Italian Bomboloni With Cream Filling

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My Bomboloni are soft, airy, and filled with a sweetened pastry cream. These Italian doughnuts taste better than anything you can get from your local bakery.

a Bomboloni doughnut dusted with powdered sugar and fill with pastry cream.

I love making homemade doughnuts. I've previously shared Zeppole, Copycat Krispy Kremes, and Cronuts. These Bomboloni might be my favorite yet. They're more tender and airy than a typical American doughnut. They're perfect with a cup of hot coffee for holiday brunch. I like to fill mine with pastry cream but Nutella, lemon curd, or even whipped ricotta with honey would all be fantastic.

Why Our Recipe Is the Best: A Sprinkle of Food Science

We Use Bread Flour and 00 Flour: The high bread flour creates a strong gluten network that helps it keep its shape when frying, while the 00 flour gives you a delicate pillowy interior. They are tender but never heavy or fragile.
We Cook Them At a Medium Temp (337 degrees): The slightly lower temp (donuts usually fry at 350) ensures the thick dough has time to cook through before the exterior burns.
We Allow Them To Triple In Size: Enriched dough (a dough with fat and eggs) needs more time to rise so that we get that open airy structure. The difference in the final texture between a double and a triple rise was huge!

Ingredient Notes and Shopping Tips

ingredients including bread flour, 00 flour, butter, eggs, sugar, milk, instant yeast, and vanilla.

Bread Flour: Bread flour is higher in protein typically around 12-14% which develops extra gluten for chew and structure. I like King Arthur's best.
- Always measure your flour by spooning it in your measuring cup and leveling with a knife. Never dip your cup into the flour. You'll use too much which can lead to a dry, dense pastry.
Eggs: Make sure your eggs are room temperature. Cold eggs will be difficult to mix in smoothly. Around 30 minutes on the counter is perfect. Forgot? Pop in a glass of warm (not hot) water for a few minutes.
Butter: Make sure your butter is softened but not melted.
00 Flour: This is finally milled Italian flour that gives the silkiest most tender crumb. Look for it at Italian stores, Whole Foods, or online. All purpose flour can be used in a pinch but the texture will be slightly different.
Milk: Choose whole milk for a tender and moist dough. Make sure it is warm but not hot. It should feel like baby's bathwater.
Oil: Choose a neutral oil with a high smoke point like vegetable, canola, or peanut.
Yeast: We are using instant also called rapid rise yeast. I'm partial to Fleischmann's. Always make sure your yeast is still in date or you'll ruin the whole recipe!

Common Mistakes: Steal My Culinary School Secrets

Adding Salt To Your Dry Ingredients: Do NOT do this, it will kill off the yeast. Mix it in later after the yeast is already activated.
Not Using a Deep Fry Thermometer: Try to keep the oil as close to 337 as possible. If it's too high the outside will burn before the inside is done. If its too cold they will absorb too much oil and become greasy.
Not Cooking In Batches: Frying too many at one time can drop the oil temperature. Fry 3 or 4 max at a time and allow the oil to come back up to temp. before frying the next batch.
Cooling On Paper Towels: This can cause the bottoms to get soggy. Instead, cook on a wire rack which will allow air to circulate around all sides.
Using High Heat On Your Pastry Cream: Cook it over low heat until thickened. High heat can cause the eggs to scramble. Also be sure to temper your eggs by adding the hot milk a little a time. This warms them up gradually and also prevents scrambling.

Can I Make The Dough Ahead of Time?

Yes for sure! The dough can be refrigerated after the first rise. Bring to room temperature before the second rise.