Whether you spell it Donut or Doughnut, it has the same meaning. However, donuts can be very different in terms of ingredients, processing, and eating qualities. In my previous post, I talked about yeast raised donuts. Those are quite fluffy and delicious. However, they only keep their good eating qualities for a short time – typically less than a day or even hours. Cake donuts are more “cake-like” and typically large baking manufacturers prefer to make these because of the longer shelf-life.
Cake donuts are basically fried cakes and their shape depends on how they are cut and deposited. Just like yeast-raised donuts, cake donuts use fry fat as the heating (or heat transfer) medium and the fry fat becomes part of the donut.
Manufacturers use pre-mixes from ingredient companies to save time and prevent ingredient scaling mishaps. Typical ingredient ranges (based on total pre-mix weight):
55-65% Flour (usually 50/50 Hard & Soft Wheat, NOT CAKE FLOUR!)
18-25% Sugar
3-9% Fat (not fry fat)
0.5-3% Egg Yolks (Dried)
3-5% Not Fat Dried Milk
1.75-3% Leavening
0.75-1.5% Salt
38-44% Water (Added by baker, not included in pre-mix ingredients)
55-65% Flour (usually 50/50 Hard & Soft Wheat, NOT CAKE FLOUR!)
18-25% Sugar
3-9% Fat (not fry fat)
0.5-3% Egg Yolks (Dried)
3-5% Not Fat Dried Milk
1.75-3% Leavening
0.75-1.5% Salt
38-44% Water (Added by baker, not included in pre-mix ingredients)
Take the ingredients and mix it 1-2 minutes at low speed and 1-2 minutes at medium speed (desired batter temperature is 72-78 degrees F or 22-26 C). Be careful not to over-mix the batter. Otherwise, you may get a donut with smaller volume with tough eating characteristics. Give it 10 to 20 minutes of floor time before depositing it into the fryer. Each donut averages 1.5 ounces or 42.5 grams. The distance between the depositor and fry fat should be 1.5 to 2 inches and the distance of the drop plate to the surface of the fry fat should be 1.5 to 2 inches. Fry the donuts between 45 to 60 seconds with the fry fat temperature at about 370 to 380 degrees F (188-193 C). The donuts should take 3-7 seconds to rise to the surface (old fashion style donuts take 10-11 seconds). The smaller the donut, the shorter the frise time should be. After frying, remove the donuts from the fry fat and allow them to cool for 20 to 25 minutes to a temperature of 90 to 95 degrees F (32-35 C). This is when you have the option of adding a finishing coating or glaze on the donuts.
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