I’m always seeing videos of people adding cereal to doughnuts….I wanted to join in. So I made some Coco Pops doughnuts.
These turned out so much better than I expected. I loved the crunch that the Coco Pops added.
The softness of the doughnut with the crunchiness of the cereal worked so well together, the texture was amazing!
Video Tutorial
Breakdown of the doughnuts
These Coco Pops doughnuts have 4 different parts to them.
You got the doughnut, which is made from a milk bread dough. Then I filled them with Nutella.
I felt like Nutella would go well with the Coco Pops, but you could fill them with whatever you want.
Then for the top of the doughnuts, I added a milk chocolate ganache. You could use a dark or white chocolate ganache instead, but you will need to change the recipe slightly. I’ll go into this later on in this blog post.
Then to finish them off, I added some Coco Pops, of course you can use any cereal. Coco Pops is my favourite I think, so I went with that!
Milk bread doughnuts
For all my doughnut recipes, I always use a Japanese milk bread dough.
Japanese milk bread is essentially a white bread that uses milk instead of water and it also uses a tangzhong.
IT IS SO GOOD, it’s so fluffy, so soft, and a little sweet.
So this is why I love using it for my doughnut recipes, I want my doughnuts to also be fluffy, soft and a little sweet.
What is tangzhong?
Tangzhong is just a mixture of a liquid and flour. This is heated together until it becomes a thick paste.
I don’t know the exact science behind it, but it makes your bread so much more softer and fluffier.
Making this tangzhong is going to be the first thing you do. It is an extra step, but it doesn’t take long and it makes the doughnuts way better. So don’t try skipping it!
Instant yeast or active yeast for doughnuts?
The ingredients for these doughnuts are pretty much your basic ingredients. There was only 1 I wanted to talk about….the yeast.
I use instant yeast for any dough I make. Just because I think it’s easier to use, you just throw it into your bowl with all the other ingredients. You don’t need to wait for it to activate.
However, if you are using active yeast, you need to activate it before mixing it with the other ingredients.
To do this, just mix it into your slightly warm milk, then leave this aside for about 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, it will look all foamy, this means it’s ready to use. Just pour it into your bowl with the other ingredients and knead the dough.
Both instant and active yeast give the same results. It’s just up to preference which one you use, I think it easier to use instant!
Making the dough ahead of time
When making these doughnuts, there are 2 points in the recipe where you have to leave the dough to rest.
Because of this, the process of making these can take some time.
If you wanted to split the process up and do it over 2 days instead of 1, there are 2 way to do this:
- Once you have kneaded the dough, place it into a grease bowl and cover with some cling film. Then instead of leaving it to rise in warm place for 1-2 hours, you can just leave it in your fridge overnight. The dough will slowly rise in the fridge. The next day take it out of the fridge and roll it out.
- Or instead, you can get to the point where you have cut your doughnut shapes. Place them onto a baking paper lined tray, then instead of leaving these to rest for 40 minutes, place them in your fridge overnight. The next day, fry them straight out of the fridge.
Both ways work well but I personally prefer the first way. I think it’s so much easier to roll out and cut your doughnut shapes when the dough is chilled!
The milk chocolate ganache
I dipped the tops of these doughnuts into some milk chocolate ganache so that the Coco Pops had something to stick too.
I usually always use dark chocolate in my desserts, I feel like dark chocolate does a great job at cutting the sweetness.
But this time, I thought I would switch things up and use milk chocolate instead.
If you want to use dark, make sure to double the amount of cream in the recipe. So instead of using 75ml, use 150ml. The ganache will be too thick if you use 75ml.
If you wanted to use white chocolate, you don’t need to change anything. Use the same quantities!
Here are a few more doughnut recipes you might like:
Coco Pops
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Makes: 6
- For the tangzhong:
20g plain flour
100ml water
- For the dough:
350g plain flour
30g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8g instant yeast
1 egg
The tangzhong
120ml warm milk
30g softened butter
- For the ganache:
150g milk chocolate
75ml double cream
Plus some Coco Pops and a jar of Nutella
Directions
- Making the tangzhong:
- In a pot, add the flour and water. Mix these together then place the pot over medium heat.
- Heat this, whiles constantly stirring, until the mixture turns into a thick paste. This doesn't take long so don't walk away from it. Add this into a bowl and leave in your fridge for 10 minutes.
- Making the dough:
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the dough, except the butter. Make sure to remeber to add the tangzhong you just made.
- Mix all this together until a dough forms, then add in the softened butter and knead for 15 minutes.
- Add this into a lightly greased bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, until doubled in sized.
- Once risen, roll the dough out on a floured surface, until it is about 1-1.5 cm thick. Then cut out your circles. I used a 8 cm/3.5 inch cookie cutter for this, but you can make whatever size doughnuts you want. Keep repeating this until you've used all the dough.
- Place these onto a baking paper lined tray, loosely cover and leave them to rest for about 40 minutes. They don't need to double in size this time, they should just look slightly puffier and feel softer.
- Frying the doughnuts:
- Once they have rested, you want to fry them in oil that is around 180c.
- Fry for about 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip them over and fry for about 1-2 minutes on the other side. You want them to be a nice golden brown colour on both sides.
- Once fried, leave them on a wire rack to cool down.
- Making the ganache:
- In a bowl or jug, add the chocolate and cream.
- Heat this in your microwave for 30 seconds. Take it out and stir, then heat for 15 seconds this time, then stir again. Keep repeating this until all the chocolate has melted and you get a smooth ganache.
- Putting everything together:
- To fill the doughnuts - add the Nutella into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Poke a hole into the side of a doughnut, then shove the piping bag into this and squeeze some Nutella into it. Do this with all the doughnuts.
- Now dip the tops of the doughnuts into the ganache, shake to get any excess off, then press the doughnuts into the Coco Pops.
- That is it, they are done. Enjoy!
Hii
I really want to make these doughnuts, but I am not sure if I’m supposed to add the egg or not. It’s not listed in the ingredients, but in the Instagram video the egg is present. Could you help me out please? Egg or no egg?
Author
Hi I’m so sorry, I forgot to add it in the ingredient list. I’ve added it now, you do need 1 egg!