Soft Fluffy Doughnut Recipe - Niola Blooms (2024)

RECIPES, Desserts · November 21, 2021

I love doughnuts and it really doesn’t get better than these pillowy-soft homemade doughnuts. It’s autumn right now and with an abundance of pumpkins in season, a pumpkin cream cheese filling is perfect for that oomph of autumnal flavour in one bite.

This right here is the ultimate recipe for soft doughnuts. Super easy to make – just like most of my recipes, with simple ingredients that you most likely already have available.

What you’ll need to make these soft doughnuts:

• Bread Flour – To make the fluffiest soft doughnuts, you’ll need bread flour.
• Yeast – 10grams of Instant Yeast. See my notes below on the difference between Active and Instant Yeast.
• Sugar – 60grams of caster sugar. You can also use granulated sugar.
• Butter – Room temperature unsalted butter.
• Milk – 125ml lukewarm milk. Feel free to substitute milk for water.
• Eggs – 4 large eggs at room temperature.
• Salt – 1/2 tsp of Salt.
• Oil for Frying

The yeast can be added in directly with the other ingredients because I am usingfastaction yeast (Instant Yeast)in this recipe. If you’re usingactive dry yeast, you must proof the yeast first by dissolving in warm water/milk before mixing in.

For the Pumpkin cream cheese filling, you’ll need:

• 1/3 cup Pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp Mixed Spice – also called Pumpkin Pie spice, is usually a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice
• 260g of cream cheese – I use Philadelpia cream cheese.
• 2 Cups powdered sugar

Handy Tips for a successful outcome:

Use bread flour – the key ingredient in this recipe, for soft doughnuts, is bread flour. Using bread flour guarantees that your doughnut will come out fluffy.

Know your yeast – Follow the steps in the recipe notes if using active dry yeast. Instant yeast can be mixed in with the other ingredients.

Proof your dough twice – The first proofing will be right after you’ve mixed all the ingredients together in a stand mixer, or by hand, until you have a smooth stretchy dough. Leave to double in size.

The 2nd proofing would be soon after dividing the dough into individual rolls. You’ll want to leave it to rise again until doubled in size before frying.

Fry in low/medium heat – To make sure the doughnut cooks through, deep fry in heated oil at a temperature of 175-180 °C. Fry the doughnut for about 2-3 minutes on each side until it turns a light golden colour.

How to store your doughnuts

These doughnuts will keep fresh for up to 4 days in the fridge. To make sure the doughnut stays fresher for longer, seal in an airtight plastic container, cling film or foil.

Love this recipe? Then you must try our Cherry Almond Galette recipe, No-Churn Mascarpone Ice Cream recipe, or the very popular Easy Key Lime Pie recipe.