Valentine’s Day Donut

Directions

Donut Dough

Makes 8-12 heart-shaped donuts.

1. Dissolve the yeast in water. Then place the eggs and milk in the mixing bowl with a hook attachment. Add yeast once it's dissolved, mix on low.
2. Add flour and mix until well combined (2-3 mins on medium speed, make sure to stop and scrape in between).
3. Then add sugar + salt, mix on medium high speed for 5-6 minutes. (If dough starts to feel warm, switch to low speed.)
4. Add butter slowly, until dough hits the window stage, and easily releases from bowl.
5. Knead the dough and then place in bowl, cover and let rest in fridge for 1-1.5 hours.
6. Flour your countertop or kitchen table, add dough and roll gently until dough is over ¼” in thickness.
7. Cut to desired size, and place over a floured pan, and cover. Leave dough at room temp to rise. This can take anywhere from 35 mins - 1.5 hours, it really depends on environment so frequently check the dough.
8. Set the fryer to 350 F. Once the donut is in oil, it should float almost immediately, if it does not it needs to proof little longer.
9. Fry until first side in golden (2-3 minutes) then flip, and fry until other side is golden. Remove and place over a cooling rack.
10. Finally, dip in hot caramelized sugar.

Caramelized Sugar

1. Place all ingredients in a pot, cook over medium high heat until light golden, remove from heat.
2. Once it stops boiling, use a tong to dip donut into caramel and put aside to cool.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together milk, ½ of the sugar, salt, and the vanilla bean. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining sugar, egg yolks and flour.
3. Whisk some of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolks to temper them. This keeps the yolks from turning to scrambled eggs when you add them to the simmering milk.
4. Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the remaining simmering milk. Doing this through a strainer will help prevent lumps later. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the mixture thickens. 
5. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine strainer into a bowl set in an ice bath. Stir in the butter.
6. Place a layer of plastic wrap with direct contact with pastry cream to form a “skin.”
7. Once it cools, whisk until smooth and pipe into donuts.

Raspberry Jam

1. Mix together the raspberries and sugar in a wide saucepan or skillet.
2. Over low to medium heat, cook the raspberry/sugar mixture, stirring constantly, until it is gently boiling. Keep cooking, and stirring until the mixture thickens. You must stir constantly or your jam will burn.
3. Cook the mixture for about 10-15 minutes. You will know the jam is ready when the mixture is thick enough to leave an open trail behind the spoon.
4. Then add salt, and lemon juice. Finally, remove from heat and let cool completely before serving.