the inspo behind these beauties
Fresh, brioche donuts are heavenly. The first time I had a donut that was yeast-risen was at Leonard’s malasadas in Honolulu, and it was mind-blowing — their’s are a Portuguese donut, and they are simultaneously light and rich — and Leonard’s keeps it simple with only custard, haupia, or chocolate fillings. A few years later, I got to re-create this magical moment of having a perfect yeast-risen donut when General Porpoise opened in Seattle. General Porpoise sells not-too-sweet, springy, chewy, perfect jelly and cream-filled donuts. (Heads up if you’re in Seattle, they sell out by noontime without fail, so go early!)
Yeast and frying are two of my baking/cooking fears — I always mess up yeasted bread and frying just seems overwhelming. In order to face my fears of yeast and frying, and have brioche doughnuts on-demand, I set out to find a copycat recipe. In an interview with General Porpoise’s owner, Renee Erickson, she said the team styled their donut recipe off of an English-style custard filled donut. This led me down a rabbit hole of English style donuts, and I finally found a recipe for justin gellatly’s custard donuts, which seemed close to what I recall general porpoise’s donuts’ quality to be, and from which this recipe is adapted.
[…] The Perfect Brioche Donuts Recipe […]