How to Make Donuts

Donuts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Donuts or Doughnuts are familiar to almost everyone. This makes it an easy, fast selling, low capital home business. By creating your own brand, your own packaging, and your own taste and donuts recipes; you could start a business that could make it big – creativity is key.

Donuts are sweet snack usually sold in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets. Popular donuts franchises in the Philippines are Dunkin Donuts, Mister Donut, and a few others. Donuts are usually deep-fried from flour dough, and shaped in rings or flattened spheres that sometimes contain fillings and various toppings and flavorings.

Here are guides how to make donuts, including videos.

How to Make Donuts (Recipe 1)

Ingredients:


•    1 kilo bread flour
•    160 g white sugar
•    10 g iodized salt
•    20 g instant yeast
•    0.5 liter of drinking water
•    50 g of lard

Equipments Needed:

•    Bowls and measuring cups
•    Rolling pin
•    Cutter
•    Doughnut cutter
•    Weighing scale
•    Baking trays
•    Serving trays
•    Spatula
•    Plastic pastry bag with tips
•    Manual whips
•    Stir-fry pan
•    Long chopsticks
•    Strainer
•    Gas stove

Procedure:

1.    Prepare the dough. Sift a kilo of bread flour on a clean tabletop. Create a valley in the center and pour in the water in which you dissolve white sugar, iodized salt, and instant yeast. Then carefully mix in the flour by scraping the inner part until everything is mixed.
2.    Knead the dough. Use a mixer if you have one.
3.    Add the lard while continuously kneading the dough until its surface becomes smooth and no longer sticky. Set aside and cover the dough with a bowl for 30 minutes to prevent it from having a dry or scaly surface.
4.    Make the sugar icing by mixing powdered milk, powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup of water. Beat the mixture until its consistency is similar to condensed milk. Set aside and go back to your dough.
5.    Prepare the powder coating by mixing powdered sugar and powdered milk until the consistency is even.
6.    After 30 minutes, get dough and sprinkle flour on top of it. Then flatten it using a rolling pin until it is half an inch thick. Cut pieces using a doughnut cutter. Before putting aside, prick the doughnuts with a barbecue stick or a fork to avoid surface surface swelling during frying. Place the doughnut cuts in the baking tray and allow it to expand for 30 minutes or until it attains the desired size and volume, but nor more than an hour.
7.    Pour cooking oil into pan. When oil is hot enough, fry doughnuts until golden brown, but remember to keep distance between pieces. Use a chopstick to flip them over, to cook the other side, and to get them out of the pan. Use chopstick to pick up the fried doughnuts to keep from distorting their shape. Drip the oil from the doughnuts before placing them on a serving tray.
8.    For ordinary doughnuts, just dip in powder coating. For white frost doughnuts, dip one side in sugar icing prepared earlier. For fancier doughnuts, add marshmallow or candy sprinkles on top. Serve or pack in boxes to sell.



How to Make Chocolate Donuts (Recipe 2)

Ingredients

•    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•    1 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
•    2 teaspoons baking powder
•    1 teaspoon salt
•    4 large eggs
•    1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
•    1/3 cup buttermilk
•    5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
•    2 quarts fat (lard, crisco, or neutral oil) for frying
•    1/4 cup milk
•    2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
•    1 teaspoon vanilla
•    pinch of salt

Procedure:

1.    In a big bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder and set aside. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs for 1 minute, until they are lightened. Add the sugar, melted butter, and buttermilk and beat immediately for an additional minute. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together with a large rubber spatula, until they come together. Do not overmix.
2.     Liberally flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Give the dough a fold so it comes together in one mass, and then allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Liberally flour the top of the dough (it will be sticky, don't be afraid to use flour) and press it flat. Then, use a rolling pin to make the dough an even 1/2 inch thick. Using cutters dipped in flour, cut the doughnuts and place on a floured tray.
3.    Place heavy pot on the stove, pour in the oil and set the pot over medium heat. The goal is to get the oil to reach 375°F. Set up a cooling rack covered with paper towels next to the stove and get tongs, spiders, chopsticks, or strainers ready (whatever you prefer to turn the doughnuts and remove them from the hot oil). On another burner, warm the milk in a small saucepan set over low heat until the milk begins to steam. Remove it from heat and add the confectioner's sugar, pinch of salt, and vanilla and whisk until they are smooth. Pour the glaze into a bowl and set the bowl over a small saucepan of water and set aside.
4.    Once the oil has reached 375°F, add the doughnuts, one at a time. Once the doughnut bobs to the surface, fry it for approximately 2 minutes more before turning it and fry for an additional 2 minutes on the other side. Open to ensure that it is cooked; fry the rest in similar fashion.
5.     Glazing: Place the pot of water with the bowl of glaze set over it over low heat and stir to bring it back to a gooey liquid. Remove from heat and use your fingers to carefully submerge each of the doughnuts in the glaze. Place the glazed doughnuts on a clean cooling rack to dry. The glaze will become more translucent as it dries.
Sources: seriouseats.com, Mishell Malabaguio, entrepreneur.com.ph