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Doughnuts are fried rather than baked, but they belong in this section: the doughs are baking doughs, the leavening is baking leavening, and in practice they come out of the same shop as the bread. The site's older pages spell it donuts; both refer to the same thing.
Part of Baking.
The two doughs
Everything on a doughnut counter is one of two things, and the split matters more than the flavour does.
- Yeast-raised — a soft enriched dough, proofed and then fried. Light, chewy, and the base for glazed, filled, and bar-shaped doughnuts. See yeast and leavening and baking fats on enrichment.
- Cake doughnuts — a chemically leavened batter, denser and more crumbly, fried or baked. Old-fashioned, buttermilk, apple cider, and most of the spiced varieties. See quick breads, and buttermilk recipes for the old-fashioned formula.
Crullers are the third case: choux paste, leavened by its own steam. See pastry.
Frying
- Oil temperature and what happens either side of it — too cool and the dough drinks oil, too hot and the outside colours before the inside sets
- Smoke points and oil choice — see cooking oils
- Oil turnover and filtering
- Baked and air-fried alternatives, and the texture trade they make; see air fry Recipes and Cooking Appliances
Finishing
Glazes, icings, sugars, fillings, and toppings. The site's older working list runs to dozens of combinations across four rough groups — plain sugars and glazes, fruit, chocolate, and the sweet-savoury end.
Cream and custard fillings are the point where a home operation runs into the limits of the cottage-food exemption, because they need refrigeration. See cottage food baking.
Related
Baked goods · bakeries · cakes · cookies · pastry · rye · flatbreads