Skull Donuts inspired by Lockwood & Co
Ever find a piece of media that almost feels like it was custom-made to your taste? That’s a bit how I felt when I stumbled onto Lockwood & Co on Netflix this year. Set in an alternate universe where, for the past 50 years, the world has been beset by a plague of deadly ghost hauntings, protected only by psychically talented adolescents, it’s a bit Buffy, a bit X-Files, a bit Doctor Who (mostly in its quintessential Britishness), and a whole lot of fun.
Of course, because we can’t have nice things, the show was cancelled by Netflix after only one season, joining the ever-expanding graveyard of Netflix fantasy shows the streamer seems to dump on the platform and then drop if they’re not instant hits (still heartbroken about I Am Not OK With This). But the Save the Show campaign is well underway, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for another season - it wouldn’t be the first time a beloved show returned to me, though if it’s all we get, at least it was a killer season. And, luckily, since the show is based on a series of books by Jonathan Stroud, I won’t be left with unanswered questions.
The show actually features a plethora of food, thanks in part to my favorite character, George, who is Lockwood & Co’s resident head researcher & chef (shockingly, I have a soft spot for nerds who cook). But I also knew I wanted to make something shaped like another beloved character, a decapitated skull in a jar. Well, the character is actually the ghost attached to the skull in the jar, but still. He feels like the unofficial mascot of Lockwood & Co., so I wanted to include him. Biscuits (cookies for us Americans) are heavily featured on the show, but there are plenty of skull-shaped cookie tutorials out there, and I wanted to do something a little different. So, donuts it is.
As previously mentioned, this is a quintessentially British show, which means there’s a lot of tea-drinking. I decided to fill my donuts with an Earl Grey-infused diplomat cream. I won’t lie, this whole recipe is a bit of an undertaking. If you want to cut down on your cooking time, you could always fill your donuts with something store-bought, like a raspberry jam or nutella. Make it your own.
Skull Donuts with Earl Grey Diplomat Cream
For the donuts themselves, I once again used the Mark Bitman’s recipe from the New York Times , but any yeasted doughnut dough will do. The Earl Grey Pastry Cream can be made up to 2 days in advance.
Earl Grey Diplomat Cream
For the Pastry Cream:
2 1/2 cups milk
6 bags of Earl Grey tea
2 egg yolks
5 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
For the Whipped Cream:
1 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 Tablespoons room temperature water
1 cup chilled heavy cream
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
To make the Pastry Cream:
Add milk to a saucepan with tea bags. Heat just until simmering, then remove from heat and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags.
In a separate bowl, combine, egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, vanilla and salt. Heat the milk back up on medium-high until steaming. While whisking, add 1/4 cup of the hot milk to the egg mixture. Once incorporated, add another 1/4 cup. Once homogeneous, add the now-warm egg mixture to the saucepan with milk, and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened and is bubbling. Lower the heat and continue to whisk for 1 more minute. Mixture should be very thick. Remove from heat. Whisk in the butter, 1 Tablespoon at a time, until no chunks of butter remain.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a heat-proof bowl, then cover with plastic wrap, directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate for a few hours or until ready to use.
To make the Whipped Cream:
Put gelatin and water in a, microwave-safe bowl and wait ten minutes for gelatin to bloom. During this time I like to put my cream in a bowl and let this sit in the freezer to ensure it’s well-chilled (this makes whipping easier).
With the gelatin bloomed, heat in the microwave in 10 second increments, just until the mixture is liquid, but not boiling (1 to 2 times should do it). Remove the cream from the freezer and have your hand mixer or stand mixer with a whisk attachment nearby. Add one Tablespoon of cream to the hot gelatin and mix to temper. Begin whisking your cream and add the gelatin to the bowl while mixing. Be sure to incorporate the gelatin quickly with the rest of the cream so that it doesn’t form clumps.
Continue whisking the cream until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and whip to incorporate.
To make the Diplomat Cream:
Simply add as much of the whipped cream as you like to the pastry cream and Fold In until the mixture is light and homogeneous. The more whipped cream, the lighter your mixture will be, so you can use a little or a lot, it just depends on your taste. Transfer to a pastry bag or a plastic bag with a large icing tip for insertion into the doughnuts. Chill until ready to use.
To make the doughnuts:
The only thing I changed from the New York Times recipe was to use a skull cookie cutter, but you can also use a simple round cutter - the decoration is more important than the shape here. Once the doughnuts have cooled, use a skewer or a chopstick to create a hole to the hollow center of the doughnut. Then insert your diplomat pastry bag and squeeze just until the doughnut feels full (don’t fill too much - the doughnut will burst!)
Vanilla & Chocolate Glaze
5 and 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
6 plus 1 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons unsweetened, dutch-process or black cocoa powder
To make the glazes:
Combine powdered sugar, 6 Tablespoons milk, corn syrup, vanilla extract and salt until well-combined. Remove half to a separate bowl, add the cocoa powder and remaining 1 Tablespoon of milk and mix to create the chocolate glaze. Add the chocolate glaze to a pastry bag with a small round icing tip.
To decorate:
Carefully dip each doughnut in the vanilla glaze and allow the excess to drip off before setting icing-side-up on a drying rack. Use your pastry bag to decorate with two large eye sockets, a small upside-down v-shaped nose, and a simple toothy grin. Doughnuts are best eaten immediately, but will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Enjoy!