Turmeric Thai Tea Cream-filled Doughnuts

We may be a bit biased, but Portland is home to some of the best tea and doughnuts around. To further prove our theory, we combined our Tanglewood Turmeric Thai tea concentrate with these fluffy yeast-raised doughnuts that you can make at home!

Turmeric Thai Tea Cream-Filled Yeast-Raised Doughnuts 

Yields about 12 doughnuts 

Doughnut recipe slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

For the pastry cream filling:

1 ¼ cups Tanglewood Turmeric Thai Tea Concentrate

¾ cup milk of your choice (we used almond)

4 egg yolks

⅓ cup plus 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

30 grams all-purpose flour

30 grams potato starch

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

3 Tablespoons butter, softened (dairy-free butter works just as well here)

For the doughnuts:

3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon Kosher salt

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 egg

1 cup milk of your choice

2 Tablespoons butter, melted (vegan butter works great, too!)

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For frying the doughnuts:

6 cups oil or shortening

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

⅛ cup Tanglewood Turmeric Thai Tea Concentrate

You can do this a day-ahead:

Pour the Tanglewood Turmeric Thai Tea concentrate and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Sift in the flour and potato starch. Once that’s nicely incorporated add in the salt and vanilla. 

When the Turmeric Thai Tea and milk mixture is heated through but not boiling, add about ¼ cup of this mixture to the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Add another ¼ cup to the egg yolk bowl, whisking to blend, then pour it into the tea-milk saucepan, continuing to whisk vigorously. Lower the heat and allow the mixture to thicken, whisking the pan to avoid it sticking to the bottom. 

Once it’s cooked through and a nice thick consistency, pour your pastry cream into a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature. After the mixture has cooled, add in the softened butter and mix to incorporate. 

Cover with plastic wrap, letting the plastic touch the mixture to avoid drying, and store it in the refrigerator. 

To make the doughnuts:

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix and knead until you have a soft dough. Rest the dough for five minutes.

Use a dough hook to continue kneading for another 7 minutes or until it’s smooth. Grease a bowl and place the dough ball inside and turn it so that all of the dough has been greased. Then cover it and allow it to rise for 1.5-2 hours once it’s doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it about ½ inch thick and use a 2 ½-3 inch round cutter to cut out about 12 rounds. Re-roll the dough if needed to get as many rounds as you can. 

Cover the rounds loosely with greased plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minute-1 hour once it has doubled in size.

While your dough is doubling, place the oil or shortening in a heavy-duty frying pan or skillet and heat to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Fry the doughnuts and cook on each side for about a minute each, then use a slotted spoon to carefully pull them out and dry on a paper towel. Repeat for the rest of the batch.

Using a pastry bag with a round tip, pour your filling into the bag. Pipe the filling into each doughnut. 

Make the glaze by mixing the ingredients together in a bowl. Dunk the filled doughnuts into the glaze and allow it to dry on a baking rack. Enjoy!