doughnuts filled with apple and tarragon compote and cinnamon brown sugar pastry cream

these doughnuts where so good I made a spiced brown sugar custard with British lion eggs and a apple and tarragon compote and piped it into each one, for extra spice I rolled them in cinnamon sugar. I used the st john recipe for the dough. I love custard but I had not tried it with brown sugar and spices before I’m so glad I experimented as it was really great.

the tarragon goes really well with the apples and these doughnuts screamed autumn, my partner keeps going on about them (he kept coming into the kitchen and stealing it) so that’s a good sign as he is really fussy. talking of eggs british lion eggs has got a page on how to boil an egg which I found very interesting if you are any thing like me you can whip up a batch of these doughnuts no problem but then go wrong when boiling an egg lol.

recipe for st john doughnuts from the guardian

Makes 25 (I halved this recipe as 25 doughnuts is way to many for me)
strong white flour 500g
caster sugar 65g, plus extra for coating
salt 10g
fresh yeast 15g
large eggs 4
lemon grated zest of 1
water 155ml
softened unsalted butter 125g
sunflower oil for deep frying

Place the flour, salt, yeast, eggs, sugar, lemon zest and water in a bowl. Mix on medium speed for 6 minutes, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix on medium speed again, adding the butter, 20g at a time, until all is incorporated. Keep mixing for 6-8 minutes, until the dough has come away from the bowl and looks smooth, glossy and elastic.

Place the dough in a large bowl, sprinkle the surface with flour and cover bowl with cling film. Leave to rise for 2-3 hours in a warm place, until doubled in size, then knock back. place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

the next day remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for at least half an hour. knock out air and roll out and cut into circles or roll into small balls.

let prove for 45 minutes to an hour,

heat oil in a pan to 170c or in a deep fat fryer, fry on each side for about 2 minutes then roll in some cinnamon sugar.

for the brown sugar spiced custard

1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, seeds removed or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup 60g brown sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp. corn flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise

To make the custard, slit the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put both pod and seeds and the cinnamon stcik and star anise into a heavy-based saucepan with the milk and bring slowly just to the boil, to infuse the vanilla and spices. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix together for a few seconds, then sift in the flour and mix again. Pour the just boiling milk over the yolk mixture, continuously whisking to prevent curdling, then return the mixture to the saucepan. Add the salt then cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes, until very thick.

pour into bowl and place some cling film onto the custard to stop it getting a skin,

once cold whip the cream and fold through the custard.

to make the apple compote

3 apples chopped into small chunks

2 stalks of tarragon

120g sugar 1/2 cup

cinnamon stick

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp. water

chop tarragon finely

add all the ingredients in a pan and reduce until apples are soft and the liquid is syrup like pour into a dish to cool,

fold through custard mixture and pipe into doughnuts