Key Lime Pie Doughnuts with White Chocolate Key Lime Curd
Key lime pie doughnuts are made up of four components--potato dough, white chocolate key lime curd, key lime Italian meringue and Graham cracker crumbs--combine to create one drop-dead delicious doughnut. They're a bit of work to make, but for a special occasion, you really can't beat them.
For the Dough (adapted from Gesine Bullock Prado's recipe here)
22ozall purpose flour(I use King Arthur)
½cupgranulated sugar
½cupunflavored dried potatoes(if yours are powdery, fine. If they're in flakes, pulverize them in a blender until they're powdery)
¼cupmalted milk powder(Gesine uses nonfat dry milk powder. You can use either)
2 ½teaspoonsactive dry yeast
1 ¼teaspoonkosher salt
zest of 1 lime
12ozroom temperature water
2large eggs
1Tablespoonvanilla
⅓cupvegetable shortening(you could probably use butter, but you may have to adjust the amount of flour since there's water in butter)
For the White Chocolate Key Lime Curd
8ozkey lime juice(I use Nellie & Joe's)
14ozgranulated sugar
heavy pinch of saltprobably about 1/4 teaspoon
2whole eggs
4egg yolks
3ozcreme fraiche or sour cream
3ozbuttersoftened
2.67ozwhite chocolatecut into small pieces (I use the 4oz Ghirardelli bars)
For the Key Lime Italian Meringue
2egg whites(about 3 oz)
pinchof salt
zest of half a lime
granulated sugar(double the weight of the whites. My whites weighed in at 2.8 oz, so I used 5.6 oz of sugar)
2tablespoonskey lime juice(I use Nellie and Joe's)
¼cupwater
To Fry and Finish
4cups-6 cups vegetable oil
large Dutch oven
6-8Graham cracker "sheets" blended to dust in the blender(or just made into crumbs if you prefer that look)
Instructions
For the Dough
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, potatoes, milk powder/malted milk powder, yeast and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together the lime zest, water, eggs and vanilla.
Pour in all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed using the dough hook. After about a minute, add the shortening.
Mix until all the flour and fat is incorporated into the dough and then knead on medium-low to medium speed for a good 12 minutes. The dough should be very smooth. It will stick in the bottom of the mixer bowl and there might be some dough stuck to the sides of the bowl as well. The dough will be sticky when you touch it, but it shouldn't be messy-sticky.
Oil your hands well and gather the soft dough into a ball as best you can.
Oil a bowl and place the dough ball in it. Spray or brush the dough with some oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place (I boil water in the microwave and then move the mug to the back, making room for the covered bowl) until doubled, about 2 hours.
Once the dough has risen, gently press out the gases and then roll it to a 1/2" thickness on a lightly floured or greased surface. Make sure to flour or oil the top of the dough before rolling.
Using a 3" cutter, cut circles out of the dough and place them on parchment-lined pans. From the first roll, I got 17 doughnuts. I gathered the scraps together, let them rest covered so the gluten could relax and then rerolled to get 5 more rounds for a total of 22. You may get one or two more or less depending on how thick/thin you rolled.
Spray the doughnuts with some oil or pan spray and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 6 hours to overnight.
For the White Chocolate Key Lime Curd
Put the key lime juice, sugar, salt, eggs and yolks in a sauce pan (I used my OXO pan and was very happy with the results).
Whisk the ingredients together really well and set aside for a moment.
Place the creme fraiche or sour cream, butter and white chocolate in a large bowl. Set a fine mesh strainer close by.
Heat the juice mixture over medium to medium-high heat, stirring or whisking constantly, until the mixture is steaming and thickens up nicely. Try not to let it come to a boil, but if it does, the fine mesh strainer will take care of any cooked egg bits.]
Strain the thickened juice mixture over the bowl with the white chocolate (et al) in it. Let sit a couple of minutes and then whisk until smooth.
Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd and chill until cold, at least 3-4 hours.
For the Italian Meringue
Place the whites, salt and zest in the bowl of your stand mixer. Fit it with the whip attachment.
In a small, heavy bottomed sauce pan, stir the sugar, juice and water together until the sugar is evenly moistened.
Put a lid on the pot and bring it to a boil.
Start the mixer on medium speed until the whites are foamy. Increase the speed just a smidge. You are going for medium peaks at the same time that the sugar syrup gets up to temperature.
Leave the mixer on and check your syrup. Once it reaches a boil, leave the lid on and let boil for a minute, then remove the lid. The syrup will boil up pretty high with huge bubbles. This is because of the lime juice, so make sure your pan is bigger than you think it needs to be so you don't have any Incidents.
When the sugar reaches 244F, (I use my Thermapen to frequently check the temperature) pour it in a steady stream down the inside of the mixer bowl. Turn the speed up slowly to high and let whip until completely cool and very, very thick. Clean off the beater, cover the bowl and put in the fridge until you need it.
To Fry and Finish
Pour the cracker dust/crumbs into a wide, shallow plate or Pyrex baker. Set aside.
Remove the doughnuts from the fridge and let rise in a warm place in your kitchen for 30-45 minutes. They should look puffy but not bloated.
In your heavy Dutch oven, bring the oil up to 350F.
Fry 2-3 doughnuts at a time. Fry on one side for about a minute, until the side that is down is doughnut colored. Flip with chopsticks or whatever is handy and fry another minute until the second side matches the first.
Remove to a rack with paper towels under it to drain and cool. Let them cool completely before filling and topping. This will take about 20-30 minutes.
Once cool, fill a pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck tip with the curd. Insert the tip all the way into one side of the doughnut. Slowly squeeze the bag and fill the doughnut while slowly pulling the tip out of the doughnut. Shoot for about 2-3 Tablespoons of filling per doughnut.
Once the doughnuts are filled, spread about 3-4 Tablespoons meringue on evenly on each one. You can pipe this with a star tip if you want, but I didn't want to.
Dip the tops of the meringued doughnuts into the cracker crumbs to get an even coat.
Eat as soon as possible. Store leftovers in the fridge and bring to room temperature for 20-30 minutes before eating.
Enjoy these. You have earned it!
Notes
You will probably have some curd leftover. I think you will find a way to...dispose of it...without my help! .