Chocolate-filled doughnuts with Baileys glaze

Method

• step 1

  Heat the milk and cream until it is warm, whisk in 1 tsp of the sugar and the yeast and leave for 5 minutes until the mixture looks foamy. Tip the flour, remaining sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, eggs and yeast mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix the lot with a dough hook until a smooth, soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl forms. The dough will be sticky so leave it in the bowl and cover the top with clingfilm. Leave the dough to rise and double in size, this should take about 1½ hours.

• step 2

  Meanwhile, make the filling by heating the cream to almost boiling, then pour it over the chopped chocolate and stir the mixture until it is smooth. Add the Baileys and leave to cool.

• step 3

  For the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter and Baileys and stir it into the icing sugar until you have a smooth mixture, if it is too thick to run slowly off a spoon, add boiling water 1 tsp at a time, the glaze needs to settle on the doughnuts and run slightly but not all drip off. If you want to make chocolate glazed doughnuts, add some sifted cocoa powder to half the glaze until you arrive at a colour you like.

• step 4

  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 2 cm thick. Cut out doughnuts approx 6 cm in diameter using a sharp, straight-sided cutter. Roll them gently into balls with your hands, then put them on a baking parchment-lined tray and cover them with buttered clingfilm. Leave them for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until they have doubled in size.

• step 5

  Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Brush the doughnuts with a little melted butter and bake them for 12 minutes or until they are risen and golden. Lift the doughnuts off the sheet and cool for 15 minutes. Spoon the chocolate filling into a piping bag fitted with a cream nozzle. Make a deep hole in the side of each doughnut with a wooden skewer and pipe some chocolate filling into each. Put them on a wire rack set over a tray. Spoon some glaze over each one and let it drip down the sides.