Hi everyone! I have a question for the group, but first, some background info. I work at a large country club and we are launching a new menu soon. It's a sports lounge/tapas style outlet, and we pride ourselves on making everything on the menu to order. No pre-cooked items allowed.
Our Exec chef asked for doughnuts to be on the dessert menu. The kitchen is small and there's no convenient place to hold un-cooked yeast dough reliably, and cake doughnuts are not an option either. To make things even more fun, we run the pastry dept. commissary-style, so the final prep will be done by whichever cook is assigned the fryer station on any given night.
I've been experimenting with par-baking doughnut dough and then browning it in the fryer for service, and also poaching the dough in low temp. oil before the final hot-fry stage (like you'd do for French fries.). both methods kind-of work, but the texture of the finished product is always drier than it should be and the crust/skin is off, too.
so my question is: has anyone else tried this and can give me some pointers? or have any other solution to the problem?
Our Exec chef asked for doughnuts to be on the dessert menu. The kitchen is small and there's no convenient place to hold un-cooked yeast dough reliably, and cake doughnuts are not an option either. To make things even more fun, we run the pastry dept. commissary-style, so the final prep will be done by whichever cook is assigned the fryer station on any given night.
I've been experimenting with par-baking doughnut dough and then browning it in the fryer for service, and also poaching the dough in low temp. oil before the final hot-fry stage (like you'd do for French fries.). both methods kind-of work, but the texture of the finished product is always drier than it should be and the crust/skin is off, too.
so my question is: has anyone else tried this and can give me some pointers? or have any other solution to the problem?