Jelly doughnuts, peeps. I got to tell you, I was never a fan. Until this past summer, that is, when I met a pal for lunch at a bakery in his neighborhood (and by “lunch” I mean we ate doughnuts and cookies and a slice of pie). He suggested that we try a doughnut of the jelly variety. I acquiesced, and it was delish. I’m not going to lie, I can’t quite remember the flavor, but I am thinking grape. The doughnut was slightly puffy, and yeasty, light and fruity, and oh, so tasty. I was officially hooked.
Yet, the jelly doughnut researching and making did not begin immediately. There were other things on my summer baking/bogging bucket list (mixed berry (brown sugar) buckle, red currant jam, peach crumble, etc.). However, in early fall while sharing the aforementioned jam with a houseguest, one of us (both of us?) concluded that the tart, but sweet jam with the beautiful reddish/pink hue, would be perfect encased in a yeasty raised doughnut. 
Cut to a few weeks ago, and the self-inflicted jelly doughnut immersion classes began. In short, jelly doughnuts were everywhere. But having no issues about jumping on a bandwagon filled with doughnuts, i plunged ahead with my own recipe. I knew my doughnut would be based on a modified version of my yeasted cinnamon rolls (with a bit of extra sugar) and I knew my filling would be my aforementioned jam. I had recently put my frying prowess to the test, when making apple cider doughnuts, and so, honestly, this all came together in a snap.
Yes, filling my oh, so pillowy doughnuts proved to be a bit tricky and slightly messy, but the results were nothing short of spectacular. The tartness of the jam proved to be the perfect foil to the rich yeasty, slightly sweetened, dough. A 12-year old taste-tester of mine pronounced them perfect — and perfect-looking as well (despite a bit of oozing jelly) — as did a somewhat pickier 10-year old one. And when the test kitchen is happy, i’m pretty confident you will be, too.
[yumprint-recipe id=’72’]
