Ingredients
- treacle 1 tbsp
- stem ginger balls 3, finely grated
- strong white bread flour 325g, plus extra for shaping
- ground ginger 1 tsp
- mixed spice 1 tsp
- dark brown muscovado sugar 25g
- golden caster sugar 25g
- salt ½ tsp
- fast-action yeast 7g sachet
- butter 25g, softened
- Lotus Biscoff Speculoos spread half a jar, – get the crunchy variety if you can
FOR COATING
- mixed spice ½ tsp
- golden caster sugar 100g
- unsalted butter 75g
- stem ginger syrup 2 tbsp from the jar
Method
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Step 1
Boil the kettle and fill a jug with 200ml of boiling water. Add the treacle and grated ginger. Mix together to melt the treacle, then leave until just warm, not boiling.
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Step 2
Put the flour, ground ginger, mixed spice, the brown sugar, caster sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour in the gingery warm water and mix on a low speed for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic (or mix with a wooden spoon by hand).
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Step 3
With the mixer still running, add the butter knob by knob – don’t add another until the previous one has disappeared. Keep going until all the butter is incorporated with no visible streaks. Keep mixing for another 4 minutes until super silky and smooth (you can also do this by hand – mix in the butter bit by bit with a wooden spoon, then once the butter has been incorporated, tip out and knead until silky and smooth). Cover the bowl with greased clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to double in size – it’s a sweet dough so it’ll take at least a couple of hours.
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Step 4
When the dough is ready, punch it a few times to knock it back, then roll and shape into 9 balls – use a little flour to stop it sticking if you need to. Spread on an oiled baking sheet with room for growing, cover with more greased clingfilm and leave to rise again until puffy and doubled in size.
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Step 5
To bake, heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Cook for 10-12 minutes until they have a pale crust (they should still feel a little heavy). Mix the mixed spice and caster sugar, and melt the butter and ginger syrup together in a frying pan. Roll each doughnut in the melted butter before rolling in the sugar. Allow to cool completely before filling.
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Step 6
Spoon the Speculoos into a piping bag fitted with a 1⁄2 – 3/4 cm nozzle. Poke a hole in the side of each doughnut with a wooden spoon handle and pipe in some Speculoos – the doughnut should feel heavier – then you know you’ll have them filled.
These are baked rather than fried but are no less delicious for it. Rolling in buttery syrup and spiced sugar gives them that essential lip-licking finish. Speculoos is an on-trend spread made from the malted Belgian biscuits of the same name – if you prefer a sticky interior you can fill with orange or lemon curd instead.
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Nutritional Information
- Kcals 418
- Fat 17.1g
- Saturates 7.4g
- Carbs 59.7g
- Fibre 1.4g
- Protein 5.5g
- Salt 0.5g
