A donut (or doughnut) recipe that comes chef-approved — if that isn’t in your recipe book this Donut Day, then you’re missing out. To celebrate the day for this decadent fried sweet treat, My Kolkata chatted with the popular chef with a dazzling smile — Sneha Singhi Upadhaya. But before we got down to her go-to recipe, we picked her brain on what she loves about donuts, where she learned making them, a Kolkata donut recommendation, and more. Scroll down, enjoy the read, and don’t forget to save the recipe...
My Kolkata: Donuts — what’s the first thought that comes to your mind?
Sneha Singhi Upadhaya: Sugary fried goodness!
What do you like in donuts?
I like that we can have a wide variety of flavours in donuts, which is not possible with a lot of other desserts. There is literally something for everyone.
Eggless Berliners by the chef @snehasinghi1/Instagram
Your favourite donut flavour?
My favourite donut flavour would be a double chocolate or a strawberry-frosted donut.
When and where did you learn to make donuts?
I learnt how to make donuts when I was in Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, pursuing my diploma in culinary. After work, we would love to experiment with different dishes and donuts were one of the few things that we made to try out different flavour combinations.
Le Cordon Bleu, Paris Shutterstock
Donuts in India and donuts outside India — is there a difference in taste and texture?
I believe so. In France, being the pastry capital of the world, there were so many flavours of donuts to explore. They had some of the most unusual flavours — like limoncello, key lime pie and pina colada, which were a delight to explore. Since a lot of people in India tend to avoid eggs in their cooking, the texture and procedure of making donuts varies quite a bit from the donuts you get in India compared to the ones you get abroad. Eggless ones can be slightly dense while the ones with eggs are lighter and fluffier.
Where do you like to buy your donuts in Kolkata?
Honestly, there is a market gap in Kolkata for donuts. There isn’t really a place here that does good donuts. But, the ones I quite enjoy are the donuts from Scarlet Bakery in Aauris.
A donut recipe that you would like to share with the My Kolkata readers on National Donut Day…
My go-to donuts recipe is:
Ingredients:
- Warm milk: 1 cup
- Instant yeast: ¾ tsp
- Sugar: 2 tbsp
- Flour: 2 ¼ cup
- Melted butter: ¼ cup
- Oil: For frying
Recipe:
- Add flour, sugar, yeast, milk and the butter in a bowl and knead with your hands or in a stand mixer till the dough is smooth and non-sticky
- Grease a bowl with some oil and add the dough to it, covering it with a cling film
- Let it rest for 1-2 hours in a warm place till the dough doubles in size. Knock out the air and shape the dough into donuts
- Place them on a parchment paper, cover with a cloth and let it rest for 40-50 minutes. Now, fry them in hot oil until golden brown
- You can just serve them as is or coat them with some cinnamon sugar, melted chocolate, caramel or any flavour that you desire and dig in!