The best oil for frying donuts

Let’s face it, we’ve all had those days when all you want to do is stuff yourself with a dozen donuts, and even better, when those donuts are fresh out of the fryer!

However, there is no worse feeling in the world than finally taking a bite of the donut, only to be overwhelmed by a nauseatingly intense oily taste. Most of the time, disappointing donuts are due to the type of oil used to fry them.

So what is the best oil to fry your donuts? Any neutral flavored oil will be best for frying the donuts. Canola oil and sunflower oil are neutral oils that are readily available and very inexpensive. We recommend using canola oil because of its light color, mild flavor, and high smoke point.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what the ultimate oil should be, the different oil options for frying your donuts, and what some of the best donut shops in the world use to fry them.

How donuts are fried

Let’s start with a brief look at how donuts are made, specifically the frying part.

When making donuts from scratch (highly recommended, by the way), you start by activating the yeast . This step is important to create that nice fluffy texture that donuts have.

Next, you follow the steps in the recipe and combine a bunch of ingredients until you finally knead and shape your dough into donut shapes.

Now the frying part begins.

First, let’s clear up a big misconception about frying donuts: frying the dough doesn’t give the donuts the texture.

It is very important when making donuts from scratch that you follow all the steps to create an airy dough before frying. The frying part just crisps up the outside.

Therefore, the perfect donut should be fully cooked, slightly crisp on the outside, and the perfect golden color. You shouldn’t notice excess oil either.

All this is determined solely by the oil in which the donuts are fried.

Oil requirements for frying donuts

The most important aspect when choosing an oil is to make sure that it has a neutral taste. By this we mean that it should not impart any strong flavor to your dough during frying.

This can be determined by tasting the oil: Dip the tip of a teaspoon into the oil and taste it to determine which has the most neutral flavor.

Your oil should be able to reach temperatures between 345 and 390 degrees Fahrenheit without smoking or reaching its flash point (the fire point).

Choose an oil with a smoke point of at least 400 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid any mishaps in the kitchen.

This point has nothing to do with the ability of a certain oil to fry perfect donuts, but with the feasibility of using said oil regularly.

When frying any type of food, the oil needs to be replaced at some point. When frying donuts, you need a lot of oil to do so, so we don’t recommend using very expensive oil, as it will end up costing you a fortune.

The best oils for frying donuts

Below we’ll look at a couple of shortening and oil options and discuss many different aspects of each. This will allow you to make an informed decision on which one is best to use.

1. Sunflower oil (refined)

This oil is made from pressed sunflower seeds. You might think it has a very strong flavor, like the flavored categories, but most sunflower oils are refined, meaning they went through a refining process that stripped them of their natural rich flavor and color.

This means you get a very neutral-tasting oil (which won’t impart any off-flavors into the batter) and also a light color, which means your donut can fry longer before turning too dark.

It also has a very high smoke point, between 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit , which makes it great for frying just about anything, especially donuts.

Also, sunflower oil is very affordable and can even be purchased in bulk containers at very low prices.

2. Canola Oil - Our recommendation

Canola oil can be found in both refined and unrefined forms. Any unrefined oil has a much lower smoke point, a much darker color, and a more expensive price.

However, canola oil in its refined form is a very popular choice when it comes to frying. And for good reason.

It has a very high smoke point, which makes it perfect for cooking your donuts before coloring them on the outside.

Refined canola oil has even less flavor than sunflower oil. This means that the dough of your donuts will be even less affected than if you use sunflower oil.

It is also lighter in color than sunflower oil, which is also very beneficial when frying donuts for a long time over low heat.

And because it’s made from flowers and not seeds, it’s much cheaper than sunflower oil and is available virtually everywhere in the world.

Other Oils to Consider (and What Not to Use)

Below are some oils that are fine for frying donuts, but not the best. There are a couple of options on this list that we recommend avoiding completely when frying anything. Let’s start with what to avoid.

Vegetable shortening

Shortening refers to any fat that is solid at room temperature . Margarine is the best-known example of vegetable shortening.

There are more reasons why shortening wouldn’t work than why it would, so we’ll talk about those.

First of all, shortening tends to burn at high temperatures (it turns brown or black). This alone, even though it may reach the right temperature for frying, means you’ll be frying in brown oil that will immediately be transmitted to your batter.

Second, you have to melt the butter before using it. Unfortunately, once this is done, even if the melted version doesn’t turn brown, you won’t be able to store it conveniently or effectively.

Shortening also has a much shorter shelf life than other oils, and while not that expensive on a small scale, it would become very expensive if used for frying (which requires a large volume of liquid).

However, there are other types of shortening that franchisees use along with other oils to fry their products.

Butter

Butter is the worst possible option for frying. Although very expensive, it has a smoke point of only 250 degrees Fahrenheit before burning completely.

Butter is also not neutral in taste or color, which means that it will affect the dough too much during frying.

flavored oil

When we say flavored oils, we don’t mean oils that have been infused with other ingredients, but rather oils that are made from flavored ingredients.

This includes peanut oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, and olive oil, to name a few.

Unrefined flavored oils

Most of these oils are found primarily in their unrefined forms. This means that they have not been processed in a way that takes away their natural flavors and colors.

The color of these oils is very intense golden . However, this will give the donuts a beautiful golden brown color, too soon. Your donut dough will still be raw in the center while the outside is already the perfect color.

You will then have to continue frying the donut until it is fully cooked, but then it will have a dark brown color and a slightly burnt taste.

The flavors of these oils will immediately carry over to the dough, and you’ll be left with a weird (or weirdly good) tasting donut.

Unrefined oils have a very low smoke point. We recommend using only fats and oils with smoke points above 400 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent accidents from occurring.

Flavored oils are very expensive and it is not feasible to use them as a frying oil. Its collection and processing methods are much more complex than, for example, sunflower oil.

The ingredients from which these oils are obtained are also more expensive than the seeds and flowers, which contributes to their high price.

Refined flavored oils

You can get these oils in refined form, but they are much more scarce.

These refined flavored oils will be less intensely colored, which could contribute to the color problem mentioned above. However, its color is still much darker than canola oil and you will most likely run into the same timing issue.

You will also continue to add flavor to your donut dough, although much less intense.

Since our palates are not used to non-traditional oils (like sesame oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and even olive oil), anything other than that will be immediately noticeable and register as a flavor. strange, more in the desserts than in the salty.

When oils have been refined, their smoke point increases, but some of these oils, even in their refined form, still do not have a high enough smoke point to be used as a frying oil.

And finally, even if, for example, these refined versions could work exactly the same as canola and sunflower oil (which they don’t), they are more expensive than those oils and will still be a waste of money having to replace them. constantly.

Oil type table

What oil does Krispy Kreme fry its donuts in?

Krispy Kreme is very open about how they fry their donuts and what oils they use.

It is not surprising to find that they use a combination of different fats. The reason is that different fats have different qualities. Each donut maker has specific goals when making their donuts (to distinguish themselves from the competition).

Some may want crunchier donuts, others may want healthier donuts. Krispy Kremes’ goal is to create a donut with zero grams of trans fat per serving (donut).

They do this by using a mixture of palm oil, soybean oil, cottonseed and canola oil. Of course, we don’t know the proportions of each, and this oil would be made by someone else, not them specifically.

Fun fact: Krispy Kreme requires all its suppliers to be members of the RSPO and adhere to sustainable farming of ingredients, primarily palm oil.

What oil does Dunkin Donuts fry their donuts in?

We haven’t been able to find a definitive answer about the oil that Dunkin Donuts uses to fry their donuts.

Our best guess, based on research, is that they used to fry their donuts in oils that contained tons of trans fat, but a couple of years ago, they made the switch to palm oil.

Of course, we believe that, just like Krispy Kreme, they use a combination of oils to achieve the best result.

What kind of oil do bakeries use to fry donuts?

It’s almost impossible to say exactly what type of oil bakeries use to fry their donuts, but if we had to make a guess, it would certainly be a profitable oil, thus eliminating any refined or unrefined oil from our “flavored” categories. mentioned above.

Another factor to keep in mind is that most bakeries focus on the flavors that their dough provides and do not want to add any flavor during frying.

They would also definitely need refined oils (ie with a higher smoke point) to be able to continuously fry the donuts.

This will also remove oils from the unrefined categories, leaving us with only a handful of options.

Like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme, they most likely buy their oil from a supplier made up of a mix of oils like palm, sunflower, and canola.