Soft Earl Grey infused brioche is cut into squares and fried until golden, then drenched in earl grey glaze.
Happy Saturday! Just popping in to share these guys - Earl Grey Doughnut Bites with an Earl Grey Glaze! These are made from a super fluffy brioche dough, infused with earl grey, then cut into bite sized pieces, fried off into tiny doughnut bites, and finished with an Earl Grey Glaze.
My favourite part about making doughnuts is frying off the scraps. I love the actual process of making the big ones too, but to me there are few things more delicious than freshly fried doughnut scraps, tossed in a little sugar and eaten warm from the fryer. I usually cut out all the extra pieces using a round cutter, and fry those ones off first to check the oil temperature and time needed etc before I start with the actual doughnuts.
I wanted to make some earl grey doughnut holes and when it came time to cutting them out I was thinking of ways to use up the waste, and realised I can just chop the dough into squares rather than punching out holes, and so here we are! Super, super easy - just cut it all up, proof them, then fry them off. This would work for any of my brioche recipes. Because I knew the dough wasn’t going to have a fancy shape I did increase the butter and milk quantity for a super smooth, soft dough. Just so good.
I finished these guys with an Earl Grey Glaze made with infused milk, just to really help drive the Earl Grey flavour home. If you love all things Earl Grey you will love these just as much as I do. Enjoy! x
A few wee tips:
- Take note of the quantity of milk I have listed - there is Extra to account for the absorption from the tea. I list 380g there which is the milk quantity you start with. You then use 280g infused milk in the brioche dough. Same goes with the glaze, there is additional milk in there to account for that.
- If you don’t want to make these earl grey flavour, leave out the infusion step and use 280g whole milk.
- Because I wasn’t shaping these into anything fancy I upped the quantity of the liquid and the butter to give a super soft, smooth dough. Because it’s squishy, a cold rise works best! You can do this either for a minimum of 2 hours in the fridge (you just need it to double in size), or you can make the dough the night before.
- Use a good quality loose leaf tea here if you can. I love the Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme for baking (I have a huge bag of it), but my all time favourite drinking tea is this one by ‘In pursuit of tea’.
- I wait for the doughnut bites to cool before glazing, but you can do them when they are still slightly warm if you like!
- This recipe makes quite a lot, but if you didn’t want as many you could try either halving the recipe, or shaping half into doughnut bites and the other half into buns - bake them off the same way as you would these. (They would be SO good filled with cream), otherwise you could make a half batch of cinnamon rolls or these earl grey rolls - just use this dough in the place of the dough in the recipe!
Earl Grey Doughnut Bites with Earl Grey Glaze
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes plus rising time
- Yield: 80 doughnut bites 1x
Description
Soft Earl Grey infused brioche is cut into squares and fried until golden, then drenched in earl grey glaze.
Ingredients
Earl Grey Brioche
- 380g whole milk
- 30g loose leaf earl grey tea
- 4 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 565g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
Earl Grey Glaze
- 280g whole milk
- 20g loose leaf earl grey tea
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- pinch of salt
- 500g powdered sugar, sifted
Neutral Oil such as canola or vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
EARL GREY BRIOCHE DOUGHNUT BITES
- Place the milk in a small saucepan. Bring to just shy of a simmer, then add the earl grey tea, remove from the heat, and cover and steep for 15 minutes. Strain the tea out, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible.
- Weigh out 280g of the infused Earl Grey Milk and place into a medium bowl and leave to cool to lukewarm. Add 2 Tbsp of the sugar, and the yeast to the earl grey milk, and stir to combine. Leave for 10-15 minutes, or until foamy.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, place the flour, salt, and remaining sugar, and mix briefly to combine.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and foamy yeast and milk mixture to the bowl. Mix on low for 2-3 minutes, until the dough is starting to come together. It may look slightly dry but do not worry - it will mix together nicely in the next steps. Increase the mixer speed to medium, and mix for another 10 minutes, until the dough is soft and smooth.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low, and add the butter a little at a time, waiting until it is fully incorporated into the dough before adding the next piece. This process should take 3-4 minutes. Once the butter is fully incorporated, increase the mixer speed to medium, and mix for a further 5 minutes, until the dough is very soft and smooth.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rise, at least two hours or up to overnight.
FRYING
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and roll out to about 1/2” (1.5cm). Cut the dough into squares about 1 1/4” (3cm). Place onto sheet pans lined with pieces of parchment paper - I cut up my parchment into pieces and put about 12 squares on each and then use the parchment to transfer them to the oil.
- Lightly cover the doughnut bites with plastic wrap and leave to proof at room temperature for 25 to 45 minutes - when you poke them lightly with your finger, it should leave a small indentation that springs back.
- While the doughnuts are proofing, heat a neutral oil such as canola or corn oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot (cast iron works great) or deep fryer. Heat the oil to 350°f / 180°c. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Do one test fry to check the frying time and temperature, then fry the doughnut bites about 12-15 at a time, depending on what can fit in your pan, for 2-3 minutes, flipping occasionally, until golden brown and registering 190°f / 90°c internally.
- Remove from the oil and place on the wire rack to cool and drain. Repeat with the remaining doughnut bites. Leave to cool while you prepare the glaze.
GLAZE
- Place the milk in a small saucepan. Bring to just shy of a simmer, then add the earl grey tea, remove from the heat, and cover and steep for 15 minutes. Strain the tea out, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible.
- Place the powdered sugar into a medium bowl and add 120g of the infused earl grey milk, salt, and vanilla bean paste. Whisk well to combine. Dip a doughnut bite in to check the consistency, you want something slightly runny but that will coat the doughnut still, so check and add more earl grey milk 1/2 tsp a time if needed.
- Dip each doughnut bite into the glaze and place on a wire rack over a baking sheet or piece of parchment paper to catch the drips. Leave to stand at room temperature to allow the glaze to set a little for 10-15 minutes. Best on the day that they are made (see notes about other ways of using the dough)
Keywords: brioche, earl grey, doughnuts, doughnut bites, earl grey glaze, earl grey brioche
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