There is nothing better to me than a soft and fluffy brioche doughnut, filled with something delicious! While I love baking doughnuts, there is something so special and fun about yeast raised doughnuts. These brioche doughnuts are much easier to make than you think, and I've filled with them with a creamy whipped chocolate mascarpone filling.
Tell me about this recipe!
- This is a brioche recipe, which means it is made with eggs, butter, sugar and milk, giving us the super soft and fluffy texture that we love!
- Instead of using leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder, these are yeast raised doughnuts. It does mean you'll need to set aside a little bit of time for them to rise.
- I've got a way to make these overnight, which means you can have fresh doughnuts in the morning!
- They're filled with a whipped chocolate mascarpone filling. This filling is so light and creamy!
Ingredients Needed
Doughnut Ingredients Filling Ingredients
The printable recipe card with the full list of ingredients and instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Ingredient Notes
- Yeast: This recipe uses active dry yeast. I highly recommend you check the expiration date on your yeast!
- Oil: Not pictured here is oil. You'll have to use a neutral oil with a high smoke point. This includes vegetable oil, canola oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil.
- Spices: I love adding just a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to my doughnut dough, I think it really enhances the flavour of the finished doughnut!
How to make this recipe
One Two
One: Mix together the yeast and milk in a small bowl and set aside for 10 minutes.
Two: In a large bowl for your stand mixer, mix together the flour, salt, sugar and spices.
Three Four
Three: Pour in the milk mixture and melted butter and mix on low with the dough hook for 2-3 minutes.
Four: Add the eggs and mix on medium for 3-4 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky.
Five Six
Five: Use a dough scraper to scrape the dough out into an oiled bowl. Cover with clingfilm and either let it rise at room temperature for an hour and a half, or put in the fridge overnight.
Six: After the overnight rise or rise at room temperature, it should be about double the size.
Seven Eight
Seven: Roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is an inch thick. Use a doughnut cutter or glass to cut out 15 doughnuts. Place on a parchment lined baking tray and cover with clingfilm. Let it rise for about 30 or so minutes. You'll know it's ready when you poke one of the doughnuts and it bounces back, leaving a slight indentation.
Eight: Pour about 4 inches of oil into a heavy bottom pot. Heat it over medium heat until it reaches 350 degrees.
Nine Ten
Nine: Drop in 2-3 doughnuts at a time. They should rise straight to the top and turn golden brown after about a minute or so. Flip them once. It should take about 3-4 minutes for each doughnut. Use a slotted spoon and remove them from the pan, place it on a cooling rack that is over some paper towels. After a few minutes of cooling down, roll in some sugar.
Ten: Place your chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Eleven Twelve
Eleven: Heat your heavy cream over medium-low heat until it begins to simmer gently.
Twelve: Pour over your chopped chocolate and leave for 2-3 minutes.
Thirteen Fourteen
Thirteen: Use a rubber spatula to smooth out the mixture, then add in your mascarpone. It won't be completely smooth because of the mascarpone, but that's totally fine. Chill in the fridge for one hour.
Fourteen: Take out of the fridge and use a hand held mixer to whip up the mixture for 1 minute, until pale and fluffy. Use immediately.
Recipe Tips:
- I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It makes a huge difference to your baking and is the most accurate way to bake!
- Be very careful while frying oil. You never want to get water near or in the pot of oil. I use a long handed slotted spoon to get the doughnuts in and out. I also keep my kitchen door closed and my kitchen window open while frying the doughnuts, as the smell is quite strong.
- I recommend doing the overnight rise, the cold dough will be much easier to handle when it comes to rolling it out - plus you'll have fresh doughnuts in the morning!
Frequently Asked Questions
Doughnuts are best eaten on the day of. If you do have to store them, keep them on the counter and covered with a kitchen towel. I don't recommend placing them in a container as the sugar will seep into the dough and they'll become soggy.
I use a large Le Creuset casserole pan, as it has high sides and a very thick bottom. You'll want to use a casserole pan that has high sides that way you're more protected from any oil splashes!
Take a knife and create a small hole in the side of each doughnut. Fill a pastry bag with the filling and just place the tip of the pastry bag into the hole, filling the doughnut.
I use a thermometer to tell me when the oil is ready to use. If however you don't have a thermometer, you can use small scraps of dough to see if it's ready. After about 20 minutes or so of heating up, throw in a small scrap of dough. If it rises to the top immediately, then the oil is ready to use.
Other Breakfast Recipes to try:
Make sure to tag me on Instagram @alpineella and leave a review below if you’ve made these doughnuts! If you want more baking ideas, you can follow me on Pinterest
Recipe
Brioche Doughnuts with Chocolate Filling
Ingredients
Doughnuts
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- neutral oil
- sugar for rolling the doughnuts
Chocolate Filling
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup mascarpone
- 7 oz chocolate chopped
Instructions
Doughnuts
- Warm up the milk in the microwave so it is lukewarm. In a small bowl, mix together the milk and yeast. Mix well and leave until you see a few bubbles and it looks foamy.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt on your lowest speed.
- Add the milk mixture and melted butter to the flour and mix for 2-3 minutes on low. Add the eggs. Turn the speed to medium speed and mix for 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic, refrigerate overnight or let it rise for an hour to an hour and a half.
- If you had it in the fridge, let it come to room temperature for about 20 minutes
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about an inch thick. Use a doughnut cutter (or glass!) to cut out the doughnuts. You can reroll the scraps.
- Place the doughnuts on the baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let them rise for 30-40 minutes. They're ready when you poke them and it bounces back, leaving just a slight indentation.
- While the doughnuts are rising, fill a heavy bottom pot with tall sides with about 4 inches of neutral oil. Let it get to 350°F/175°C over medium heat. Meanwhile, place a cooling rack over some paper towels and fill a shallow bowl with sugar.
- Once the oil is hot enough, drop the doughnuts (about 2-3 at a time) in. Turn them just once, about 2-3 minutes for each side. Use a slotted spoon to remove them and place on the cooling rack.
- Repeat with all of the doughnuts. After they've been on the cooling rack for a minute or two, roll them in the sugar. Let cool completely.
Filling
- Chop up your chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl.
- Heat up your heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it is gently simmering. Pour over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
- Use a rubber spatula to mix the two together until smooth. Add in your mascarpone and mix. It may not get completely smooth which is fine.
- Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour (you can leave it overnight)
- Using a hand held mixer to whip up the mixture for about 1 minute, until very fluffy and pale.
- Place into a piping bag and use a a knife to cut a hole in each doughnut. Fill the doughnuts with the chocolate mixture.
Krista Ellen
Hi Ella! I just made these for my sister’s birthday and they came out wonderful, everything mixed together very well and I got a nice sticky dough. Thank you! 💕🍩
Ella
Hi Krista! Thank you so much for your review and I'm so glad you liked them!
Sean
I had the same issue! While making it in my mixer, the dough was so thick and dense it burnt the motor out! Instead of a nice sticky dough, I ended up with small pellets of dough that wouldnt stick together.
Ella
Hi Sean, I'm so sorry about that! It definitely shouldn't be that thick and dense.
Nickie
Hi there!
I made a batch of these today and unfortunately although following the recipe to the T (seasoned baker here ) the dough was extremely dense.
Is it possible the ratio of wet-dry listed in recipe is off??
Ella
Hi, I'm so sorry about that! I double checked against my original recipe and all the measurements are correct so I'm not too sure what happened with yours! I'm really sorry they were dense for you, when I've tested them they were pretty light so I'm not sure what went wrong!
Content
Hi,
You haven't mentioned if the milk should be warm or not? How does the yeast bloom if the milk is not warm?
Ella
So sorry about that! Fixed it, you do need to warm up the milk 🙂