A few weeks ago I made s’mores cupcakes, I fell in love with those cupcakes. Everything about them was SO GOOD.

I don’t even like s’mores, but I’ve realised I really enjoy a good s’mores flavoured dessert.

So I wanted to make another one….so here we are, s’mores doughnuts!

Video Tutorial

What makes this a s’mores doughnut?

To make these essentially what I did was, I took the different elements of a s’mores and threw them into some doughnuts.

S’mores have 3 parts to them, the graham cracker, or here in the UK we use digestives biscuits because that’s all we’ve got. And then there’s the marshmallow and chocolate.

So to s’more-ify my doughnuts, I filled them with marshmallow fluff, for the marshmallow part of a s’mores.

Then for the chocolate part, I used 2 different kinds of chocolate. I added some Nutella inside of the doughnut, a regular chocolate spread works too. I just felt like the extra hazelnutty flavour would be nice. But then I also added a chocolate ganache on top.

Then to finish the doughnuts off, I dipped the tops of them into some crushed digestive biscuits.

All these different elements worked so well together. Eating these doughnuts was a very fun experience!

Ingredients for the doughnuts

Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make the doughnut dough:

Plain flour – also known as all-purpose flour.
Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
Salt – this is just to enhance the flavours.
Instant yeast – when you use instant yeast, you can add it straight into the bowl with the other ingredients, I find it easier to use this. But if you are using active yeast, you need to activate it. So just mix it with the warm milk, leave this aside for 10 minutes, then add this into the other ingredients.
An egg
Tangzhong – I’ll talk about this in the next section of this blog post.
Milk – you want to use warm milk. Heat it in your microwave for 30-60 seconds. If you put your finger into it, it should feel warm, NOT HOT, just nice and warm.
Butter – it’s best to softened unsalted butter.

The tangzhong

For my doughnuts, I always make a Japanese milk bread dough for them.

When making a milk bread dough, a tangzhong is typically added to it.

All this is, is a mixture of flour and some kind of liquid, I used water for this. These two ingredients are heated together until it turns into a thick paste, and then it’s added into the dough.

Why is tangzhong used?

If you’ve never used this before, you’re probably wondering what it does.

Essentially as you cook the flour and liquid together, the starches in the flour gelatinise.

Do I truly know what this means….no. Not at all.

All I know is that because of this, your bread will be so much more softer and fluffier after it has been baked, or in this case, fried.

So tangzhong is used to give you much softer fluffier bread.

Yes you can make soft fluffy doughnuts without using this, but this recipe won’t be good without the tangzhong, so please don’t try leaving it out.

It’s an extra step but it doesn’t take long and it’s so worth it.

Forming the doughnut shapes

Typically when it comes to forming the shapes of doughnuts, I would roll the dough out on a floured surface. Then I would use a round cutter to cut the shapes.

My issue with this method is that when you do it, you always have a lot of dough left. Which then you need to form into a ball again, then re-roll it. I would normally have to re-roll the dough around 3-4 times.

Because of this, the dough can end up overworked, and then at the end of it all there is still always some dough left.

So instead, for these doughnuts I just cut a 100g piece of the dough and formed this into a ball. Then pressed it down slightly until it was around 1 – 1.5 cm thick.

I’ve decided I love this way so much better. You don’t have to keep re-rolling the dough out and you also don’t have any dough left over!

Place your doughnuts onto square pieces of baking paper

Once you have formed your doughnut shapes, I recommend placing them onto square pieces of baking paper.

This dough is very soft, once you have formed the shapes and they have rested for about 40 minutes, they become even ofter.

This softness makes it a little difficult to pick them up and place them into your oil, without ruining the shape of them.

This is where baking paper helps a lot.

Instead of having to pick up the actual dough, you can just pick up the square of baking paper and place this into the oil.

After a few seconds, the baking paper will release from the doughnut and you’ll be able to take the paper out of the oil with some tongues.

Every time I do this in a video, there is always at least 2 people who are shocked. Don’t worry, it is fine to add baking paper into hot oil, it won’t set on fire.

But just don’t leave it in the oil for the whole time, take it out after a few seconds!

Frying the doughnuts

You want to fry these doughnuts in oil that is at 180c/350f.

Of course you don’t need to use a thermometer, there are other ways to check if the oil is ready.

Here’s how I check the oil:

When forming the doughnut shapes, I save a small piece of the dough.
Once I feel like my oil is ready, I add this piece of dough into it.
If it starts gently bubbling, the oil is ready. If it doesn’t bubble, the oil needs longer to heat up. And if it starts aggressively bubbling, the oil is too hot. Turn the heat off and let it cool down for a few minutes.

During the whole frying process, you want the doughnuts to be gently bubbling. If at any point they do start aggressively bubbling, lower the heat or turn it off for a bit.

I cooked my doughnuts for around 2 – 3 minutes on each side. This timing can vary though.

You just want them to be a nice golden brown colour. If you are unsure if they’re ready, you could cut one open to see if it’s fully cooked in the centre!

The dark chocolate ganache

I dipped the top of these doughnuts into a dark chocolate ganache.

I decided to use a dark chocolate ganache instead of a milk chocolate one just because I filled the doughnuts with Nutella and also marshmallow fluff. These 2 filling are already very sweet.

I didn’t want to add any extra sugar, so I used dark chocolate. This did a great job at cutting the sweetness.

However, if you really don’t like dark chocolate, you could use milk or even white if you wanted too.

If you do use milk or white chocolate though, you will need to use half the amount of double cream. So instead of 100ml, use 50ml!

Here are a few more doughnut recipes you might like:

S'mores Doughnuts

Ingredients
Makes: 6-7

For the tangzhong:
20g plain flour
100ml water
For the dough:
320g plain flour
30g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8g instant yeast
1 egg
The tangzhong
120ml warm milk
30g unsalted butter, softened
For the filling:
A jar of Nutella
A jar of marshmallow fluff
For the ganache:
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
Plus 100g digestive biscuits or graham crackers, crushed

Directions

Making the tangzhong:
Add the flour and water into a pot. Mix these together.
Place this onto medium heat and heat this mixture, whiles constantly stirring, until you get a thick paste. This doesn't take long so don't walk away.
Leave this paste to cool down in the fridge for 5 minutes.
Making the dough:
In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the dough, except the butter. Make sure to add your tangzhong too.
Mix all this until a dough forms, then add the butter and knead for 15 minutes.
This will be a very sticky dough, that's fine. Just grease your hands slightly with some oil and then form the dough into a ball. Place this into a greased bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Forming the doughnuts:
Once your dough has risen, you can form the shapes.
Get around 100g of the dough and form this into a ball. Then slightly press this ball down until it's around 1 - 1.5 cm thick. Again this dough is sticky, so have flour next to you to help.
Place this onto a tray, on top of a square piece of baking paper. Repeat this until you've used all your dough. Side note, if you see any air bubbles on top of your formed doughnuts, just pop them with a knife.
Gently cover these and leave in a warm place to rest for about 40 minutes. You don't need them to double in size, they should just look slightly puffier and feel softer when you touch them.
Frying the doughnuts:
You want to fry these in oil that is 180c/350f. The easiest way to add a doughnut into the oil is by picking the square of baking paper up and placing this into the oil. After a few seconds the baking paper will separate from the dough and you'll be able to take it out of the oil.
Fry them 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, add the chocolate and double cream. Heat this in your microwave for 30 seconds, then take it out and give it a stir. Place it back into the microwave for 15 seconds this time and stir it again.
Keep repeating this until all the chocolate has melted.
Putting everything together:
Add your Nutella and marshmallow fluff into 2 separate piping bags.
Get one of your doughnuts and poke a hole, using a knife, into the side. Press the piping bag with marshmallow fluff into this hole then squeeze some marshmallow fluff into the doughnut. Then do the same with the Nutella piping bag. Repeat this with all the doughnuts.
Dip the top of your doughnuts into the ganache, shake off the excess. Then press the doughnuts into the crushed digestives/graham crackers.
After that they're done, enjoy!

S’mores Doughnuts

Video Tutorial

What makes this a s’mores doughnut?

Ingredients for the doughnuts