Zitronen Berliner (Berlin Lemon Donuts)

Combine the luke warm milk and yeast and set aside for 5 minutes. It should be bubbly. If not, start over (your milk may have been too hot or too cold). In the bowl of a standmixer, combine all ingredients for the dough and knead for 10 minutes on the medium-low setting. Cover the bowl and allow to rest in a warm spot until doubled in size, about one hour.

In the meantime, make your lemon pudding. Combine all pudding ingredients except cream cheese in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, whisk on low for one minute and then pour into a bowl to cool down (you can transfer it to the fridge to speed up the cooling down process). To keep a skin from forming on the surface of the pudding, cover it with some plastic wrap. Once cool, whisk in the room temperature cream cheese. The Berliner filling is ready.

Divide the dough up into equal pieces (best to use a kitchen scale), and using flour-dusted hands, shape each portion into a ball. Allow to rest for another 30 minutes (covered up by a clean linen towel).

Preheat frying oil (I prefer using avocado oil) to 160 °C/160 °C and bake in batches (you will want the donuts to be able to swim on the surface) for about 2 ½ minutes on each side or until golden on the outside (flipping using your skimmer or a spotted spoon). They will fry for a total of 5 minutes.

Fill each Berliner with the lemon pudding from the side, using a decorating bag and filling tip and dust with powdered sugar. I also LOVE filling my Berliner with plum butter! So lecker!