citrusy ricotta mini doughnuts with fennel sugar

a sweet snack worth deep frying for

this recipe started out with an idea to merge star anise, strawberry and sugar to coat the rustic little italian doughnuts i’ve made time and time again (okay like three or four times) after seeing it on ravneet gill’s instagram a few years back. after a few rounds of testing though, i found that it was difficult to get the star anise flavor to fully infuse the sugar and that freeze dried strawberries were not only difficult to find, but so spensive. so i pivoted.

i decided instead to highlight the citrus and pull out the anise flavor i was looking for by swapping in earthier, cheaper fennel seeds for the star anise. so while this isn’t the recipe i originally planned on, i think the outcome is actually better: fluffy and bright, not too sweet, playfully herby and oh so subtly medicinal.

now you might be saying to yourself, those doughnuts look cursed. i get it. they’re scrappy. but trust me on this. when testing, i found that i prefer them more rustic in shape, with crispier pieces that poke out, some flat and round edges, even doughnuts that are a bit snake-like. it makes them more interesting to look at and fun to eat, thanks to the different textures. however, if you want your mini doughnuts more round and even, i don’t blame you, and would recommend two things to help you make that happen: first, find a dry ricotta or, as in ravneet’s original recipe, strain your ricotta; second, use an ice cream scoop with a squeeze handle to help plop perfectly sized portions of batter into the oil. you may also need to adapt the frying time depending on the size of your scoops, so keep that in mind.

watch me make them here.

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mini doughnuts, makes 10 - 12, serves 2 - 4 as a snack, this recipe is adapted from ravneet gill’s bombolini

20 grams granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon fresh orange zest

1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon zest (substitute: orange zest)

1 large egg

110 grams ricotta

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

65 grams all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

frying oil (use a high smoke point vegetable oil like peanut, sunflower, or canola; the amount needed depends on the size of your pot, but you want the doughnuts to float freely, so be generous)

fennel sugar, can be made up to 2 weeks in advance

60 grams granulated sugar

1 tablespoon whole fennel seeds

1. for the mini doughnut batter, add citrus zests and sugar to a medium bowl. use your hands to massage the zest into the sugar until the texture becomes similar to wet sand and it’s very fragrant, about 20 seconds. whisk in the egg until well combined, about 1 minute, then add ricotta and mix well.

2. add flour, baking soda and salt to the batter and stir to combine, just until no dry spots remain. let rest for at least 20 minutes at room temperature or up to 2 hours, covered, in the fridge.

3. while the batter is resting, make the fennel sugar. add sugar to a small bowl and set a fine sieve over the bowl. add fennel seeds to a dry frying pan over medium heat and toast until very fragrant, about one minute. add toasted fennel seeds to a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind into a powder. pass the ground fennel seeds through the fine sieve into the sugar. save what remains in the sieve for another use and stir the sugar and fine fennel powder together.

4. heat a small pot of frying oil over medium heat. while that heats up, prepare a little station for the fried doughnuts by setting a wire rack over a paper towel-lined baking sheet and bringing your fennel sugar nearby.

5. once the oil reaches about 160°C/320°F (measured using a thermometer or a wooden chopstick that, once inserted into the oil, immediately forms bubbles around the chopstick which you can kind of see here), use a tablespoon to drop roughly half tablespoon-size blobs of batter into the oil, a few at a time depending on the size of your pot. see my very technique driven method here.

6. fry for one minute, then gently flip the doughnuts (some may flip on their own, how fun is that?) and fry for another minute on the other side. once golden brown all around, remove with a slotted spoon or fine sieve and toss directly into the fennel sugar, then set aside on your prepped wire rack. repeat until all the doughnuts have been fried and coated, then serve immediately.

7. these don’t keep super well, but if you do have a few left over, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them in the fridge. when you want to have a lil snack, halve ‘em and pan fry ‘em cut-side down in a little bit of butter to bring them back to life. sprinkle with more fennel sugar if desired.