The Fresh Loaf

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Sourdough Doughnuts.

saintdoughco's picture
saintdoughco

Sourdough Doughnuts.

Hello Everyone!

I have recently setup a Sourdough Doughnut business, selling to local cafes. It's small scale at the moment (home based), but steadily growing. I mix everything by hand at the moment, it's a little bit of a workout but it's manageable. And they are 100% Sourdough, so I don't use any Commercial Yeast. It's about 3 day process, from mixing letting it rise, then bulk cold fermentation in fridge, then roll into dough balls for final rise.

Now I haven't had much trouble as the weather has been quite warm so they rise quite well and big, and make for a fluffy doughnut when I fry them, however the last couple of days have been quite cold and even though I rolled them earlier...they just didn't puff as much due to the cold weather. So on a normal warmish day, I would roll at around 4-5pm and let them rise overnight until 4am where I would get up and start frying. On the cold days I rolled at 2pm, but that still wasn't enough time as they never rose as big. And they weren't fluffy when I fried them.

Should I be rolling them much earlier to get that bigger rise, or trying to create some sort of hotbox, don't really have room for a proofer at the moment? Any help or tips would be great!

Thanks,

Britt :)

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

To proof them in a warmer place then why not tweak the recipe and use more starter?

saintdoughco's picture
saintdoughco

Thanks for replying, I do use a lot already. But i'll try that and adjust. I was actually just looking through the original recipe I currently use for the doughnuts, and saw that it used a stiff starter and got it ready the night before for mixing the next day, currently I just feed my Sourdough Starter I have sitting on the bench in the morning and mix around 11 am 12 when the starter is ready.

But I use up to 500 grams of starter for say a batch of 48 doughnuts. Whether if I did the stiff starter mix process, according to recipe I would only need to use 125grams. I use the recipe on mydailysourdoughbread.com.

So I might give that a try.

Thanks for advice :)

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Warmth is the key to making sure your starter is active enough to raise the doughnuts.

Warmth is the key to the donuts fluffing up properly. And it can be just a few degrees that makes a difference. You don't need a big proofer to achieve a warm enough environment for your starter and dough. If you have an oven or microwave with an incandescent light bulb (not LED), you have a proofer. Just make sure you don't turn the oven on while proofing!

Search "Proofers" "homemade proofer" and see what pops.

Other ideas:

Heating pad

Seedling heat pad (used under seedlings to keep soil warm)

Aquarium heaters in a large cooler

Clamp on lamp with a incandescent light bulb set close to product-either in a box or on the counter.

Warming lamps-type restaurants use to keep food warm before waitress grabs it to serve.

Food Dehydrator-most have warm settings and can be quite large. Set it up in a closet.

So take a look around and see what can be used as a proofer.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22456/homemade-proofer-4461-using-dyi-store-supplies

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17963/quothomemadequot-retarderproofer

Very ingenious and easy-scroll down:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40377/homemade-proofing-box

It can be done at any skill level!

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

There is not= replacement for warmth. and SD is very finicky when it comes to temperature.  The difference from 68 F to 78 F is about twice the time required to ferment and proof properly.  No way around it.  You need a way to control the temperature if you want consistent results

smachlab's picture
smachlab

Have you tried controlling the temperature of your dough by warming up your water? You can read more about DDT or Desired Dough Temperature on this forum or just google it. It may be helpful in your case.

saintdoughco's picture
saintdoughco

Thanks so much guys! I'll read through those links and test some things out. 

saintdoughco's picture
saintdoughco

I've also just realised that for some reason, I was not doing the pre-ferment like on the My Daily Sourdough Doughnut recipe. So Instead of doing this step in her recipe....

Sourdough starter

1. In the morning, prepare your sourdough starter. The starter will be stiff, more like a dough. Leave it to ferment until risen, puffed, and active. This may take from 4-12 hours, depending on the temperature and strength of your starter. 

.....I was feeding my Sourdough Starter in the morning and sometime the night before and building it up to what I needed, so some mornings I built it up to 600grams and then just dissolved that in my water. I'm not sure why I started doing it that way I just did. Its no that it didn't work out, as I made great tasting doughnuts that way and they rose in the hot weather fine. But when it was cold I'm thinking perhaps the starter wasn't as strong or something. Because the last week or so, i've done the pre-ferment starter like in the step above and left it overnight, and the doughnuts seems to be getting a much stronger rise, in saying that it is warmer weather again so I now that helps. But doing that step my starter much stronger which would help the rise of the doughnuts be stronger, yes?