Austrian Doughnuts (Krapfen)

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1
  Prepare a small saucepan, put butter in it and heat it for 1–2 minutes over low heat until melted. Then pour milk into the saucepan and heat the mixture over low heat to a temperature slightly warmer than room temperature. Pour the heated mixture from the saucepan into a larger bowl, add cane sugar and yeast, place the bowl in a warm room and let it rest for 5–10 minutes for the starter to rise.
• 2
  Once the starter has risen, add 500 g of spelt flour and eggs to the bowl and knead the entire mixture for 5–10 minutes until a smooth dough forms that peels away from the sides of the bowl. Then cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise for 30–60 minutes at room temperature.
• 3
  Once the dough has risen, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and flour your work surface with a little spelt flour. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface and flour its top as well. Then roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 4 cm and cut out a total of 12 circles with a glass (or a round cutter), placing them on the lined baking sheet. Let the circles rise for another 10 minutes here.
• 4
  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 °C.
• 5
  After 10 minutes of rising, place 1 teaspoon of strawberry chia jam on 6 of the 12 dough circles, always cover the jam with one of the dry circles and press the edges of the top and bottom circles together with your fingers. Place the baking sheet with the prepared doughnuts in the preheated oven and bake for 15–18 minutes at 170–180 °C.
• 6
  Remove the baked doughnuts from the oven and serve.
• 7
  For the strawberry chia jam, prepare 350 g of frozen strawberries, 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons of chia seeds. Place the strawberries in a small saucepan and heat them for 5–8 minutes over medium heat until they soften and release their liquid. Then remove the saucepan with the strawberries from the heat, add honey, lemon juice, and chia seeds, mix, and refrigerate the resulting mixture for at least 2 hours. After that, you can use the jam as needed.