Thing Number Seventeen - Doughnut Pie

So yesterday I fancied a doughnut, and because it was the end of the day, I ended up with a bag of five for 39p.  Two doughnuts in this seemed like less of a good idea, so today I'm left with three day-old doughnuts to use up - because they cost me 23.4p, dammit! - and no particular plan as to what to do with them.

I Googled 'stale doughnut recipes' for inspiration, and the consensus seemed to be doughnut bread pudding. And I can see how that would work, but everyone said to do it and that made me want to do something else, 'cos I'm just contrary like that.

And then I thought of doughnut pie.

It sounded ridiculous.  It sounded so-wrong-it's-right.  It sounded awesome.  So here we go...

Normally I'd make the pastry myself - the same way as for the mince pies - but it's a weeknight; and I'm making doughnut pie, which is hardly going to complain; and there was ready-rolled pastry in the reduced-to-clear fridge in the Co-Op.

Line a deep pie dish with the pastry, and prick the bottom with a fork.

I wanted to make sure the base wasn't soggy, so I blind baked it (i.e. baked it empty before putting in the filling).  You need to hold the pastry down while you do that or else it'll slump round the edges and rise up in the middle like a giant blister.  So line it with baking parchment and fill it either with real dried beans, or with baking beans (which are arguably better as they're ceramic so they conduct heat well).  Bake it like that for 15 minutes or so at about 180-200C, and then take out the beans and parchment and give it another five minutes.  You want it to be golden and dry, no squishiness left.

Meanwhile, make the pie filling.  I used about 400g rhubarb which I bought the other day because it was so pink and beautiful.  Chop it up, and stew it in the same way as the apples for the Apple Charlotte - add a sprinkling of sugar to sweeten it, and a teeny splish of water to get the ball rolling on cooking it, and simmer it gently until it disintegrates.

While both of those things are happening, make the pie topping.  Take the three doughnuts - which were jam ones, incidentally, though I'm sure anything would work - put them in a large, shallow bowl, and break them up with two forks like you're shredding crispy duck.

Beat together 90g sugar and two eggs...

...and then add 90g melted butter.

Pour this mixture over the doughnut bits, and mix well.

To put the whole pie together, first pour the rhubarb into the pie shell (I put foil strips round the outside as the edge of the crust was already brown and I didn't want it to burn when it went back in the oven).

Then add the doughnut mixture, dolloping it over the top fairly evenly.

Put the whole lot back in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until it's golden and all the topping has cooked through.

The verdict

I reckon this is a good first stab at this.  The pastry is a bit rubbish (that'll teach me not to be lazy!), but that's no reflection on the rest of it.  The topping is great - quite cake-y, actually quite bread pudding-y itself, crisp on top, and not showing any obvious signs of having been cobbled together from aged doughnuts.  The rhubarb itself is lovely, but it doesn't totally go with the topping.  What would really work, though, would be to skip the rhubarb and spread jam on the pastry base instead.  It would bring out the residual jamminess of the doughnuts, and it would fit the flavour of the topping - the rhubarb seems a bit like it's wandered in from some other pie and doesn't know quite what to do with itself.  Next ill-advised doughnut purchase, I'll try jam...