American Doughnut Kitchen's hot jam donuts have been fried to order at the same Queen Victoria Market hatch since 1950: cinnamon-sugar coated, raspberry-jam filled, eaten immediately from a paper bag.

American Doughnut Kitchen opened at Queen Victoria Market in 1950 in a converted bus-shaped caravan, run continuously since by the same family. The unchanged recipe is a yeast-raised dough, fried in a long oil bath, injected with raspberry jam by hand, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Five for A$8 is the Melbourne market lunch ritual, eaten standing on the corner with greaseproof paper sticking to the cinnamon coating. The hatch has resisted franchising, expansion, and a 2020s Melbourne City Council eviction attempt, which became a citywide cause and saw the caravan saved.

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Make it at home

Serves 162 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 500g strong bread flour
  • 60g caster sugar
  • 7g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 240ml whole milk, warmed to body temperature
  • 2 large eggs
  • 60g unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1.5L vegetable oil for deep-frying
  • 200g caster sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon for coating
  • 300g good seedless raspberry jam, sieved smooth and pressed through a piping bag fitted with a long thin nozzle

Method

  1. Whisk the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a stand mixer bowl. Add the warm milk, eggs and vanilla; knead with the dough hook on medium for 5 minutes.
  2. Add the soft butter a tablespoon at a time and knead 8 more minutes until the dough is shiny and pulls off the bowl. Cover, prove 60 to 90 minutes until doubled.
  3. Knock back the dough, divide into 60g balls (about 16). Roll each tight on an unfloured bench so the seam closes, then space on a lightly floured tray.
  4. Cover with a damp cloth and prove a further 45 minutes until very puffy.
  5. Heat the oil to 170 degrees Celsius. Fry the donuts in batches of three for 90 seconds per side until deep golden; the dough should not colour beyond that.
  6. Drain briefly, then while still hot toss in the cinnamon sugar to coat heavily.
  7. Insert the piping nozzle deep into the side of each donut and inject about 1 tbsp of warm raspberry jam until you feel the dough start to plump.
  8. Eat within 10 minutes, ideally from a paper bag.

Editor tip. The oil must be a long shallow bath, not a deep pot; an electric pan keeps the temperature steady. Inject the jam while the donut is still warm so the dough relaxes around the nozzle.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg.