I recently purchased an electric doughnut maker and am about to embark on a baked doughnut spree. Having consulted the few recipes included with the machine along with some online options, I have noticed considerable variation in the recommended batter composition. I was wondering if anyone has seen or established a reliable set of baker's percentages for baked doughnuts they could share.
The two most consistent ratios among the recipes I've seen are:
Flour – 100% (naturally)
Sugar – 50%
After that, all bets seem to be off:
Fat (some combination of butter/oil) – 20%-35%
Egg – 25%-35%
Liquid (some combination of milk/buttermilk/sour cream/yogurt) – 70%-80%
I'm not concerned with the salt, spice, and leavening amounts – I'm more interested in the variations of the ingredients that contribute significant weight to the recipes.
Aside from the King Arthur and Epicurious recipes I found, no other recipes were able to supply weights so the percentages I supplied above are mostly estimates based on the assumption of a 5 oz. cup of flour (which I know is not universally applicable). My guess is that, as with most quickbreads, the recipe is probably robust with the amounts supplied more likely to correspond to simple volumetric measures and whole egg inclusion rather than weights (I'm pretty sure that the King Arthur recipe is based on volumes and the weighted versions you can query online are just conversions to weight based on their own established system – for example, in King Arthur's world, a cup of flour always weighs 4.25 oz.).
Anyway, can anybody offer me a reliable set of baker's percentages or weights for baked doughnuts that you have tested personally? I like to have these things worked out before I try new things.
Best Answer
I'm a big doughnut fan. I've watched a lot of Unique Sweets episodes and it seems that the shops with the best doughnuts usually use a standard brioche recipe as it is rich in flavour, but also yeast risen... Thus it gives you the perfect texture and flacvour.
I wouldn't use ANY bread recipe that it measured in volume. Weight is far more accurate, especially for something with sensitive chemistry like bread.