How to make donut fluffy and light?!
How to make donut fluffy and light?
I've tried several yeast donut recipes, but they always turn out heavy and with bread-like consistency.The dough usually is sticky at the beginning and I cant knead it without using more flour than necessary. could this be the cause? or is there some secret ingredient I should add? I was hoping to atleast duplicate the fluffiness of a krispy kreme donut -- to no avail. :)
Answers:
I did this for over six years so i feel somewhat qualified in answering this. Krispy Kreme is not known for being fluffy really so shoot higher than that!
I think you are not proofing your dough enough. WIth raised donuts, like yeast bread, you need to give it moisture and warmth to get it to rise properly. We used a corporate mix along with yeast and water but I would always use flour on the table to roll them out and cut them. It shouldn't be such a sticky dough when you mix it. It should be like a soft bread dough before rolling it out. Try not to overknead it though and let it rise longer before frying. I let them rise for anywhere from 20-35 min in a humidity chamber but there are a lot of factors to consider. The temp of the water and the room temp are the 2 biggest.
It's something you learn by doing over time. Watch for the dough to be soft and light, let it rise until pushing on it leaves a soft mark that slowly fills back in. This is after rolling and cutting them out of course.
You roll the dough after you first mix it and form it into a ball like bread dough. Then cut it and "proof" it by letting it stand in a warm place like an oven that you had turned on for about 10 min. and turned back OFF again. Put a pan of hot water in the bottom rack, just an inch to give it that moisture and put the rack of donuts in the oven on the top rack. You won't be able to move them after they proof without messing them up so put them on the rack you will be dropping into the oil to fry.