Donuts with salted Stretta beer caramel…Maltese bread and olive oil crumb

This has to be one of my favourite things to bring over to someone’s house. Ingredients we use all of the time just in a way that you may have not thought to put together. Feel free to use any other Maltese beer. I just particularly love this craft beer as it is rich and hoppy.

Serves many

Prep time 30 mins plus proving time

Ingredients

For the doughnut dough:

600g cups bread flour
1 tbsp. dried yeast
160ml warm milk
60ml water
1 egg beaten
3 tbsp. melted butter
120g white sugar
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. ground clove
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
Vegetable oil for frying

For the caramel

1 bottle Stretta beer
220g sugar
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. cream
Good 3 pinches salt or to taste

For the crumb

Remove the crusts off a Maltese hobza
70ml olive oil
70g brown sugar

Method

Put all the ingredients, except for the butter, in a Kenwood and use the dough hook, on a medium speed to start bringing it together. Keep it at this speed for about 5 minutes and then gradually add in the butter. It will look like it is a disaster at first but it will eventually transform into a smooth and good looking dough. If it still looks too sticky add in some more flour and knead. Leave in the bowl, covered in a damp cloth to rest for a few hours or until doubled in size.
Move it to a floured surface and roll it out to a 2 inch thickness. Use a cutter of your preferred size; I would suggest around 2.5 inches in diameter, to punch out rounds. Dip in flour in between to avoid them sticking and changing shape. Allow to rise again for ten minutes. Fill a pan with vegetable oil and heat. Test a piece of spare dough and it should turn golden brown in about 30 seconds. Fry the doughnuts in batches, flipping and moving them so that they colour evenly.

For the caramel

Reduce the beer and sugar in a pan stirring until it starts to smell of caramel, darken and thicken. Remove from the heat when it does and whisk in the butter and cream. It may harden up at this point. If it does move it to a low heat and whisk. Add in the salt until you have a well-balanced sweet, salty and bitter caramel.

For the crumb

Bake the crust in an oven until gently coloured and crispy. Put in a food processor with the sugar and oil and blitz to a crumb.
Once the doughnuts are fried and cool dip them in the caramel and then into the crumb. Feel free to be as generous as you like with either topping.

More recipes from Debbie here