Bavarian Cream Doughnuts with Apricot Preserves

High altitude tested Bavarian cream doughnuts are soft and fluffy, coated in sugar and filled with vanilla bean Bavarian cream and sweet apricot preserves.

You might also love these recipes for chocolate cream filled doughnuts with espresso sugar, old fashioned sour cream cake donuts, and baked coffee cake crumble doughnuts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Perfect for the Weekend. Making homemade doughnuts is fun, but can be a bit of a process, so plan on a cozy day at home with a pot of coffee and a lineup of your favorite movies while you make these. If you start the dough after breakfast, you and your family can enjoy these Bavarian cream doughnuts by early afternoon.

Step by Step Photos. If you’re intimidated by the process of making homemade doughnuts, today’s post is packed with step by step photos to guide you through the process.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. Today’s recipe will work at any altitude, though, with the main difference being on how long it takes the dough to rise. The higher the elevation, the faster the dough will rise.

What is Bavarian Cream?

Bavarian cream is a French dessert (crème bavaroise) consisting of vanilla custard or pastry cream and whipped cream. The pastry cream is made with egg yolks, sugar, cream and vanilla. It’s usually thickened with gelatin, although mine is less traditional since I thicken it with corn starch, resulting in a fluffier, softer texture that’s not so firm and mousse-like.

After chilling the pastry cream, you’ll fold in whipped cream for a very light and fluffy cream filling. You can serve Bavarian cream in dessert bowls just as it is, use it as a pie filling in my Bavarian cream pie, or use it to fill doughnuts.

Tools and Equipment

• Small Saucepan. For warming the butter and milk.
• Large Heavy Bottomed Saucepan. For frying the doughnuts.
• Instant Read Digital Thermometer. For monitoring the temperature of the frying oil. It’s essential to keep a steady temperature when frying doughnuts. Too hot, and the doughnuts will burn before they’re cooked inside. Too cold, and the doughnuts will soak up too much oil and end up greasy.
• Large Baking Sheets + Parchment Paper. For proofing the cut doughnuts.
• Cooling Racks. For draining the doughnuts after they’ve been fried.
• Rolling Pin and Biscuit Cutter. A 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter is just the right size for today’s bavarian cream doughnut recipe.
• Stand Mixer with Dough Hook. Helpful for kneading the dough, but you can definitely knead the dough by hand, too.
• Skimmer. For removing the doughnuts from the hot oil.
• Mixing Bowls, Measuring Cups, Measuring Spoons.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Bavarian Cream

• Sugar. Granulated sugar adds sweetness to the filling.
• Corn Starch. This is my preferred thickening agent for pastry cream or custard.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances flavors.
• Milk. Use whole milk in the filling for a rich, creamy flavor.
• Egg Yolks. Adds richness and body to the pastry cream, as well as helps it to thicken.
• Vanilla Bean Paste. Gives the cream a wonderful vanilla flavor, and pretty vanilla bean specks throughout.
• Butter. The custard is finished with a little butter, adding richness and flavor.
• Cream. Use heavy whipping cream, not light cream or table cream.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and stabilizes the cream.

Doughnuts

• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness and flavor.
• Whole Milk or Buttermilk. The fat adds richness and flavor, while the acid in buttermilk makes a very tender texture in the yeast doughnuts.
• Yeast. Leavening agent, which makes the doughnuts light, fluffy and airy. You can use either active dry yeast or rapid rise/instant yeast.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the dough and feeds the yeast. I also coated the fried doughnuts in sugar for a crunchy, sparkly finish.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Cinnamon or Nutmeg. A classic flavor to add to doughnuts.
• Flour. You can use either bread flour or all-purpose flour, although I prefer the higher protein content of bread flour when making yeasted dough.
• Egg. Gives the dough structure and strength.
• Vegetable Oil. For frying.
• Apricot Preserves. The flavor of the apricot is so good with the Bavarian cream in today’s doughnuts. You can use any flavor of jam you like, or just leave it out if you only want the cream filling.

Instructions

Bavarian Cream

• In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch and salt, then lowly whisk in the milk, egg yolks and vanilla bean paste. (Note: The process photos below show 4 egg yolks, for a double batch of the custard. Today’s recipe is scaled down and only uses 2 egg yolks.)
• Over medium heat, cook the custard while whisking constantly, until the custard starts to bubble and thicken; this should take about 8-10 minutes. Once it begins to thicken, continue to cook and whisk for 1 1/2 minutes.
• Remove the custard from the heat and stir in the butter. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer to strain out any bits of cooked egg, into a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap resting right against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate for 3 hours, or overnight.

• When you’re ready to fill your doughnuts, use an electric mixer to whip the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla on medium speed for several minutes, until thick fluffy peaks form that hold their shape.
• Add about 1/3 of the whipped cream to the chilled custard, folding it in with a spatula to loosen up the custard until smooth. Add the rest of the whipped cream, folding it in until you have a fluffy, creamy filling.

Make the Dough.

• In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the milk, and heat just until the mixture reaches between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Remove from the heat, stir in the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the sugar, and let sit for 5-10 minutes until bubbly and foamy.

• In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the remainder of the sugar with the salt, nutmeg/cinnamon, and all but 1/2 cup of the flour. Add the egg and the warm milk mixture.
• With the dough hook, stir the mixture for several minutes until it comes together, then knead for 5 minutes, gradually adding the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, only if needed. Do not add the flour if the dough is already forming a dough ball around the hook. On the other hand, if the dough is too stiff, add some warm water or milk, a tablespoon at a time.
• The dough should form a “torpedo” or ball around the dough hook and mostly pull away from the sides of the bowl, although it may stick a little at the bottom of the bowl. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes.

Let the Dough Rise.

• Scrape the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size – this may take anywhere from 30-90 minutes, depending on the freshness of the yeast and the warmth of the environment. Be sure to check frequently, so that you don’t over-proof the dough.
• If you have a “bread proof” setting in your oven, you can use that. Otherwise, preheat the oven to the lowest temperature, turn it off, then place your dough inside to rise. Mine took 1 hour in my oven on the bread proof setting.

Roll out the dough and cut the doughnuts.

• Prep one large or two medium baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. If you like, you can cut the paper into individual 4×4 inch squares, which can be helpful for dropping the doughnuts into the oil.
• On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 3/4 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour to cut 12 doughnuts.

TIP: If you like, you can gather up and roll out the dough scraps to cut more doughnuts, but these will be a little more dense and will never look as nice as the ones you cut the first time around, so try to cut them as close together the first time to reduce dough waste.

Let the Doughnuts Rise.

• Place the cut doughnuts on the parchment lined baking sheets. Set the baking sheets inside your oven – again, use the “bread proof” setting, or gently warm the oven before setting the doughnuts inside.
• Fill a small saucepan with several inches of boiling water and place it inside the oven. The steam will keep the doughnuts moist, and prevent them from forming a “skin” on their surface, which will ruin the doughnuts and prevent them from frying correctly.
• Let the doughnuts proof until they are very light and puffy, about 30-40 minutes. If they don’t proof for long enough, their texture won’t be as light.

TIP: If your oil is too cold, the doughnuts will absorb oil and end up tasting greasy. If it’s too hot, they’ll brown too quickly. It’s better to heat the oil fairly slowly to maintain a steady temperature, and to check it frequently throughout the frying process, so you can adjust the temperature as needed. Note that when you first drop the doughnuts in, the temperature of the oil will also drop, so just keep checking to try to maintain a steady temperature.

Fry the Doughnuts.

• While the doughnuts are proofing, you can start heating the oil over medium heat. Pour the oil into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. I used a saucepan that’s about 12 inches wide and 5 inches deep. You need to use enough oil, both so that the doughnuts “float” on the oil while frying, as well as to help maintain a steady temperature, which you can’t do with too little oil. Heat the oil to between 350-365 degrees Fahrenheit, checking the temperature with an instant read thermometer.
• Place a cooling rack over a large baking sheet for draining the doughnuts.
• When you’re ready to start frying, fry the doughnuts in batches, about 3-4 doughnuts at a time. Carefully lower them into the oil, fry for about 45 seconds – 1 minute until golden brown on the bottom, then flip and fry on the other side until brown (I like to use wooden chopsticks to flip the doughnuts). They should be a light golden brown, and if they were proofed correctly, they’ll have a white “proof line” running around the middle.
• Use your skimmer to transfer the doughnuts to the cooling rack to drain, and continue frying the remainder of the doughnuts.

Fill the Doughnuts.

• When the doughnut are slightly warm, coat them in the granulated sugar, then cool completely before filling.
• Set the doughnuts on their sides, and poke a hole in the side of each with a chopstick.
• Fit a piping bag with a medium round tip, and fill with the apricot preserves. Insert the tip of the piping bag into the doughnuts, and squeeze a couple of teaspoons of jam into each doughnut.
• Fit another piping bag with an open star tip (I used tip 1M), and fill with the Bavarian cream. Insert the tip of the piping bag into the doughnuts, and fill with the cream, finishing with a little swirl on top of each doughnut.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

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