In this cream filled donuts recipe, deep fried donuts are filled with matcha pastry cream, the earthy matcha powder flavored custard paired with these sweet and soft donuts is just heavenly!

It seems that everybody loves donuts, I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t. Whenever I make some at home, I know that I’ll get rave reviews from my husband and son.

The dough I used for this recipe is totally fool proof and easy to make, a pleasure to work with.

For the filling, I simply made my vanilla pastry cream and flavored it with 1 1/2 tsp matcha green tea powder. If you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, you can make the pastry cream one day ahead and store it in your fridge until needed.

You can fill these donuts with whatever filling you prefer, any jam, Nutella, any flavored pastry cream, any flavored cream cheese filling of your choice, they will always be a success.

A side note about matcha green tea powder:

Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves. It can be consumed as a tea mixed in hot water, as a latte mixed in milk, it is also widely used in baking as an addition to custards, in glazes to color them in green. Its flavor is that of green tea with a slightly earthy hint, the flavor is quite powerful as the powder represents several leaves, only a slight measure like a tsp will often give the flavor wanted.

How to make this matcha cream filled donuts:

Make the donut dough: proof the dry yeast into the warm milk, once it’s frothy add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer and knead on medium/low for 7 to 10 minutes, the dough should be soft and no longer sticky, add more flour 1 tbsp. at a time if needed

Lightly sprinkle your counter flour, finish kneading the dough by hand and form a smooth ball, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick, with a 3 inches diameter cookie cutter cut out your donuts and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper leaving a 2 inch space in between them. Form a soft ball with the leftover dough and keep on rolling and cutting. Cover the baking sheet loosely with a lint free towel and let the donuts proof for an hour

Make the matcha pastry cream: into a bowl whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, add the flour and cornstarch, whisk to incorporate

Into a small saucepan, add the milk together with 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 1/2 tsp matcha powder, warm the milk to a soft boil while whisking in the matcha powder. Pour the milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, cook it whisking constantly until thickened.

Sift/Drain the matcha pastry cream through a mesh strainer into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap on contact, meaning lay the plastic wrap on top of the pastry cream to avoid that a skin forms, let cool completely, chill until needed

Deep fry the donuts: into a large pot or frying device, heat about 3 inches high frying oil to 350°F (180°C), have ready a tray or sheet pan to lay the fried donuts, fry the donuts in batches, about 1 1/2 minute per side or until slightly golden, take them out with a slotted spoon and lay them to cool on the prepared sheet pan

Assembly: Whisk the matcha pastry cream together with 2 tbsp. of heavy whipping cream on high speed to lighten it, pour it into a piping bag fitted with a closed star tip

With a chopstick or wooden skewer, poke a hole into the side of donut up to the center, insert the star tip inside the hole not too deep and press the cream in while slowly withdrawing the tip, don’t put too much or the donut will break and the cream will pour outside

Into a shallow dish, add 1 1/2 cups sugar and roll the donuts into the sugar

I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you do, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went!

Enjoy!