Star Anise Doughnuts with Lychee Rose Caramel Dipping Sauce

I’ll admit that the inspiration for this recipe came to me in one of possibly the least exotic locations, during one of my many trips to the local Lidl, a place I often frequent when in need of a curiosity fix; meandering as I do along it’s ramshackle isles can throw up any number of weekly changing and often obscure produce. In this instance giant (and cheap) cans of lychees; I had the sudden urge for a summery dessert, possibly brought on by an infrequent bout of sunshine, I could well be wrong on this point. In any case, I fancied making something highly fragrant and lightly exotic, doughnuts are obviously my current obsession, so they made the obvious base.

I made these in a miniature size as I did with my cardamom and rose petal sugar ones, using the same recipe I have through this whole episode of mine, making them the ideal dainty nibble to accompany a gin lychee martini as I did here.

Taking one sixth of the whole original doughnut recipe, I made a small single portion of six miniature ones, crushing a single star anise in a pestle and mortar to add to the dough. These only needed frying for around a minute at 180 degrees.

The caramel I’m afraid was a bit more of a haphazard method as so many of my recipes are; starting with a layer of muscovado sugar (this is what I usually use and why the caramel looks so dark) in a heavy based saucepan, cook until melted and starting to boil and darken in colour, then add a couple of knobs of butter, stirring as it froths. Add some juice from the can of lychees, a couple of drops of rosewater and a little corn flour to thicken if needed.

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