Brioche Donuts w/ Espresso Glaze Recipe

I don't care what anyone says, donuts are the best pastries ever created. Not only do they bring back fond childhood memories, they can also be elevated to an insane level (like we're gonna do today).

These donuts are super fluffy and covered in an amazing coffee glaze, the best part is that they are super easy to make!

Make sure your butter and eggs are room temperature before beginning. 

Prepare your work station by gathering all of your ingredients and tools needed. Fit the stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. You can do this by hand, but the mixer makes it so much easier.

Combine flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

When combined, add in water. Once crumbly texture forms, add in egg yolks, one at a time. After eggs have been emulsified, add in butter in several batches.

Using the dough hook, mix on low-medium speed for around 12-15 minutes. If your dough seems too sticky, add a few grams of flour at a time to fix. Dough should form a ball and release from the sides. It should be able to stretch well without ripping.

Lightly grease a separate bowl and allow dough to rise covered for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size. Leaving it in a warmer area of your home will allow it to proof faster.

Once risen, punch down and dump out onto the work area. Do not flour.

You can either roll into a log shape and cut with a knife, or just rip off small balls of dough. If you want them to all be perfect and uniform, use a scale to weigh out each donut.

Take your dough and form them into tight balls. Using a pinching method to get all of the seams shut and then roll with the palm of your hand on the work surface.

Using your palm, press down so they flatten out and use a cookie cutter to cut the center out. Reserve centers for donut holes.

Place donuts on parchment paper. Cover with an inverted sheet tray and allow to rise for 25-30 minutes.

While donuts are resting, fill up your pot with vegetable or canola oil. Do not overfill as donuts will bubble and expand as they cook. Also do not underfill, make sure you have enough oil so the donuts aren't touching the bottom of the pan.

Heat oil to around 360*. Any hotter and they will cook too quickly and the centers will be raw. Too cold and they will sink and soak up too much oil which will be gross.

Place the donut in oil and fry for about 1 minute, flip and fry for 1 more minute. Repeat this two times for a total of around 4 minutes depending on the size of your donut. Smaller ones will cook faster, larger ones will take longer.

Remove your donuts from the oil and place on a mesh rack with a sheet tray under it to catch any excess oil. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, glazing them when they are hot will make the glaze run off too much.

Dip donuts into glaze and place on a drip tray to allow excess to fall off.

Allow glaze to harden, this can take 1-2 hours but is worth the wait as the sugar will create a coating that adds to the mouth feel of the donut.

This part is super simple and hard to mess up.

Get some really strong black coffee or pull a shot of espresso (our 004 Dark Roast is perfect for this recipe).

Combine powdered sugar and coffee, if too thick, add more coffee, if too thin add more sugar. A thin glaze will run off faster and will leave a light coat on your donuts, but if you go too thick it will be like biting into straight sugar.

Not only does this recipe make great donuts, use the dough to make little rolls as well. One of my favorite things to do is to take the scraps/holes and toss them in garlic oil/parmesan to make little garlic breads.

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