You can not go wrong with this Long John Doughnut Recipe if you are looking to make these for a dessert, special occasions or something to serve up to guests.
Next to jelly slice, long john doughnuts are one of my families favourite treats.
And being able to make these at home allows me to make them anytime, and hubby is by far the lover of these style of doughnuts in our household.
How to make this Long John Doughnut recipe at home.
This recipe is quite simple to make; however, there is a bit of time required for proving. But well worth the wait.
The ingredients you will need for the long john doughnut recipe is:
- Milk
- Unsalted butter
- Plain flour
- Salt
- Yeast
- Castor Sugar
- Egg Yolk
And for decorating
- Thickened Cream
- Jam
- Icing Sugar
Method
If you happen to have a stand mixer or even a hand mixer with a dough hook attachment, you can use it to make and knead the dough. But if you do not, you can do it all by hand.
In a small saucepan, add the milk and butter and slowly melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter is melted, put it aside to cool as you want the milk and butter to be lukewarm when you add it to the dry ingredients.
In a medium or large mixing bowl, sift the flour and then add the salt and yeast (if you are using the instant yeast)
Mix with a fork or spoon until all is combined.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with a fork. Then add it to the dry ingredients.
Using your dough hook attachment, put your mixer on a medium-low speed and mix the egg yolk through while slowly pouring in the milk and butter.
Once the wet ingredients are just mixed through, turn the speed to medium-high and mix the dough until it comes together. The dough should start to slap the side of the bowl as it gets kneaded.
When this starts to happen, stop your mixer and put the dough onto a dry and lightly floured surface.
The dough will still be quite wet and sticky; add a little flour on top of the dough and flour your hands. Then gently incorporate the extra flour into the dough, adding only small amounts at a time if needed.
The dough needs to become soft and springy and should no longer stick to your hands.
Be careful not to add to much flour or over-knead the dough. Over kneading will cause too much gluten from the flour to be released, and it will not prove adequately or rise while frying.
Once the dough is kneaded, add a little olive oil to a medium or large bowl. Use some paper towel or basting brush and spread the oil all over the inside of the bowl. The oil will stop the dough from sticking to the bowl.
Form a ball out of the dough, place it in the bowl and then cover with glad wrap and a tea towel. If your workspace is not warm enough, place the bowl in a warm area, such as a preheated oven, in front of a heater. Then let the dough prove for 2 hours. The dough needs to grow in size but not quite doubled.
Once the dough has proved, place it on a lightly floured surface and with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle shape. The dough needs to be a centimetre thick also.
Trim the edges to form straighter sides and then cut into five equal parts. With the excess dough, blend it all back together and roll out again to make the 6th long john doughnut.
Again trim the edges to make them all straight.
Place the long johns onto a tray lined with baking paper, along with the offcuts. Cover loosely with glad wrap and a tea towel and let them prove for 1 hour. The dough will rise just slightly.
Fill a large deep fry pan about halfway with canola or vegetable oil. And heat on medium-low heat until it reaches 180 C or F. It does take a while to heat, so you can start this before the dough has finished proving.
Once the right temperature is reached, put a couple of the offcuts in to test the oil and make sure it is not too hot. If it is too hot, frying the offcuts will help lower the temperature of the oil.
If you are using a deep fryer, set the temp to 175 C and increase it to 180 C if you find it is too low.
Add one or two of the long johns to the oil, turning a couple of times as they fry. Do not overcrowd the frypan.
Once they are golden brown, remove them from the oil and place them on a cooling rack with a paper towel underneath to catch any oil that drips.
Do this with the rest of the dough strips until they are all cooked. You may also find that the oil will drop in temperature as you are frying on a stovetop. Do not worry; you can turn the heat up a little to bring it back up to temp if you want to.
However, mine drops to around 160 C and holds and cooks just fine; they take a little longer to go golden brown.
Different deep fryers and stovetops may differ. So find what works best for you. Remember to use the offcuts to test the oil and if you are ok with how the dough cooks.
You can adjust accordingly.
While your long john doughnuts are cooling, you can prepare the cream and jam.
I use the same stabilized whipped cream recipe as I used for my No-Bake Chocolate Honeycomb Cheesecake, as this helps the cream to hold it’s shaping when piping. But you can use straight whipped cream instead if you like.
For the jam, I use raspberry, but you can use strawberry, blackberry or even apricot if you like.
Add about four tablespoons of jam to a bowl, and using a fork, mix the jam well until it is a smooth enough consistency to pipe.
Add the jam to a piping or ziplock bag with a small round piping tip, or you can just cut the end off the bag.
Once the long john doughnuts are cooled down, use a bread knife to cut down the middle. Be careful not to cut all the way through.
Pipe a layer of cream in the middle, then pipe a second layer of cream over the first cream layer’s top.
You can pipe just a straight line, but I like the top one to be a little more decorative.
Then pipe some jam down one side of the cream for the more traditional looking long john doughnut, or you can get creative and pipe down the centre of the cream, make zig-zag patterns and so on.
Once all the cream and jam is added, dust with icing sugar and serve.
How long do the long john doughnuts stay fresh?
With this recipe, it is best to eat these doughnuts on the same day. However, you can keep them in the fridge till the next day if you like. They do lose their freshness, though.
Due to the dough and the cream, I wouldn’t advise making these days in advance or keeping them any longer than a day.
Cream and Jam Long John Doughnut Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 250 g All-Purpose or Plain Flour
- ¼ cup Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg Yolk
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Whole Milk
- 1 tsp Yeast
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
Instructions
- Add milk and butter into a saucepan and melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter is melted put aside to cool slightly.
- In a mixing bowl sift the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Using a spoon mix until all the ingredients are combined
- Beat the egg yolk using a fork then pour into the dry ingredients.
- Turn your mixer onto a low speed and slowly add the milk and melted butter.
- Once the wet ingredients are combined with the dry, turn your mixer up to a medium-high speed and mix until the dough starts to come together.
- Put your dough on a lightly floured surface, add extra flour if needed and continue to knead for about a minute.
- Grease a bowl with a small amount of oil. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with glad wrap and a tea towel to prove for 2 hours.
- Once proving is done, put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a rectangular shape about 1cm thick.
- Using a shape knife or cake scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal rectangular portions. Place each portion on a tray lined with baking paper. Loosely cover with glad wrap and a tea towel and prove again for 1 hour.
- While the dough is proving, fill your deep frypan about halfway heat over a medium-low temperature until it reaches 180 °C or 356 °F. If you are using a deep fryer, set the temperature to 175 °C or 347 °F and turn it on a bit before the second prove is finished.
- Once the oil is at 180 °C and the dough has finished proving, add the dough to the oil and fry until golden brown, turning over at least twice. The dough will puff up while it fries.
- Place each long john on a cooling rack to cool and drain off oil.
- Once cooled, cut the long john down the middle and add whipped cream and jam. Then sprinkle with icing sugar
Notes
- Fill with custard
- Fill with whipped cream topped with strawberries and drizzled chocolate
- Coat with a chocolate or caramel glaze
4 comments
Thank you so much for this recipe. Most of the recipes called ‘Long Johns’ on the ‘net’ turn out to be ‘Eclairs’, even though the picture looks like the Long Johns we know in Australia. Now do you have a recipe for Cream Buns, either round or long? The ones with currants in the dough & a slit in the side for jam & cream. Our local bakery has Asian owners and they were calling Long Johns, Cream Buns for ages until I told them they weren’t Cream Buns.
You are most welcome Meredyth. And thank you for your request for Cream Buns, I will make sure it is one you can add currents to as well 🙂
I presume the Yeast is Dry (not compressed).
Yes, the yeast is the standard dry yeast you buy in your local supermarket.