15 Minute Homemade Donuts | Fast & Delicious Donuts Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes doughnut soft and fluffy? ›

How to Make Super Soft and Fluffy Sugar Glazed Doughnuts | Fried or Baked. There's only one way to make doughnuts even softer and fluffier and that is by scalding some of the flour. Scalding is a technique used to not only make bread softer, but also to make it stay soft for longer.

You can make delicious chocolate-glazed donuts without yeast using a simple baking powder-based dough.

Yeast. Yeast is a tiny yet magical organism that helps doughs of all kinds rise. Without yeast, your doughnuts might resemble dense disks rather than fluffy rings. There are a variety of types of yeasts available for purchase, and some bakers even capture native yeasts to create their own unique doughnut dough.

Underproofed – leads to stiffer (denser) donuts that don't puff up well when fried. Cracked donuts – this may have happened if you used a cutter and it wasn't sharp enough to cut through the dough cleanly. Or the dough is underproofed or too cold.

Use real cake flour – not DIY cake flour!

DIY substitutions don't really cut it, and AP flour will not create doughnuts with that same soft texture. Also, bleached cake flour will work best. Unbleached (like King Arthur Baking) won't absorb as much moisture, and you may end up with doughnuts that crumble while frying.

The secret ingredient, mashed potato, gives the donuts moistness and tenderness. It's rumored potato is in the secret Krispy Kreme recipe too! The first Krispy Kreme shop was opened in 1937 in North Carolina by Vernon Rudolph, who used his uncle's yeast-raised donut recipe.

Excessive uses of yeast to hurry the doughs along only causes gassiness, less tolerance to proofing and sometimes collapse when the doughnuts are removed from the fryer. It is not uncommon to use for doughnuts a combination of baking powder and yeast. Water, Don't use too much water in the dough.

Each side has its proponents, who will argue fiercely that yeast doughnuts are better because they're lighter, and won't stick to the roof of your mouth, or that cake doughnuts are better because they're more filling, more dunkable, and more, well, like cake.

Place your donuts in storage bags or airtight containers.

Definitely put them in airtight bags or containers though so they stay fresh! The only time this isn't a good idea is when your donuts are cream-filled. In that case, you'll want to store them in the fridge so they don't spoil.

Perfect your technique

Spoon the batter into the lightly greased doughnut pans, filling the wells to about 1/4" shy of the rim. Bake the doughnuts for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove them from the oven, and wait 5 to 7 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto a rack.

How does Krispy Kreme make their donuts so fluffy? ›

A batch of original glazed starts with Krispy Kreme doughnut mix, water and yeast, the same single-cell fungi used to make bread rise. The yeast is what makes the original glazed so light -- it puffs the dough up with air, so it's not dense like a cake doughnut (more on this later).

Unless the dough is completely relaxed, it will shrink and become misshapen as it is cut. When rolling out the dough, try to get the entire piece down to a uniform thickness (usually ¼" to ½", or 6.4 mm to 1.3 cm, thick).

If you see some cracking in the donut while frying it is perfectly normal and a good sign. This will provide more nooks for the glaze to pool in! Those are my favorite donuts! This also tells you enough baking powder was added to get a good rise from the dough.

Use buttermilk: Buttermilk helps to tenderize the dough and add moisture. Add eggs: Eggs add richness and moisture to the dough. Add oil: Oil helps to keep the donuts moist.

Airtight container keep your donuts from getting too stale to take a bite into, but do this and you'll be thanking us later. You must finish them within 1 or days though. In case your donuts are cream-filled or have some kind of dairy-based topping on them, it is best to keep them in the refrigerator.

The liquid was too hot, or not hot enough.

It will usually tell you to use “warm” water. The water temperature should be between 110 - 115 F degrees. If your liquid is too hot (i.e. boiling) it will kill the yeast and prevent the rise. If it's not hot enough, the yeast won't have the heat needed to bloom.