeeze gently to fill the donuts with luscious vanilla cream.

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