These include all the flavours of everyone’s favourite 1990s cocktail – grapefruit and cranberry. Summer heaven.
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Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
20 mins
Total Time:
50 mins
Cal/Serv:
369
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGHNUTS
200ml
whole milk
50g
butter
7g
sachet fast action dried yeast
125g
caster sugar
1
large egg, lightly beaten
425g
plain flour, plus extra to dust
Finely grated zest 1 ruby grapefruit
Vegetable oil, to grease and deep-fry
FOR THE FILLING
250ml
whole milk
1tsp.
vanilla bean paste
50g
caster sugar
20g
cornflour
15g
plain flour
2
large egg yolks
Finely grated zest and juice 1/2 ruby grapefruit
75g
cranberry jelly
Directions
Step 1For the doughnuts, gently heat milk in a medium pan until steaming. Remove from heat, add butter and stir until melted. Set aside to cool, if needed, until lukewarm. Add yeast, 50g of the sugar and the beaten egg to the pan, whisking to combine. Pour into bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the flour. Mix until it comes together into a soft dough, then add the grapefruit zest. Continue to knead for 4-5min, until you have a smooth but sticky dough. Transfer to a lightly oiled large bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1hr, or until doubled in size.
Step 2Meanwhile, make the grapefruit custard. Heat the milk in a pan with the vanilla bean paste until just steaming. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together caster sugar, both flours and egg yolks. Slowly pour warm milk into sugar and egg mix, whisking continuously, until smooth. Return to pan and add grapefruit zest and juice. Cook over low heat for 2-3min, stirring continuously, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, transfer to a large bowl and lay clingfilm or baking parchment directly on surface (to stop a skin forming). Leave to cool completely.
Step 3When the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface and divide into 10 pieces, about 70g each. Shape into rounds and arrange on a lightly oiled tray, spaced apart. Cover with oiled clingfilm (oil-side down) and leave to rise again for another 40-45min, until puffed.
Step 4To cook, pour oil into a large, deep pan so it’s 1/3 full and heat to 175°C. Working 2-3 at a time, carefully add the doughnuts to the hot oil using a slotted spoon and fry for 2min per side until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen towel, then toss in the remaining sugar. Repeat, monitoring oil temperature, until all doughnuts have been fried and dusted with sugar. Leave to cool completely.
Step 5Whisk the cooled custard briefly to loosen and transfer to a piping bag. Put cranberry jelly in a second piping bag. Poke a hole in the side of each doughnut with a chopstick or tip of a knife, then fill the doughnuts, first with a dollop of cranberry jelly and then the grapefruit custard. Serve.
If you don't have time to make your own filling, you can use shop-bought jam or curd instead.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
Sarah is Good Housekeeping's Kitchen and Homes Director, looking after all things food and homes for the brand. Sarah started her career in journalism, then retrained as a chef 15 years ago following a lifelong dream to work in food. Since retraining, she has worked as a private chef, assisted on tv commercials, created recipes for some of the country's leading brands and became the go-to birthday and wedding cake baker in her friends and family network. In 2025, she was shortlisted for Cookery Writer of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers
