My second lemon meringue pie crossover. One day I’ll make a lemon meringue pie I swear! Ok a few things on these doughnuts. They are 10/10 delicious but you’re gonna need a nice sturdy piping bag for filling these. You also will want a blow torch for toasting the topping. You can actually toast in the oven for a couple mins but they won’t turn out as pretty. That’s on you bud! Deffo worth the work I promise.
Notes
I’ve added cornflour to the lemon curd for it to set further, as this is a doughnut filling it needs to be a bit more sturdy.
The egg whites for the topping can be used from the reserved dough and lemon curd ingredients, so make sure you set the egg whites aside for later!
As always with bread I recommend a proper digital scale for measuring ingredients.
Ingredients:
Dough:
10g instant yeast
115g lukewarm water
260g bread flour
260g plain flour
8g salt
110g caster sugar
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
90g unsalted butter, softened at room temp
Lemon Curd:
4 unwaxed lemons, zested and juiced
200g caster sugar
100g cold butter, cut into cubes
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water
Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
Blow torch for toasting
Directions:
FOR THE DOUGH
Combine all the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl using either a dough hook attachment in a stand mixer or with your hands.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes in a stand mixer or 10 minutes by hand. If doing this by hand bear in mind the dough is quite sticky so grease up your surface or hands with butter!
Transfer the dough to a buttered large mixing bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
While the dough is rising you can make the lemon curd.
FOR THE LEMON CURD
In a medium heatproof mixing bowl, combine the lemon zest and juice, sugar, butter, eggs and egg yolks.
Set the mixing bowl over a pan of simmering boiling water. Use a whisk to break up the eggs and stir in the butter as it melts. When fully melted and combined, switch to a wooden spoon and stir constantly for 10 minutes. Make sure you stir so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs!
After 10 minutes, add the cornflour. Keep stirring over the simmering water until the cornflour starts to thicken the mixture.
Strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve into a mixing bowl.
Leave the lemon curd to set in the fridge whilst you finish the doughnuts.
FOR THE DOUGHNUTS
Gently deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Shape the dough into a rough rectangle and sprinkle the top with flour. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it’s about an inch thick.
Use a 3-inch round cutter to cut out the doughnuts. Transfer to a tray lined with greaseproof paper and dusted with flour as you go.
Press the dough back together, re-roll and cut out until you run out of dough.
Sprinkle the tops of the doughnuts with flour and cover with a tea towel for their final rest. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours.
Heat a generous amount of unflavoured oil in a deep fat fryer or a large saucepan to 180c.
In batches of 2-3, fry the doughnuts for 3 minutes on each side. I like to use a meat thermometer to test the internal temperature of the dough to make sure they’re cooked through. They should be around 90c in the middle.
When the doughnuts are cooked, transfer to a wire rack. Fill a jug with some caster sugar and toss the hot doughnuts one at a time in the sugar until coated.
Leave to cool down completely.
FOR THE MERINGUE TOPPING
Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the egg whites and caster sugar using an electric whisk in a heatproof bowl. Whisk until at the stiff peaks stage.
TO ASSEMBLE
Fill a piping bag fitted with a thin nozzle with the lemon curd. Poke a hole into the side of the doughnut and fill generously with the lemon curd. Repeat with all the doughnuts.
Fill another piping bag fitted with a star nozzle with the meringue topping. Pipe a round of meringue topping over the top of each doughnut.
Use a blow torch to toast the meringue until golden.
Enjoy!