HOW TO MAKE DONUTS

Plain for fancy, donuts are a quick, easy way to make and sell, according to Erlinda Ferrer-Soriano, lecturer at the ESF Cakes and Bread House. Mother who usually prepare their kids’ merienda can shoot two birds with one stone by preparing more than their kids’ need to earn more. Sell to friends and neighbors, tap coffee shops and offer donuts for concession, or accept orders.

Start-up capital is P1,000 and time to finish is 2 to 3 hours.

Materials Needed

Only a few utensils and ingredients are needed to make dough and icing. If you don’t have the utensils, you need about “845 to buy the following from the supermarket:

Bowls and measuring cups Rolling pin Cutter Doughnut cutter Weighing scale Baking trays Serving trays

Spatula Plastic pastry bag with tips Manual whips Stir-fry pan Long chopsticks Strainer Gas stove

Around P300 is needed for the ingredients. To make dough, you need:

• 1 kilo bread flour
• 160 g white sugar
• 10 g iodized salt
• 20 g instant yeast
• 0.5 liter of drinking water
• 50 g of lard

To make icing and powder coating, set aside two sets of 227 grams powdered sugar (one box makes two sets which is P35) and 1/4 cup of powdered milk. You need 50 ml of cooking oil for frying.

Procedure

1. The first process is preparing the dough. Sift a kilo of bread flour on a clean tabletop. Create a valley in the center and pour in the water in which you dissolve white sugar, iodized salt, and instant yeast. Then carefully mix in the flour by scraping the inner part until everything is mixed.
2. Start kneading the dough by folding it toward you, then pushing it down and away from you with the heel of your hand. You may also use a mixer if you have one.
3. Add the lard while continuously kneading the dough until its surface becomes smooth and no longer sticky. Set aside and cover the dough with a bowl for 30 minutes to prevent it from having a dry or scaly surface.
4. While waiting, make the sugar icing by mixing powdered milk, powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup of water. Beat the mixture using manual whips until its consistency is similar to condensed milk. Set aside and go back to your dough.
5. Also, prepare the powder coating by mixing powdered sugar and powdered milk until the consistency is even.
6. After 30 minutes, get dough and sprinkle flour on top of it. Then flatten it using a rolling pin until it is half an inch thick. Cut pieces using a doughnut cutter. Before putting aside, prick the doughnuts with a barbecue stick or a fork to avoid surface surface swelling during frying. Place the doughnut cuts in the baking tray and allow it to expand for 30 minutes or until it attains the desired size and volume, but nor more than an hour.
7. Pour cooking oil into pan. When oil is hot enough, fry doughnuts until golden brown, but remember to keep distance between pieces. Use a chopstick to flip them over, to cook the other side, and to get them out of the pan. Use chopstick to pick up the fried doughnuts to keep from distorting their shape. Drip the oil from the doughnuts before placing them on a serving tray.
8. For a simple doughnuts, just dip in powder coating. For white frost doughnuts, dip one side in sugar icing prepared earlier. For a fancier doughnuts, add marshmallow or candy sprinkles on top. Serve or pack in boxes to sell.

Tips:

• Do clock the rising time, for over-risen dough will collapse or deflate.
• Don’t hold the cut doughnuts firmly to fry or they will collapse or deflate.
• Do cut frost. Use an improvised doughnuts cutter made from an empty tin can of milk and a cap of plastic bottle for the hole. You may also use barbecue sticks instead of chopsticks in cooking doughnuts.

How Much Will You Make

To get the retail price, add the costs of the ingredients, then another P15 for the packaging and for additional toppings or flavors. Multiply the sum by two to get a 100% markup, and then divide by the number of yield to get the price for each piece. Plain doughnuts usually go for P2.25 and P1.50, those wich icing for P7.00 and P3.00.

source: Mishell Malabaguio, www.entrepreneur.com.ph, photos by Jun Pinzon