This brioche donut hole recipe is made with my signature brioche dough recipe and is a perfect little two-bite dessert. If you love brioche donuts, you'll love these brioche donut holes.
Brioche donut holes for the win
Brioche donuts are one of my top 5 favorite foods. They're light, fluffy, and with a hint of lemon zest in the dough, they're not too heavy. You can have like 2 or 3 and not feel weighed down.
Using my time-tested brioche donut recipe, instead of portioning these out into 15 palm-size donuts, you're going to portion the dough into much smaller, quarter-sized dough balls and then fry them up and toss with powdered sugar.
This brioche donut hole recipe is reliable, delicious, and comes out perfectly.
How to make brioche donut holes
Start this project the afternoon/evening before (yes the day before) you want to eat the brioche donut holes.
Hydrate the yeast. Mix yeast packet with the warm water and sugar, and let the foam double in size.
Make the brioche dough. Mix the flour, sugar, water, activated yeast, lemon zest, salt and eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until it's all combined. Then turn up the speed to medium high and let it run for about 5 minutes, or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a minute. Slowly add the butter to the dough, about 25g at a time. Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5min until the dough is glossy, smooth and very elastic when pulled.
Proof the dough. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave to proof in the bowl until it has doubled in size - about 1-2 hours. Punch down the dough – then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into equal, quarter or silver dollar size pieces (you should get about 50). Roll them into smooth, taut, tight buns and place them on a floured baking tray, leaving plenty of room for them – so they don't stick together while they proof. Cover lightly with Saran wrap and leave out in a 75F room for about 4hr, or until about doubled in size.
Fry the donut holes! In a big cast iron pot, prepare the deep fryer; fill it up to the halfway point with the oil. Heat the oil to 350F, then carefully remove the doughnuts from the tray by sliding a floured pastry scraper or fish spatula underneath them, taking care not to deflate them, and put them into the oil. Don’t overcrowd the fryer – do two to three per batch, depending on the size of your pan.
Toss with sugar. toss the donuts with a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon!
Ta da!!
Brioche Donut Holes
Ingredients
- 1 packet of active dry yeast 7g hydrated with ¼ cup of 110-120F water and ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup 150g water
- 4 cups + 3 tablespoons 500g of bread flour
- heaping ¼ cup 60g caster sugar -- see here on the importance of using caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons 10g fine sea salt
- 4 eggs
- Zest of ½ lemon
- ½ cup 6 tablespoons or 125g softened unsalted butter, cubed
- for frying: about 64 ounces of canola oil for frying
To finish:
- 1 cup of powdered sugar + 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
- Materials needed
- KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook
- Big cast iron pot for frying
- Candy thermometer
Instructions
- Hydrate the yeast. Mix yeast packet with the warm water and sugar, and let the foam double in size.
- Make the brioche dough. Mix the flour, sugar, water, activated yeast, lemon zest, salt and eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until it's all combined. Then turn up the speed to medium high and let it run for about 5 minutes, or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a minute. Slowly add the butter to the dough, about 25g at a time. Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5min until the dough is glossy, smooth and very elastic when pulled.
- Proof the dough. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave to proof in the bowl until it has doubled in size - about 1-2 hours. Punch down the dough – then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into equal, quarter or silver dollar size pieces (you should get about 50). Roll them into smooth, taut, tight buns and place them on a floured baking tray, leaving plenty of room for them – so they don't stick together while they proof. Cover lightly with Saran wrap and leave out in a 75F room for about 4hr, or until about doubled in size.
- Fry the donut holes! In a big cast iron pot, prepare the deep fryer; fill it up to the halfway point with the oil. Heat the oil to 350F, then carefully remove the doughnuts from the tray by sliding a floured pastry scraper or fish spatula underneath them, taking care not to deflate them, and put them into the oil. Don’t overcrowd the fryer – do two to three per batch, depending on the size of your pan.
- Toss with sugar. toss the donuts with a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon!