Zitronen Berliner: German Lemon Donuts

0 Combine the luke warm milk and yeast and set aside for 5 minutes. It should be bubbly. If not, start over (your milk may have been too hot or too cold). In the bowl of a standmixer, combine all ingredients for the dough and knead for 10 minutes on the medium-low setting. Cover the bowl and allow to rest in a warm spot until doubled in size, about one hour.
1 In the meantime, make your lemon pudding. Combine all pudding ingredients except cream cheese in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, whisk on low for one minute and then pour into a bowl to cool down (you can transfer it to the fridge to speed up the cooling down process). To keep a skin from forming on the surface of the pudding, cover it with some plastic wrap. Once cool, whisk in the room temperature cream cheese. The Berliner filling is ready.
2 Divide the dough up into equal pieces (best to use a kitchen scale), and using flour-dusted hands, shape each portion into a ball. Allow to rest for another 30 minutes (covered up by a clean linen towel).
3 Preheat frying oil (I prefer using avocado oil) to 160°C/320°F and bake in batches (you will want the donuts to be able to swim on the surface) for about 2 ½ minutes on each side or until golden on the outside (flipping using your skimmer or a spotted spoon). They will fry for a total of 5 minutes.
4 Fill each Berliner with the lemon pudding from the side, using a decorating bag and filling tip and dust with powdered sugar. I also LOVE filling my Berliner with plum butter! So lecker!