brioche donuts- revisited
because I hear ya loud and clear!
hey hi hello!
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So a few months back I shared my brioche donut recipe for bake club. Since then there has been a mixed bag of results in terms of success when you guys make them. Some of y’all are getting really beautiful supple dough while others are ending up with an oily mess. Which the recipe is high in butter fat (I mean, come on that’s where all the flavors AT) but, that shouldn’t be the case. And, like, when almost everyone is having a successful go using my recipes and one person is like hey, this came out… not so great. It’s like okay, well this is a you problem, could be a skill level thing, an ingredients used thing, an altitude thing, a humidity thing, but at the end of the day, if it’s just one person it’s a you thing- not a recipe thing. Which honestly, GREAT, not because you failed, but then it’s easier for me to help you figure out what’s going on/ what to fix/ where. Because, I want these recipes to work for ya. Why would I not? That’s literally my work and my name??? I’m not putting out untested shitty recipes just to fill content quotas okay. Groceries are expensive, your time is precious and you deserve recipes that yield something delicious.
Which is all to say, if something isn’t working for people, or something in the ingredient list is too hard of a find for people. I will revisit things and make it better, and more universal. Which like, I will say, is tough, because there are so many factors that can make or break it for a recipe once it’s out there. I can only do so much and test so much as a single person, with access to a single oven. But, like I always say, a recipe is a starting point and not a finish line. A consistent 30 minute bake time for a cake in my oven set to 335F could be a 35 minute bake in your 335F oven. It doesn’t mean the recipe is wrong, it’s just we’re all working with different equipment and need to focus on visual cues over hard set times (she says’ again for the 1,000,000th time).
In addition to the handful of people having a hard time with the recipe, the OG version I’ve been making for years just isn’t my ideal donut anymore. So, back to the drawing board. From the original I shared back in October, I dropped the rice flour, in part because it was harder for some people to get their hands on. I also dropped the buttermilk powder. In remaking the recipe, the point of these two ingredients contradicts each other. The rice flour was mean to drop the amount of gluten in the recipe for something lighter and airier while the buttermilk powder is meant to bring a more toothsome bite. And it’s like okay, why have two harder to source ingredients… to just contradict each other. I also worked on upping the hydration of the dough for a donut with a more open and airy crumb. Essentially, I wanted a lighter donut with less ingredients.
Another pain point in donut making is how oily the dough can get when frying. While maintaining the right temp can really help cut down on that, the fat you choose to fry in also plays a huge role. I recently made the switch to frying donuts in Crisco (Vegetable Shortening) and it has made a world of difference. Because in the process of re-working this recipe I sized up how big I portion the filled donuts. Which meant, to get them fully fried though, you gotta fry them for a little longer. But, the longer the donuts sit in oil the more susceptible they are to becoming oil logged. These donuts fried for almost 3.5 minutes on each side, and yet, we’re the least perceivably greasy donuts I’ve ever made. This is due to the fact that vegetable shortening is a saturated fat and is more stable for frying than it’s unsaturated counterparts.
Some tips for donut making!!
Wooden chopsticks work great for flipping the donuts- gently push down on one edge and watch the donuts somersault!
You can also use a fork! When using a fork though I like to flip from under the donut.
Keep a quick read thermometer handy to check the oil temp and adjust as needed! If the oil gets too hot you can add some more oil from the bottle to help bring the temp down quicker! You can also opt for a table top fryer (if you fry often!), this will maintain the oil temp without you having to constantly mess around with the flame on the range.
When sugaring the donuts don’t let them cool down too much otherwise the sugar won’t stick to the donut!
Oil temp is important for donuts! If you add the dough to the oil when it’s too cold it will soak up a lot of the oil in the time it takes to finish. On the other hand too hot oil will lead to dark donuts with raw centers.
As the donuts fry the moisture within is what creates the bubbling around the dough. When the bubbling stops and the donuts are golden is ultimately when it’s time to flip. Focus on the visuals cues in conjunction with the timing outlined in the directions.
Use this google excel sheet from THIS post to scale these recipes up and down as you please to better suit the batch sizes you wish to make :)