As a child, I adored achingly sweet food.  For me, coconut ice was the pinnacle of sweetness.

How could a kid not love condensed milk (laced in buckets of sugar!), mixed with even more sugar and oodles of sweet coconut?

I am sure this little square confection is popular at birthday parties, so I decided to put a spin on an old favourite to create a coconut ice flavoured doughnut.  Essentially, a condensed milk based sweet bread dough, topped with sweet icing and coconut.  Pretty delicious in my book!

These doughnuts are baked, so if you feel a little guilty with the amount of sugar you are consuming, just remember these have not been deep fried!

{‘ Coconut ice’ doughnuts }

For this baked doughnut, I adapted my standard sweet dough recipe switching out some of the milk for condensed milk to create a softer and richer dough.

These are best when straight from the oven, but like most breads, they freeze well.

For the batch I created, I topped one half with the coconut ice inspired topping and the other I brushed on melted butter and sprinkled a healthy dose of cinnamon sugar for more of an old fashion doughnut flavour.

* Ingredients *

For the dough
100g condensed milk
150g whole milk
7g dried instant yeast
45g caster sugar
60g eggs, about 1 large
5g salt
500g bread flour
75g unsalted butter, diced

For the topping
100g icing sugar
15g whole milk
Pink food colouring, optional
Desiccated coconut

*  Directions *
Warm the condensed milk and milk to 37C (lukewarm).  Add to a bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment along with the yeast and allow to sit for five minutes.  Add the sugar, eggs and salt.  Add in half of your flour and start to mix on a low speed for a few minutes.  Then add a further quarter of your flour and mix again for a few minutes.  Stop mixing when there is no dry flour in the dough.   Then start to add the butter gradually piece by piece.  Mix the dough for a few minutes once all incorporated.  Lastly, add in the remaining flour and mix until dough comes together into a ball and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl too much.  It should be smooth, soft, elastic and slightly sticky.   Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise at room temperature until doubled – anything between 60-90 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare two baking trays with parchment paper. When the dough has risen, sprinkle a pinch of flour on it and knead to deflate the dough.  Divide the dough into 18 even pieces.  Like you are preparing a bagel with the roll and loop method, roll into a rope about 10-15cm long.  Form each rope into a circle and join the ends, pressing well to seal.  Place on the baking trays cover with a towel and leave to prove again for 20-30 minutes and preheat the oven to 200C.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.  While baking preparing the icing.  Simply mix the icing sugar with the milk and add food colouring if desired.  Once baked, allow to cool for a few minutes, then top with the icing and sprinkle on with desiccated coconut. These are most delicious eaten when warm, but are also great to freeze.

Makes 18

:: Yeastspotting ::

I am submitting these ‘Coconut Ice’ Doughnuts to Yeastspotting.