Bomboloni - Italian Doughnuts filled with Custard Cream

Oven-baked - not fried - soft bomboloni (doughnuts) filled with custard cream.

Wholesome and sinfully delicious

It's raining today. Again. I know, I should not complain. But here in Southern California we are really spoiled with an amazing weather most of the year. It's not very common to have two days of rain in the same week. And after it's been sunny and warm every day for more than 6 months, all kind of things come up with the first few drops. Where are all the umbrellas hiding? And I can't possibly wear my flip flops today, can I?!? And what about longs pants for the boys? They really should not go to school in their shorts, right? Anyways, all crazy things happened too yesterday: a rockslide and a downed power line on a major street no far from my house. Which meant: A LOT of traffic and complete chaos. It took me over 30 minutes for a 2 mile drive back home.

Ok. Now, enough with the whining!

The good thing about rainy days: they are just perfect for baking! Yes, today I could not go out and play tennis or beach volleyball. So I had lots of time to make these yummy, oven-baked bomboloni with custard.

Bomboloni are Italian round (no hole) doughnuts, filled with custard, chocolate cream or preserve, sprinkled with powder sugar. Delicious if served warm.

As all doughnuts, bomboloni are generally deep fried. I have tried to fry them before, but it can be a little tricky: you can either end up with a doughnut perfect on the outside, but not fully cooked on the inside. Or perfect on the inside, and too cooked (read: burned!) on the outside. Either way, not so good. So the best solution for me was to bake them. You can't go wrong with baking. It is so much easier and healthier, and it takes less than 15 minutes. You should try! Here is the recipe.

Ingredients: to make about 8-10 bomboloni

2 eggs
half cup (125 ml) milk
4 tablespoons (half stick, 55 gr) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup (65 gr) of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of salt
1 lemon, zest
3 cups (375 gr) of bread flour
1 tablespoon (12 gr) of dry yeast
powder sugar to sprinkle on top

For the custard:

8 fl oz (240 ml) of milk
2 fl oz (60 ml) of heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1/3 cups (65 gr) of sugar
3 tablespoons (30 gr) of corn starch

Preparation time: 40 minutes, plus 4 hours inactive,

Directions:
1. Whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter (at room temperature), sugar, vanilla extract, salt and grated lemon zest.

2. Blend in 2 cups of flour and the yeast. Once the dough is well blended and smooth, move it to the counter, and add the remaining cup of flour some at the time, kneading with your hands until smooth again. No longer sticky (or not too sticky) but not too hard, so that the kneading should be quite easy.

3. Place the dough back in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Place in the oven (off) for 2 to 3 hours, or until doubled in size.

4. Prepare the custard for the filling ahead of time, so it has time to cool down. Store in the refrigerator. Find the recipe here.

5. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the dough with a round 3 inches cutter. If you don't have one available you can use, like I did, a glass ice-cream cup or glass. diameter. Place the round dough on a baking sheet, covered with parchment paper, sprinkled with flour. Wait another hour or so.

6. Preheat the oven to 400� F (200� C). Bake the doughnut for about 12-14 minutes until golden on top. Using a piping bag or squeeze decorating bottle, add some custard in each bombolone, making a small hole on the side (or on two opposite sides if you like).