Strawberry Donuts

strawberry heart shaped donuts with strawberry glaze on a metal cooling rack

5 from 1 vote

These delicious strawberry donuts are filled with a strawberry custard filling and topped with a fresh strawberry glaze. Make these heart-shaped for Valentine's Day, or just make classic round donuts for every day.

Prep Time40

Cook Time20

Resting Time2

Total Time3

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 424kcal

Author: Joy Kincaid

Equipment

Ingredients

Strawberry Custard Filling

1 ¼ cup whole milk
3 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup strawberry jam *see note
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Strawberry Donuts

1 3/4 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons salted butter *see note
1 tablespoon instant yeast
5 1/4-6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Neutral frying oil about 6-8 cups

Strawberry Glaze

¾ cup strawberries (stems removed and chopped before measuring)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

Make the Strawberry Custard

In a small saucepan heat the milk over medium-low heat until steaming then remove from the heat.
While the milk heats, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until light yellow. Add the flour and beat again until no flour clumps remain.
While whisking, slowly pour in about ½-3/4 cup of the hot milk to temper the egg mixture.
While continuing to whisk, slowly pour the tempered egg mixture into the milk over medium heat. Whisk until thickened, about 4-6 minutes. Remove from heat and add the strawberry jam.
Transfer to a bowl and lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on top so it doesn’t get a dry film on top. Let cool to room temperature before refrigerating until cold, about an hour or two.
Once the custard is cold, in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream and vanilla extract to stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cold custard until just combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the Donuts

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat add the milk and butter. Heat until warm but not hot (about 115 degrees F). Remove from heat. Add the yeast and stir. Let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is frothy.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add 5 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt and mix together. Add the frothy yeast mixture and eggs. With a dough hook attachment, knead together on low for 3-4 minutes. Turn up the speed a little and knead for another 3-4 minutes until the dough all sticks together, adding a ½ cup flour at a time if needed. The dough will still be just slightly sticky. If it’s very sticky add a bit more flour until it’s just slightly sticky.
Remove the dough from the bowl, spray with cooking spray and return to the bowl. If your bowl isn’t big enough for the dough to double in size, grease a large enough bowl for it to double in and transfer the dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Once risen, remove half the dough to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough to be about ½ inch thick. Use a 3-inch heart cookie cutter (or any 3-inch shape) to cut as many hearts as you can. Set the donuts on a greased parchment-lined baking sheet as you go. Set the excess dough to the side and roll the second half of the dough out and repeat the process. Lightly squish the leftover dough together and roll this out and repeat the process. The extra kneading here will make the re-rolled dough donuts a bit denser than the original cut out ones.
(Save a small piece or two of dough for testing the oil in the next step.)
Let the dough rise for 15-20 minutes before heating the oil. They don’t need to double in size but just start to get a bit puffier.
In a heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven, heat oil about 2-3 inches deep over medium high heat. You’re aiming for about 360 degrees F. Gently drop a test piece of dough into the oil. If the dough floats to the top quickly, the oil is ready. If it sinks it’s not hot enough. If the dough browns too quickly, the oil is too hot.
Fry 3-4 donuts at a time, depending on your pot size, flipping once the first side is golden brown, about 90-120 seconds per side. Remove to a wire cooling rack or a paper towel lined baking sheet.
Repeat the process until all the donuts are fried. Let the donuts cool completely before filling.

Make the Strawberry Glaze

While the donuts cool, in a food processor pulse the strawberries until thin and pureed. Alternatively, you can use a blender but will need to scrape them down after every pulse or two.
Remove the puree to a mixing bowl and add the powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth. If your glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a bit more milk.

Assemble the Strawberry Donuts

Once the donuts are cooled, fill the donuts with the filling. There are two options for filling the donuts.
Option One (if you do not have a pastry filling tip): Poke a hole in the top middle of your donut with a wooden skewer and twist it around in the inside to form a little pocket where the filling will sit. Fill a pastry bag with the strawberry custard and cut the end off, making the hole about 1/8 inch or so. Poke the end of the pastry bag into the hole of the donut as much as it will fit into and squeeze the filling into the donut, pulling the tip out slowly as you can feel it's filling up. Continue with the rest of the donuts until all are filled.
Option Two (if you do have a pastry filling tip): Cut the tip of a piping bag so the pastry filling tip will fit nicely. Fill the pastry bag with the strawberry custard. In the side of the donut poke the tip through and squeeze the filling into the donut switching up the angle of your tip as you squeeze. Continue with the rest of the donuts until all are filled.

Glaze the Donuts

Give your glaze a good stir and dip each donut into the glaze, letting any excess drip off. If you filled the donuts using option one, make sure you dip the hole-side into the glaze or all of your glaze will leak out if the hole ends up on the bottom.
Place the glazed and filled donuts on a wire rack to let the glaze set up for 15 minutes before eating. If you are using sprinkles, sprinkle on top of the glaze before it sets up.
Donuts are best if eaten on the day they are fried. Store extras at room temperature for 24 hours in a brown paper bag or in a container loosely draped in plastic wrap.

Notes

*If you use unsalted butter, add an extra pinch of salt to the donut dough.

The filling will be too thin if you use a thin strawberry jam. Homemade jams don’t work as well in this custard for this reason.
I highly recommend not using anything but whole milk in the strawberry custard filling. Using skim or 1% especially will make the custard less thick.
To make this seem less time consuming, make the custard filling a day before making the donuts.
The custard will not freeze well. The jam will become watery when thawing.
If you don’t have pastry bags you can use a gallon or quart size zipper freezer bag and cut the tip off.
If you store the donuts in an airtight container they will get soggy.

Nutrition