Vegan Finger Doughnuts filled with Custard and Jam
These retro vegan finger doughnuts have been filled with both custard and jam! But best of all, they are entirely plant based. Get the recipe below.
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Vegan baking
If it’s one thing that I’ve learnt from my Great British Bake Off challenge it’s that you really can make any recipe vegan. This week I picked Paul Hollywood’s Jam and Custard Doughnuts to veganize and it was pretty damn easy! He’d probably be horrified but I have just eaten two to myself so right now I don’t care. I’m in doughnut heaven.
Vegan finger doughnuts
The first step was removing the eggs and dairy from the doughnut dough. Whether you’re new to a plant based diet or not, it’s probably no surprise that cow’s milk can be swapped for any plant milk of your choosing. For this particular recipe I used almond milk. The butter can be swapped for your preferred brand of non-dairy butter. I almost always use Flora.
So, as per usual, the “challenge” with this recipe was replacing the egg. I’ve been working with a lot of enriched dough recently and you’ll be pleased to hear they don’t require any fancy ingredients. All you need to do is use more plant milk and non-dairy butter. I promise you that even with these swaps you will have super light vegan doughnuts. You won’t be able to tell the difference.
Vegan custard
Paul Hollywood’s finger doughnuts are sliced down the middle and a line of crème mousselline (a type of custard) is piped inside.
You might be familiar with pastry creams such as crème Anglaise, or crème pâtissière which often feature on the Great British Bake Off. Crème mousselline is another pastry cream that is often used when the cream needs to hold up when a pastry is cut. It also makes it perfect for piping inside these finger doughnuts.
To make crème mousselline you simply make crème pâtissière and then beat in softened butter for a lighter, mousse-like texture.
But enough French cooking theory! These pastry creams are all cooked custards made using milk, sugar, egg and flour that is heated until it has thickened. Again the milk and butter are easy swaps to make for a vegan version. But the egg is an important ingredients for the right texture. Paul Hollywood’s custard uses egg and cornflour to help thicken it. The solution to veganize it is to only use cornflour which helps to stabilise it.
As you can see from the photos my vegan crème mousselline pipes perfectly and holds up well over time. It also tastes delicious! Use the most buttery of non-dairy butters for the best possible flavour and good quality vanilla rather than vanilla extract.
The recipe
Now you know just how easy it is to make Vegan Finger Doughnuts filled with Custard and Jam. Paul Hollywood’s recipe says it makes 6 but they are monstrously large. (Seriously, how big are Paul’s fingers?!) I’d recommend smaller portions; there is plenty of dough and custard to make 8. But I’ll leave that decision up to you.
Vegan Finger Doughnuts filled with Custard and Jam
Equipment
- Sugar thermometer
- 2 piping bags
- 1 star tipped nozzle
- 1 writing nozzle
Ingredients
For the doughnuts
- 250 grams strong white bread flour
- 7 grams fast-action dried yeat
- 5 grams salt
- 100 grams caster sugar 25 grams for the dough and 75 grams for dusting
- 150 millilitres non-dairy milk e.g. almond milk
- 75 grams non-dairy butter
For the raspberry jam
- 100 grams raspberries
- 100 grams jam sugar
For the vegan creme mousseline
- 250 millilitres plant-milk e.g. almond milk
- 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp of vanilla paste
- 50 grams caster sugar
- 30 grams cornflour
- 30 grams non-dairy butter
Instructions
For the doughnuts
- Add the strong white bread flour, fast action yeast, salt and sugar to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted and the milk is warm to the touch.
- Pour the milk and butter over the dry ingredients and mix until a ball of dough has formed. (See note 1).
- If using an electric mixer with dough hooks, whisk the dough on medium for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, tip out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 10-15 minutes until the same texture is achieved. (See note 2).
- (Place the dough back in the bowl.) Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Once the first prove is complete, turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into either 6 or 8 equal portions and roll them into long sausage shapes. (See note 4).
- Place the dough on to a floured baking tray and cover with a tea towel. Leave them to prove for a second time for 30 minutes or again doubled in size.
To make the jam
- While the dough is resting, place the raspberries and jam sugar into a saucepan with 25ml of water and place on a low heat. Stir regularly to ensure the sugar does not burn.
- The raspberries will begin to break down and the sugar will melt. You can help the raspberries along by crushing them gently with your spoon or spatula.
- Once the sugar has melted completely raise the temperature so the jam begins to boil. Continue to heat the jam until the temperature rises to 105C / 220F.
- Pour the jam into a bowl and leave to cool and set.
To make the vegan creme mousselline
- Add the plant milk to a saucepan along with the vanilla pod (cut in half) and let it simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes allowing the vanilla to infuse the milk.
- (While keeping an eye on the milk to ensure it doesn't scorch) add the sugar and cornflour to a mixing bowl and whisk together to ensure they are well combined and their are no lumps.
- Carefully pour a quarter of the milk into the sugar and cornflour mixture. Whisk well until it has formed a lump free paste.
- Slowly pour the rest of milk into the paste while whisking well to ensure you have a smooth, thick custard.
- Transfer the custard back into the pan and cook on a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn't scorch or create lumps.
- The custard is ready when there are large bubbles of steam.
- Take the custard off of the heat and beat in the butter until smooth.
- Spoon the custard into a clean bowl, cover with clingfilm so that the clingfilm is in direct contact with the custard. (See note 3).
- Leave the custard to cool then place into a fridge for at least an hour or until the custard has set.
To fry the doughnuts
- Before frying get organised by having the following laid out: kitchen paper to blot excess oil, a plate with the caster sugar ready for dusting and a second plate for the sugar dusted doughnuts.
- Fill either a deep fat fryer or saucepan half full with vegetable oil and heat slowly until it reaches 180C / 355F.
- Carefully lower your first doughnut into the oil and fry for 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
- Once you have cooked the doughnut on both sides remove from the oil, gently remove any excess oil with a piece of kitchen roll and then roll in the sugar before leaving to cool completely.
- Repeat this process until all of the doughnuts have been fried and sugar dusted.
To fill the doughnuts
- Once the doughnuts are cooled they are ready to fill.
- Cut each doughnut length-ways down the middle. The cut should be deep enough to prise both sides apart and fill with custard, but without splitting the doughnuts completely in two.
- Place the star tipped nozzle into the first piping bag and fill with the vegan custard
- Pipe a thick line of custard inside each doughnut.
- Place the writing nozzle into the second piping bag and fill with the raspberry jam.
- Pipe a thin line of jam along the top of the line of custard.
Notes
Note 1
If the dough is too dry to come together add a little extra warmed milk.Note 2
The dough will be a little sticky but it shouldn’t be too wet to handle.Note 3
It’s important that the clingfilm touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin forming as it cools.Note 4
When the doughnuts prove for the second time they tend to double in size by expanding width ways rather than length ways. To avoid very fat doughnuts, make sure that the sausages or dough are long and thin.More recipes inspired by the Great British Bake Off
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Do you watch the Great British Bake Off? What should I bake next?
My first time making donuts , I don’t have a deep fryer so I used a saucepan . I did find it difficult to maintain the temperature, my donuts browned a little deeper than the ones pictured in the recipe .
Also my custard filling came out quite runny , so I mixed more cornflour to get a thicker consistency . But even after refrigeration before piping it was still not thick enough to do a lovely piping as in the photo .
Aside from my donuts not looking that polished , the taste was superb .
Also , next time I would try to find a way of sliding the donuts into the oil without changing the shape too much .
Wow your first time making doughnuts?! Well done! It sounds like you did a fantastic job. As for the custard, it sounds as though it could have done with being cooked for longer or it may have been that the vegan butter you used may have had a higher water content than that which I used. Nonetheless I hope you enjoyed eating them!
Yes , I live in Australia , we only have Nuttelex as a vegan butter option , I’ll try again with maybe a different custard recipe . As they were delicious
Good luck! I hope a different custard recipe works for you.