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Donut glaze woes.. please help! Thank you.

jvlin's picture
jvlin

Donut glaze woes.. please help! Thank you.

Hi everyone! It's me, the guy that always has trouble with donuts. This time, though, I'm having trouble with the donut glaze. Quite literally every donut glaze recipe i've seen online has been wrong; those donuts were made for home consumption. What the recipes don't tell you is that the glaze will take half an hour to set. And on top of that, the glaze will stay dry for a long period of time.

Now, I've been selling donuts at the farmers' market for a few weeks at a loss, and I overheard a couple talking about my donuts, saying they didn't feel like buying them again because they were "the donuts that melted." It was like a dagger to the heart.

I've found that heating the glaze makes it set a lot faster, but the glaze will still melt very quickly. It also might be a problem with my donuts themselves, as I've noticed that they are quite moist and will get soggy if placed on a plastic (like a container or plate), but are fine if placed in paper boxes.

Here is the chocolate glaze recipe I am using:

200g Powdered Sugar

15g Cocoa Powder

20g Chocolate Chips

40g Water

 

I pretty much melt everything in a double boiler and glaze the donuts while the glaze is hot. They dry quickly, but then they melt after a few hours, even if they're in a cool place. One thing I've noticed is that they melt specifically where they are touching the other donuts (I stack them sideways).

If there are any donut experts, please help me. My business is kind of hinging on this. Thank you!

bbegley's picture
bbegley

Powdered agar may do the trick.  Google it.

bbegley's picture
bbegley
jvlin's picture
jvlin

Thanks so much!

MANNA's picture
MANNA

Here is my suggestion. Get some powdered gelatin. I buy the big commercial tubs, it lasts forever. Place a tablespoon in your 40g COLD water and let it bloom, about 5 min. Then melt your sugar/cocoa/chips in the double boiler. Once everything is melted and still warm add in the gelatin/water and stir to melt and combine with the chocolate. Make sure it is thoroughly incorporated. Dip, dry and you should be good. You will need to package some and see if they still melt when touching. Also, make sure your donuts are completely cool before dipping. Kept in a plastic bag will trap moisture and spell doom for your donuts. Give this a shot I will also use the modified recipe and we can compare notes to figure this out. I like using gelatin to stabilize my whipped confections. I use it to stabilize whipped creme and frost cakes with it. It doesn't break down even after being on cakes for days. And one more thing. If this works out for you when you see that couple at the market that talked about your donuts, give them a dozen for free. Nicely say you overheard their concern and have fixed it and please enjoy these donuts on me.

jvlin's picture
jvlin

Great! Thank you so much. That means a lot to me! I will definitely try this, as well as the agar suggestion above. Cheers!

Joyofgluten's picture
Joyofgluten

It's been eons since i was involved in donut production, but I remember that our glaze was very good and that the  formula contained glucose, *simple syrup,  powdered sugar and water, this was brought to a good boil. The hot glaze was poured into a metal trough, a screen was mounted on top, the hot yeast donuts were slid onto said screen and glaze was poured over with a plastic jug/scoop, what didn't stick dripped back into the tank. This glaze dried fast, firm and packed well without messy problems...hmmm classic 

*simple syrup= a huge whack of sugar disolved in a small amount of water then brought to a boil. This can also be used to thin stiff chocolate/maple icings

Hope that's of some help and good luck with your sticky problem

cheers

daniel

gerhard's picture
gerhard

I don't believe that you can get away from sticky icing, sugar is hygroscopic so the higher the humidity the shorter the time for your product to get sticky.  Being in a market environment is probably going to make it difficult to prevent this, a nice air-conditioned building would probably be the best bet for long shelf life.

Gerhard

jaywillie's picture
jaywillie

You also might try some Instant Clear-Jel. 

MANNA's picture
MANNA

I love ICJ for my pies!

bbegley's picture
bbegley

Love to hear what you tried and how it worked.

MANNA's picture
MANNA

My last thought on this is more time consuming and easily messed up. You temper the chocolate glaze.

gerhard's picture
gerhard

I don't know what temper means when applied to a sugar based glaze, I can easily temper chocolate but wouldn't know how to temper this.

Gerhard

MANNA's picture
MANNA

You temper the whole thing just as you would chocolate by itself. It helps to align all the sugar crystals in the mix and make it more stable.

gerhard's picture
gerhard

If you say so but I can't picture tempering a glaze.

Gerhard

MANNA's picture
MANNA

I have not personally done this. Reading through all my books and searching out chocolate glaze, some of them say to temper it still. Honestly, what could it hurt? I would need to try making two glazes and tempering one. Im waiting to see the results from the original poster. King Arthur posted today about their pumpkin doughnuts. May have to make those and try the glaze on them. Happy baking!

tjmx0512's picture
tjmx0512

 You have to be very very careful not to get the chocolate over 94 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you do you will change the temper of the chocolate and it will melt at the slightest provocation.

Maverick's picture
Maverick

2 year old post, but always nice to have more information on chocolate yumminess.