Doughnuts stuffed with ice-cream and blanketed with chocolate sauce – what’s not to like? It’s easier and faster to serve these if you roll the ice-cream scoops beforehand and place them on a tray in the freezer ready to go when you need them.
Ingredients
Beignet dough
Chocolate sauce
Method
Main
1.For beignet dough, combine sugar and 110ml lukewarm water in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, sprinkle yeast over and stand until foamy (5-10 minutes). Add flour, cream, egg, vanilla seeds and a pinch salt, and mix in an electric mixer until a wet sticky dough forms that which comes away from the sides of the bowl (2-3 minutes). Stand until dough starts to prove and increase in volume (20 minutes), then refrigerate until doubled in size (2-3 hours; you can also prove the dough overnight in the refrigerator for a deeper, yeasty flavour – you don’t need to start the proving at room temperature to do this).
2.Meanwhile, for chocolate sauce, bring sugar and 200ml water to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat, then add dark chocolate and stir until melted (1 minute). Add butter, remove from heat, stand for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth and cooled to room temperature. You can do this ahead and refrigerate the sauce; it will thicken, so you’ll need to warm it to serve.
3.Knock back beignet dough and roll out on a lightly floured bench to 5mm thick. Lift dough to loosen and prevent it springing back when cut, and roll again lightly to smooth. Cut into 6cm rounds with a floured cutter, and set aside on a tray lined with baking paper for 10 minutes to rest.
4.Meanwhile, heat oil in a deep saucepan or deep-fryer to 180C. Add beignet rounds in batches and deep-fry, turning occasionally, until golden and puffed (3-5 minutes; be careful, hot oil will spit). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
5.To serve, sandwich scoops of ice-cream in beignets, dust with icing sugar, drizzle with chocolate sauce and eat immediately.
