For the Donuts

Day 1

1. Make your dough. In the bowl of your stand mixer, start by blooming your active dry yeast in warm milk and 1 teaspoon of sugar for about 8 to 10 minutes. The yeast mixture should be frothy.
2. Add 1/4 cup sugar, eggs, yolk, melted butter, vanilla, rum, flours, malted milk powder and salt to the bowl. With a spatula, mix until the dough roughly comes together (will be shaggy).
3. Fit your stand mixer with a hook attachment and knead the dough on medium speed for 10 minutes. The dough should be shiny and elastic. At the end 10 minutes, the dough should pull from the sides of the bowl, but will stick to the bottom of the bowl. Do not be tempted to add extra flour, just let the stand mixer do all the work. 
4. Coat your hands with oil and lift the dough out of the bowl and form it into a ball. Then generously oil your bowl (I use the same one) and place the dough back in. Cover with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2

1. Shaping your donuts. Remove from the fridge and punch your dough down to deflate it and then transfer to a lightly floured surface. Portion into 12 equal pieces. Using a kitchen scale, measure each ball of dough to make sure they are as even as possible. Mine were about 80 grams per ball.
2. Grab a piece of dough and press it flat to get rid of any air bubbles. Then start rolling the dough into a ball with your hand in a "claw" shape. You'll want the balls to be as tight and smooth as possible. Please watch this 1 minute video for the technique. Place each ball of dough onto a 5x5 inch (12x12 cm) piece of parchment paper. I placed 6 donuts on each baking tray to give them more than enough room to proof.
3. Loosely cover with cling wrap and allow to proof for at least 1 hour or until they have doubled in size. Be careful not to overproof them as it can lead to dense and oily donuts. The best way to know if your donuts are fully proofed is to lightly press them with your finger. If the indentation holds and does not bounce back right away, they're ready!
4. While the donuts are proofing, make your raspberry cheesecake filling! In a medium sized bowl, add your cream cheese, powdered sugar, raspberry powder, heavy cream and vanilla. With a hand-held mixer, whisk until light and fluffy. About 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a piping bag or ziploc bag and set aside on the counter until needed. 

5. Frying and finishing your donuts. With 20 minutes left of proofing, get your oil ready so that you can start frying right away. Fill a medium to large sized pot with at least 2 to 3 inches of vegetable shortening or neutral oil such as canola, vegetable, or avocado oil. Once the oil reaches 360ºF to 375ºF (183ºC to 190ºC), fry 2 to 3 donuts at a time for 2 minutes on each side (set a timer). Try not to overcrowd the pot as it will bring the temperature down. I HIGHLY recommend using a thermometer to monitor the oil.

6. Transfer cooked donuts onto a paper towel-lined cooling rack and allow to cool for a few minutes before rolling into your sugar.

7. Using a chopstick or small paring knife, create a small hole/pocket on the side of each donut and then fill with your prepared raspberry cheesecake filling. Devour right away and enjoy!!