Chocolate Doughnuts and Paczki

My Husband is a serious doughnut lover and his Polish Grandmother regularly makes traditional Polish doughnuts called Paczki for special occasions.  They are made with a rich dough containing butter, eggs, sugar and milk; filled with a thick plum jam and iced with lemon glaze.   On Friday my sister in law and I had the pleasure of learning how she made them.

I make a similar doughnut using a brioche dough which gives a rich buttery doughnut and then fill it with a quality dark chocolate.  These are delicious served warm with a gooey chocolatey centre.

To make the doughnuts:

1. Take a small ball of prepared dough that has already had one rising.  
2. Roll it into a ball, push a square of quality dark chocolate into the middle and pinch closed, rolling smooth into a even ball.   Continue with this until all dough has been rolled.  You will most likely use a full block of chocolate.
3. Set aside and allow to rise again for approx 20mins.
4. Heat oil to approx 180 C  and carefully drop doughnuts into the hot oil 2-3 at a time, so they have plenty of room to rise to the surface.
5. After 2-3 minutes flip doughnuts and cook on the other side for another 2 mins until golden on both sides.
6. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil and drain on paper towels.  Roll in castor sugar.

I often make up half the dough into doughnuts and freeze the other half for another day, I just take the dough out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw out in the fridge.