Starlight Donuts

Festive treats for those who prefer to express their Starlight spirit through eating until they lose consciousness.

Approx. 1.5 hours, 20 small donuts

When I first chose to recreate Starlight Donuts, I believed it’d be an easy thing to do since I do make donuts every now and then. But how wrong I was! Taking a closer glance at the real thing I noticed some wreath-shaped donuts in the basket. Was this some Japanese specialty with some super laborious way of preparing Western sweets? Internet research provided me with a simple answer: yes.

In Japan, there is apparently a donut chain store called “Mr. Donut”. And they serve Pon de Ring, soft balls of donuts shaped like a circle. I came across Nami’s Just One Cookbook’s recipe and explanation which I used as a basis for my take. While Nami’s recipe is super soft and is only suitable for making the Pon de Rings, I have changed the ratio in favor of all-purpose flour to make it easier to handle and donut cutter-friendly. The texture of these Starlight Donuts remains, however, surprisingly soft and even keeps for several days without drying out. If you are interested in trying out the original recipe, click here!

For the dough you'll need:

200 g (approx. 1 ½ cups) cornstarch and/or tapioca flour

300 g (approx. 2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour

1 package of active dry yeast or 1/2 block of fresh yeast

1 egg

50 g (approx. 3 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter

100 g (approx. ½ cup) sugar

Approx. 240 ml (approx. 1 cup) milk, lukewarm

400 ml (approx. 1 ¾ cups) of frying oil and a deep pan (or a deep fryer with the respective amount of deep-frying fat)

For the glaze you'll need:

250 g (approx. 2 cups) powdered sugar

Approx. 2 tablespoons of milk

Gel food coloring: red and green

300 grams of couverture chocolate

200 g or 1 2/3 cup whipping cream

Sprinkles, chopped nuts, etc. (optional)

Optional/alternative: candy melts

Proof the yeast

Take out approx. one tablespoon of your all-purpose flour and mix it with an equal amount of sugar. Add a bit of the milk to create a soup in which you dissolve your yeast. Set aside for a few minutes until the mixture is bubbly.

Make the dough

Meanwhile, mix the remaining flour with cornstarch and sugar. Stir in the bubbly yeast and the remaining ingredients, adding enough milk to make a sticky but still elastic dough. If it comes out too dry, you may add some more milk. If it's too sticky to handle, you may add some flour, but try to restrict adding more flour as much as possible.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter or kneading board and keep kneading the dough for about 10 minutes. If you have a kitchen machine, use it. This dough is way softer and slightly stickier than normal bread dough, so it's more challenging to handle. Once you've finished kneading, cover the dough with a clean, moist towel and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about half an hour).

Cut out donuts (or shape them!)

Cut out small squares from your baking paper and set aside. To cut the donuts, I used a cookie cutter with about 6 to 7 cm diameters (2.3 to 2.7 inches). If you have a donut cutter, feel free to use that, of course. If you have neither, you can use the top side of a drinking glass and just cut out rounds instead.

Roll out your dough on a floured surface to about 3/4 cm thickness (0.3 inches). Cut out donuts and put on the paper squares. You will notice while handling that the dough is much stickier which is why we're using baking paper. If you want to be extra fancy and go by the ingame image, you can roll small bits of dough into a ball and align them in a circle on the paper square. It's better to make them bigger, so they become less fragile. If the balls aren't sticking well to each other, you can use some water as an adhesive.

Once you've cut out all the donuts, it's time to heat the oil in a deep frying pan or deep fryer. If you have a thermometer, go for 170°C (approx. 340°F). If you don't have one, you can test the heat by dipping a wooden chopstick into the oil. If tiny bubbles appear around it, the oil is hot. Never under any circumstances leave the room while you're heating oil! It catches on fire quicker than you think!

Fry the donuts

Using a slotted spoon or a skimmer spoon, carefully immerse the donuts with the paper into the hot fat. Depending on the size of your donuts and the size of your pan, you can fry up to 4 donuts at the same time. Wait for about one minute, then gently pull the wax paper from the donut with tongs and discard it. Fry for about 2 more minutes or until underside is slightly brown then carefully flip it. Fry for another 3 to 4 minutes until brown as well, then transfer the donut onto a tray lined with baking paper (to soak up excess fat). Repeat with the remaining donuts.

Decorate these beauties

Once they are cooled off, melt your candy melts according to the package OR mix the confectioner's sugar with the milk until you get a thick paste. Add gel food coloring and mix. Dip the donuts in the glaze. At this point, you can add sprinkles or whatever you want onto the wet glaze before it is set. If you are using chocolate, chop the chocolate into chunks and melt over a water bath, stirring constantly. Dip the donuts in the chocolate and let it set for about half an hour. Happy Starlight!