A traditional Tuscan doughnut – or bombolone – is a light and airy yeast-based affair, often
filled with sticky jam. And yet Megan Hunter’s interpretation of these bear no yeast
whatsoever: they are sourdoughnuts!
I can vouch for the light and airy lusciousness and indeed as I bit into one I felt transported
to a Florentine bar. It’s a measure of Megan’s meticulous experimentation, tweaking and re-
tweaking until she was happy with the result, that her version appears a faithful replica of
the Italian. Unsurprising, then, that while the original inspiration for her doughnuts came
from a small family business in Tasmania, the recipe which Megan worked with for several
months was Italian.
‘I had been following them’, she tells me of the two Tasmanian sisters, ‘and got really
inspired to make my own version of a sourdough doughnut. So I messaged them to see if
they would mind and was given the all-go…’
Being sourdough, of course, means it’s a long slow process. ‘Our whole process’, she says,
‘starts 36 – 48 hours before they are ready to eat! There is a lot of proving and rolling and
then more proving…’ This means that Megan and her small team of family must start the
day before a market. Based in the Mullumbimby Industrial Estate, she shares a commercial
kitchen, and it’s there too that her range of glorious fillings are devised. I ask her which is
the most popular, to which she replies that they all are! ‘But if I had to choose’, she adds,
‘our signature lemon curd is up there!’
I’ve always loved the slightly chewy quality of a good doughnut, despite its lightness – and
cherish childhood memories of buying still-hot sugar-coated doughnuts, the ones with
holes, from the David Jones Food Hall in Canberra. Megan’s have precisely that quality as
well – with the added bonus that they’re fermented, so a healthier option!
SweetnSour Doughnuts can be found every Friday at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market 7 –
11am.
