The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Big Doughnut - Help please.

ackkkright's picture
ackkkright

Big Doughnut - Help please.

Hello all,

 

I am a pretty good baker.

For her eighth birthday, my daughter would like this cake: "A big doughnut with 8 regular doughnuts on top, each with a candle."

I will buy the 8 doughnuts hot from kkreme. I have a "big doughnut" cake pan for the big doughnut, but rather than cake would like to bake a yeasted bread. Previously, I have baked a sweet dough with cinnamon rolled in the pan, but am looking for something different. I would love an extremely light but open textured sweet bread, nearly as insignificant materially as the small doughnuts on top.

 

I will probably not experiment and perfect, but bake off a single big doughnut.

 

Any advice?

 

ackkkright

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Type babka in the search box an click on search.  Here is mine but it is made with YW but there are so many more.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27858/yeast-water-glazed-spiced-walnut-bourbon-fruit-chocolate-chip-almond-granola-streusel-pol#comments

ackkkright's picture
ackkkright

Thank you Mr. Dabrownman. Your reference is a very very good advice, yum it looks good. I had some incidental yeast water yesterday, and wondered if I'd regret tossing it into last night's saute. It had the flies.

But not exactly what I'm looking for. Ideally I'd like to make something super-light, but short. maybe kind of like a panettone? And quick too!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

king is mwilson.  He has lots of recipes on his blog, ana there are more on search.  You might be able to use one of them in a bunt pan.  I know I'm making one or two of his for the Holidays.

ackkkright's picture
ackkkright

I haven't started researching this yet, as I was looking forward to hearing ideas here.

I'm wondering. is there such a thing as a yeasty, sweet batter that really really expands when baking? popoverish?

pmccool's picture
pmccool

why not use the sweet dough you mentioned in a previous post but proof it until it is on the verge of over-proofing, then ease it into a pre-heated oven?  The upside is that you are already acquainted with that dough and (hopefully) have a notion of what it will tolerate.  The downside is a ring-shaped pancake if it gets away from you.

You might also want to try a brioche.  Those tend to be expansive while baking.  Another option is the Sweet Vanilla Challah from Beth Hensperger's Bread Bible

Panettone, et al, are not quick by any measure.

Paul

MANNA's picture
MANNA

I have made that bread and it is very good. My only suggestion is pass on the vanilla extract. It burns off to much while baking. Spend the money and get a vanilla bean. I have also used the vanilla paste from King Arthur and had good flavor afterwards. But, if your going to top with doughnuts I would say find a yeasted doughnut recipe and bake it off. Giant doughnut makes me think of Homer Simpson with the giant pink frosted doughnut with sprinkles.

cranbo's picture
cranbo

I like the idea of using your cinammon roll recipe. Or use a yeast-raised doughnut recipe. Or something like the hokkaido/Japanese milk loaf, shreddably soft. I see a highly enriched bread, something with whole milk, maybe 15% butter, 10% sugar, 10% eggs, maybe a dash of nutmeg for donut flavor... (In case you didn't know, these %'s mean "percent of total flour weight" so, for 1000g of flour, it would be 150g butter, 100g sugar, 100g eggs, etc.)

Will you glaze the large donut, frost it, or ??? Of course, if it's too light, it might collapse under the weight of the toppings. 

ldavis47's picture
ldavis47

You could also use a Sally Lunn bread. There are a numer of discussions you can access from the TFL search window.

Lloyd

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

before filling the pan, while shaping the dough, roll out the dough into a large rectangle, sprinkle with a layer of sprinkles and roll up being careful not to trap any air.  The crumb will be full of colored dots.   ...think confetti    ✵

AnnaMagnani's picture
AnnaMagnani

What a great idea!  I've only used them on Ricotta Cookies with lemon icing and they do look festive with spangles on.  Whimsical ; )  Whoo hoo*!!  Thanks, Mini Oven.

ackkkright's picture
ackkkright

Hey all,

Thank you for your big donut help. I will let you know how it turns out.

 

ackkkright