Sorry, I do realize I’ve turned this space into something of a donut blog in the past month, but I guess I’ve been on a donut kick! The good news is these are made from the exact same recipe as the preserved lemon cream donuts, and in fact I just split that recipe in half and turned some of my donuts into little pizzas.
I highly recommend you try this, especially if you find yourself with some extra pizza ingredients on hand, as I did. Before I experimented with adding those toppings to my donuts, I did check in with my roommate, who I consider a bit of a pizza expert, as to whether this was too weird. She was enthusiastic, and so I bravely forged ahead.
And you know what? This turned out to be a brilliant idea. The doughnuts create a plush, chewy, yet forgiving bite of dough, and the toppings of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni don’t get any more classic. It tasted exactly like biting into a pizza, but a small, portable hand held one. It reminded me of bagel bites, actually! Only, without the weird, hard pieces of bagel and the scorching of the roof of my mouth (definitely give these a minute to cool out of the oven). If a local bakery started selling these as a weekend brunch option, I’d get in line.
Pizza Donuts
Like my preserved lemon cream donuts, I fried these in olive oil, which in this case really helps nail the pizza flavors we are going for.
For the donuts (adapted from Joy the Baker)
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 tbs warm water
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to just above room temp
3 tbs unsalted butter, room temp
3 egg yolks
2 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
olive oil, for frying
Pizza toppings:
pizza sauce (store-bought is totally great and fine here)
shredded mozzarella
pepperoni
small leaves of basil
Make the donuts: Stir together the yeast and the warm water until the yeast is dissolved, and let sit 5 minutes, until foamy. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer with the flour, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar and salt, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until everything combines, then increase the speed to medium high and beat for 3 minutes more.
Scrape down the sides of the the bowl, then sprinkle the dough with a bit of flour, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for one hour, until doubled.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and roll out to a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into rounds with a 2 1/2-3 inch cutter. Place rounds on parchment lined baking sheet and let rise, covered, for another 30 minutes. Let the scraps rise too, they will be excellent testers for frying (and snacking).
Heat enough olive oil in a sturdy pot to reach 3 inches up the sides, to 350 degrees. You can get away with a smaller pot and thus less oil, but make sure the sides are high enough you won’t be in danger of oil bubbling over, and only fry enough donuts at a time so you don’t crowd the pan.
When your oil has reached temperature, use some of the dough scraps to test out your oil. Fry each round for about 1 minute per side, then remove and transfer a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain, then set on a wire rack while you fry remaining dough rounds. You can fry all the donuts a bit ahead of time if necessary, since we are reheating in the next step.
When all of your donuts are fried, heat the broiler on your oven. Set a wire rack over a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Flip each donut so the flattest side is facing up and place on the wire rack. Top as desired with pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Place in the oven and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbling, the pepperoni is starting to crisp, and everything smells like pizza heaven.
Remove from oven and garnish with the basil, and serve!
Notes:
I have not tried this, but these could absolutely work as donut bites for a party. Just cut out rounds 1-2 inches across, fry, then top as directed but with a single, cute pepperoni on top.