Sweet and Sour: Mini Lemon and Lime Curd Ginger Doughnuts

Doughnuts have moved so far from some greasy, soggy coffee snack you see cops scoffing down. The versatility of doughnuts is similar to many other baked goods; a respect and familiarity in the making of the dough, while playing around with everything else around that soft, pillowy crumb. And not only is it fun to make (how often can you 'bake' something by deep frying), it is a pure and unadulterated pleasure when eaten. When straight out of the fryer - sugared, cooled and filled - a doughnut feels more yielding than hot butter though a knife. Fresh doughnuts are like bakers' pillows; almost achingly soft when you bite into them, soothing your pains and worries akin to the moment of resting your head after a weary day. The delicate crumb gives a sense of a solid mass while also giving a melting mouthfeel, and the fried outside has a tantalising taste quite distinct from oven-baked goods - a combination of that desirable flavour that seems to resound and make us crave every kind of deep fried food, as well as that caramelised savoury sensation associated with browning sugars present in the dough.

To this, everything else is fair game; iced, sugared, filled with jam, custard, curd or even marmalade (perhaps even a savoury combination - will investigate). What you can do with the blank slate of a doughnut is easy. Though I did play around with the dough itself to give a deeper spiced flavour by adding the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon as well as using brown sugar, it is the accessories to the crime, so to speak, that makes a doughnut truly shine. I used lemon and lime curd, since the lime curbs the acid sourness of the lemon and allows the citrus sweetness to come to the fore, while the choice of curd over jam meant a velveteen mouthfeel that helps soften the sourness and dilute the sweetness. I tried to evoke the pairing of citrus fruit and ginger to give another dimension by adding some ground ginger to the sugar dusting on the outside (perhaps an excuse to eat these during a cold). Having a filling rather than a dip gives better enjoyment of the act of eating a doughnut, and there's nothing more satisfying than sinking your teeth into a fresh, sugar crystal-coated doughnut filled with a contrasting ingredient, both in texture and taste.

Makes ~30 mini doughnuts, depending on size.

• 500 g Plain flour
• 80 g Dark brown sugar
• 300 ml Full fat milk, slightly warm
• ~7 g Dried yeast
• 75 g Butter, cubed and softened
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1 Lemon and Lime Curd
• 1 litre Frying oil

For the sugar coating:

• 150 g Caster sugar
• 3 tsp Ground ginger
• Pinch of sea salt

1. Put a tbsp of the flour, 1 tbsp of the sugar, the milk and the yeast into a large bowl. Mix well and leave in a warm place for 15 min. This creates a pre-ferment called a sponge, which allows the yeast to become active by feeding on the sugars present while the warmth promotes yeast growth and activity.


2. Meanwhile, add the rest of the flour, sugar, butter and ground spices into a large mixing bowl (or a standing electric mixer bowl if you have one). When the sponge is ready, add this to the bowl and mix. When mixed fully, knead the dough in the bowl until smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl in a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour at room temperature, or until doubled in size.


3. Knead the dough again briefly to knock out the air, before dusting the surface of a clean table with flour. Tip the dough onto the table and form into a ball. Roll out with a rolling pin until 1 cm thick, before using a 6 cm diameter cutter or glass to cut out circles of dough. Alternatively, instead of rolling the dough out, you can just tear off tablespoon amounts of dough and shape in your palms. Place these on a lined baking tray, leaving room between them and continue until all the dough is used up, reserving a small piece to test the frying oil later.


4. Cover the doughnuts with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Meanwhile, add all the ingredients for the sugar coating together into a large shallow bowl. When the doughnuts are ready, heat the oil in a large saucepan (at least 3-4 inches deep of oil). Test the oil with the small piece of leftover dough; when it sizzles, the oil is hot enough.


5. Turn the heat to medium and lower the doughnuts carefully into the oil (use a metal basket/slotted spoon). Fry the doughnuts in batches without overcrowding the saucepan. The doughnuts should be light and puffy enough to float and be buoyant. When the underside of the doughnut is golden brown, flip them in the oil and fry the other side. Remove when both sides are golden brown and leave to drain off the oil, either in a metal basket or wire rack over a plate, or on some kitchen paper.


6. When the doughnuts are drained but still hot, place them into the bowl of flavoured sugar and coat the whole doughnut with sugar. Leave them on a wire rack to fully cool.


7. Next, make a small hole in each doughnut with a knife. Take the curd and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a narrow nozzle tip and pipe curd into each doughnut, until the curd begins to just start coming back out when you remove the nozzle. If you don't have a piping bag, use a ziplock sandwich bag by filling with curd, closing and making a narrow hole in the bag by cutting off one of the corners.


8. Store in an airtight container for a few days at room temperature, or in the fridge for a week.

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I remember back in Irish class, our brilliantly crazy teacher went around asking every single person what their favourite Chinese dish was. Almost everyone, if not all, besides me answered 'sweet and sour'. Such a popular pairing lies together like fraternal twins; complementing each other with some primordial likeness, and yet so distinctly different when fully considered alone. There is a part of us that enjoys the discomforting sourness in life, whether it be through sacrifice or a sense of twisted pleasure. Schadenfreude can often prevail in differing degrees; suffering sweetened into enjoyment. We wince and flinch at such troubles, but with one eye open and peeking. Our desire to see such sour moments in life become sweetened nectar to us.

But what of sourness stemming from our own actions? We often know the ugly truths in our life and yet choose to dust a sugar coating; burying the sour acts within what would otherwise spoil what happiness and carefree frivolity we feel from the moment. We create a sense of sweet and sour; ignoring, rejecting and hiding away from the acidity of life we must confront and deal with - wounds we must make through the tearing and rending of emotions. We do what we think is best, what seems right and what is expected of us; dusting a sense of happiness and affirmation over what we know to be untrue. And we lull ourselves into such false surface ideals. Fear and carelessness lead us to repeat proclamations of security and safety, assuring ourselves that what we continue to do and how we continue to treat others is the path to take - and yet deep down we know we are unwilling to scratch the surface of the ugly truth and taste a hint of that exposing sourness. We refuse to hurt those around us, refuse to throw ourselves into catharsis; we reject tasting a moment of sourness within, and continue to see through sweetened lenses without. When such things nest in our minds with a sour core, they will inevitably spill forth past the sugar coating. And one cannot hide the true reflexive, reactive wince you show.