My weaknesses are mainly savoury - think salt and vinegar crisps or cheese and biscuits - but there are times when only a doughnut will do. This craving can get desperate late at night when the shops are shut, and even if they weren't, none of them sells the kind of doughnuts I dream of. This is my way of assuaging my appetite, appeasing my need or, perhaps more accurately, feeding my addiction. Hot chocolate on the side is always worth considering, but just - just! - by itself this is sublime succour.
You can, if you like, turn this into a dinner party doughnut-allusive dessert by whizzing up 150g/6oz hulled strawberries, 4 tablespoons icing sugar and a spritz of lemon juice in the blender, to make a sauce to pour or puddle over.
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
60 millilitres full fat milk
4 slices white bread (from small loaf or 2 slices from large loaf) each slice cut in half
25 grams butter
1 drop flavourless vegetable oil for frying
50 grams caster sugar
METHOD
Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla in a wide, shallow bowl.
Soak the bread halves in the eggy mixture for 5 minutes a side.
Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan, and fry the egg-soaked bread until golden and scorched in parts on both sides.
Put the sugar on a plate and then dip the cooked bread in it until coated like a sugared doughnut.