Adam Handling’s Cheese Donuts

Adam Handling’s cheese donuts are legendary and its easy to see why. Fluffy, crisp filled with cheese sauce and topped with a generous dusting of parmesan they are truly irresistible.  

Makes 30 donuts

Ingredients

For the donuts:

• 150ml whole milk
• 125g caster sugar
• 15g fresh yeast
• 500g t55 or strong flour
• 5g table salt
• 3 whole eggs
• 65g unsalted butter, melted
• Parmesan cheese, for grating
• Black Wiltshire truffle, for grating

For the cheese sauce:

• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 200g cheddar cheese
• 200g gruyere cheese
• 200g montgomery cheese
• 300ml whole milk
• 400ml double cream
• 1 large tbsp Dijon mustard
• Pinch of table salt

Method:

For the doughnuts, add a teaspoon of sugar to the milk and warm to room temperature. Add the yeast. Leave it to sit for 10 minutes in a warm environment, this will activate the yeast and the mixture will start to smell like beer. Add flour, salt, sugar and eggs to a mixer with a hook and form a dough. Slowly pour the milk and yeast mixture and mix until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. Add the butter and mix until fully incorporated, yet still a sticky consistency.

Pour the dough into a bowl, cover with a cloth and leave it to prove somewhere warm for 2 to 4 hours. Once proven, refrigerate for 1 hour. Flour your chopping board and roll the dough into a sausage shape. Cut the dough into even pieces and roll into 15g balls. Leave to prove for 1 hour. Once proven, deep fry in vegetable oil, until golden brown. Constantly stir the doughnuts, whilst frying, to make them puffy. Remove them from the fryer and leave them to rest. Use a knife to make a small hole in them, for filling with cheese sauce.

For the sauce, cook the butter and flour together for 20 minutes on a low heat to make a roux. Add the cheeses and melt slowly. Turn the heat up, to allow all the fat to come out. The aim is to avoid any lumps. Add the milk and stir with a whisk. The sauce should turn from cloudy to shiny. Pour in the cream and cook slowly on a low heat. The sauce will look very runny. Add the Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt. Cool it down by pouring it in a bowl and leaving it to rest. Put the sauce in the fridge, then take it out when you start to roll the dough. This will give it enough time to reach room temperature. Pour it in a bag and cut off one corner. Squeeze the sauce into the doughnuts.

For serving, plate up the doughnuts, top with more of the cheese sauce. Finish by covering the doughnuts with grated parmesan and fresh truffle.