Making Great Donuts Using a Donut Fryer

If you work in a bakery and make donuts, it may be a good idea to know and learn how to make a great cake donut. Luckily, we are here to help you make the perfect cake donut using a donut fryer. There are only a few steps, and followed correctly, will yield a great looking and great tasting donut.

Caution

It goes without saying, that shortening at temperatures of near 400 degrees can cause serious injury, please always be safe and cautious.

Making Sure Your Batter Temperature is Correct

This is the first trick to great donuts should be followed closely. If your batter is too warm the donuts will lack volume and may come out misshapen. If the batter is too cold, the donuts will have to stay under longer and fry too slowly, causing them to crack. We recommend a batter temperature of 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, but make sure to check the manufacturer’s instructions as the temperature of the mix may change a bit.

Using the Correct Floor Time

Floor time is to donuts what proofing time is to dough. If you leave the donuts too long to prove, they can gas off and your donuts will lose volume and shape. A floor time of about 10 minutes should be good, allowing the baking powder in your donuts to react with the water as well as allowing your shortening to penetrate through the donut. Do not exceed 30 minutes though, this may cause your donuts to absorb too much shortening, leaving you with a donut that may fall apart in the fryer. Having a good donut proofer can really help when it comes to proofing as they are very convenient and made for production.

Using the Correct Frying Temperature

Keeping a shortening temperature of 370 to 380 degrees Fahrenheit will yield the perfect donut, though most old-fashioned recipes will suggest about 340 degrees Fahrenheit. If your shortening is too hot you could get a donut that will fry too quickly on the outside, lose volume and be too dense. Too cold and the donut will spread or form large rings and may crack open, as well as absorb too much shortening, leaving you with a very greasy donut.

Shortening Level

This is important when using a donut fryer because if there is not enough shortening, the donuts may come out irregular, cracked and rough crusted. Too much shortening may cause the donuts to cook unevenly because they may flip while submerged and cook unevenly. We recommend having at least 1 to 1-1/2 inches between the cutter and the shortening. If your having trouble figuring out how to get your shortening into or out of your kettle, you may want to consider getting a filtration system. It depends on the type of fryer you are using, but Stratton Sales has Fryer Filters that can pump shortening into or out of your fryer, without all the mess and mishaps.

Absorption of Shortening

The final trick in making donuts is all about the amount of shortening your donuts absorb. We recommend 1-1/2 to 3 oz of shortening per dozen, depending on the weight of the donut. The previous tips, when followed correctly, should make this easy. If not, your donuts may have not got enough shortening and they will not keep well. If they absorb too much shortening, they will be misshapen and may lose some of their volume. Remember to turn your donuts when they are golden brown. Turning them only once will help as well.

Another way to go when frying donuts is to use a Donut Robot©. Donut Robots© are rightly named because they are an automated donut dropper and fryer that can really help your bakery get great consistency and speed when making a lot of donuts for production. Check out the Stratton Sales website for info on all our Donut Robots©.

We hope this helps you in all your donut making adventures. From all of us here at Stratton Sales, good luck and happy baking