Deconstructed Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnuts

You would think I’d be all fried out by now, considering all of the latkes and sufganiyot I’ve been surrounded with (and eating) this holiday season. Yeah, I baked my own doughnuts but that doesn’t mean everyone else didn’t choose to fry up their own. So when I made another batch of baked doughnuts for the weekend, I decided it was time to heat up a pot of oil and get frying with the leftover scraps of dough! And this couldn’t have been a better time to test out my new pipette’s from my favorite housewares and baking accessory shop, Breezy’s. I’ve only ever seen pipette’s used on television and when I had the chance to use them in my own kitchen, I jumped at the chance. So there I stood in my kitchen with extra scraps of doughnut dough to fry and pipette’s to fill and it just all made sense…peanut butter caramel doughnut holes with tart jelly! I already had the luscious salted peanut butter caramel in my fridge from the Pecan Apple Galette I made last week and I always have some kind of jelly or preserve in my pantry. So I went for it and it was worth every little calorie! 

Peanut Butter Caramel Doughnut Ingredients

Salted Peanut Butter Caramel (you can always use store-bought caramels…if you must!)

Doughnut Dough

1/2 cup sugar

2-3 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Liquid Jelly Ingredients

1/2 cup of your favorite jelly or preserve (I used Sarabeth’s Raspberry Key Lime)

1/4-1/2 cup orange juice

Mesh Strainer

Since I already had dough and caramel ready, the process was so fun and simple. I highly recommend taking the time to make both recipes since they can go a long way in your kitchen. You can use the dough to bake and fry doughnuts or even to make challah. You can also freeze the dough once it has risen to use another time. And the salted peanut butter caramel is just divine! You can refrigerate it for a chewy caramel, warm up for a smooth spreadable option or even freeze it and save for later.

Before beginning the process of making the doughnuts, I placed a pot of vegetable oil on the stove with a thermometer and turned the heat to medium-high. You want to do this part first so the oil will be ready when the doughnut holes are made. The oil should reach 350 degrees so keep an eye on the thermometer. Next, I rolled out the dough on a lightly floured surface to around 1/2 inch thick and cut out 2 1/2 inch rounds. I placed a teaspoon of the refrigerated caramel in the center of each round of dough and set it aside to rise for a few minutes.

In the meantime, I made the liquid jelly. Not much too it really! Just stir together your favorite jelly and orange juice then strain out the seeds through a mesh strainer. The reason you need to strain the jelly is so you can squeeze it in to the pipette. Believe me, I tried getting the jelly in to the pipette before straining and it was such a joke! I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until I tried squeezing in some plain orange juice and it was as simple as can be, so I realized that any texture to the liquid would be too thick for the thin tip of the pipette.

By this point, the oil was at a perfect 350 degrees and I was ready to fry the doughnuts. I just wrapped each round of dough around the caramel, pinched the end, and rolled in my hand to create a perfect closed circle. If your dough is sticky, just dip your hands in a bit of flour to help move the process along. I carefully placed a few doughnut holes at a time in the hot oil and let them cook for 2 minutes, until golden brown.

Once they were ready, I placed them on a drying rack to cool slightly, with paper towels underneath to catch the dripping oil. I repeated the process until all of the doughnut holes were fried. I mixed together the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl then dipped the doughnuts in the mixture and covered them completely.

While the doughnut holes continued to cool, I filled the pipette’s with the liquid jelly. All you have to do is place the tip in the liquid, squeeze the plunger and slowly ease up as the liquid is pulled in to the pipette. I then pierced the end of each doughnut with the tip of the pipette and slid through to the other side. If your pipette is too long, you can always cut it down a little to make it easier to eat. What a creation!!! I placed the doughnut in my mouth and squeezed the pipette so the liquid jelly combined with the cinnamon-sugar covered fried dough and peanut butter caramel. If I closed my eyes, I would swear I was eating the greatest peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the world. The doughnuts, which were still warm, oozed with the salted peanut butter caramel and the liquid jelly was sweet and tart. You could eat just one and not feel too bad about consuming fried food or you could eat 10 and just enjoy yourself! I think I’ll eat 10!