Bombolone

An enriched yeast doughnut with no hole, filled after frying so the crumb stays dry.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (cream), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 g strong white flour
• 70 g caster sugar
• 7 g dried yeast
• 2 eggs
• 200 ml warm milk
• 80 g butter, softened
• the zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1.5 litres sunflower oil, for deep frying, which is poured off
• 300 g pastry cream, cold
• caster sugar, for rolling

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, milk, lemon zest and salt and knead 10 minutes.
2. Add the softened butter a piece at a time and keep kneading until it is all in and the dough is smooth, another 10 minutes. BUTTER GOES IN LAST: added at the start it coats the flour and the gluten never forms.
3. Prove, covered, for 2 hours until doubled.
4. Roll to 1.5 cm thick and cut discs about 8 cm across. No hole — a bombolone is filled, and a hole is a doughnut for a different purpose.
5. Prove the discs on floured paper squares for 1 hour until visibly puffed.
6. Heat the oil to 165C, no hotter. Lower them in on their paper and fry 2 minutes a side. At a higher temperature the outside browns before the middle cooks, and these are thick.
7. Roll them in caster sugar while warm.
8. FILL THEM ONLY ONCE COLD, through a hole poked in the side with a piping nozzle. Filled warm, the cream thins and soaks into the crumb, and you get a soggy doughnut with a hollow in it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes