Doughnuts are a delicious treat that are enjoyed around the world (quite frequently in the Asynt HQ), and they involve a variety of chemical processes to create their unique texture and flavour. With National Doughnut Week approaching (20-28 May 2023), I felt obliged to investigate the chemistry of doughnuts for you!
At their most basic, doughnuts are made from a dough that is typically a mixture of flour, water, sugar, eggs, and a leavening agent, which is usually yeast or baking powder. The dough is then shaped into circles or other shapes, fried in hot oil until golden brown, and then coated in sugar, glaze, or other toppings. I discovered that there’s actually a slightly healthier baked option too though.
The chemistry of doughnuts starts with the flour, which is usually made from wheat. Flour contains proteins called glutenin and gliadin, which combine to form gluten when mixed with water. Gluten gives dough its elasticity and allows it to stretch without breaking, which is important for creating the structure of the doughnut.
Sugar is added to the dough to sweeten it and to help create a desirable texture. When sugar is mixed with water, it dissolves and creates a syrup, which helps to hydrate the dough and create a moist, tender crumb. Sugar is the ingredient that makes the yeast begin the process, as glucose is sugar. The chemical formula is (C6-H12-O6). The yeast uses the sugar as a food source to replicate itself/making the dough rise.
Eggs are also added to the dough to provide flavour, texture, and structure. The proteins in the egg coagulate when heated, which helps to set the structure of the doughnut and create a fluffy, tender texture.
Finally, the leavening agent (yeast or baking powder) is added to the dough to help it rise. Yeast is a living organism that ferments the sugars in the dough, producing carbon dioxide gas as a by-product. This gas gets trapped in the gluten structure, causing the dough to expand and become light and airy. Baking powder, on the other hand, is a chemical leavening agent that reacts with the acidic components in the dough (such as buttermilk or vinegar) to produce carbon dioxide gas and help the dough rise.
When the dough is fried in hot oil, a variety of chemical reactions take place. The high heat causes the moisture in the dough to evaporate, which creates steam that helps to puff up the doughnut. The oil also reacts with the dough, creating a crispy, golden-brown crust on the outside through the Maillard Reaction. Much as I adore these traditionally fried doughnuts, I wanted to see if the result would be as great if I followed a recipe where the dough is baked instead. Could they compare? As a company, we avoid using oil baths in the lab due to the inherent safety risks, and the mess, and necessary waste disposal so oil-free was the only way to go!
Overall, the chemistry of doughnuts is a complex interplay of proteins, carbohydrates, and chemical reactions that come together to create a delicious treat – my test was a success and I’m proud to say that my family got through the whole batch of baked doughnuts in no time at all! There are loads of recipes online for you to try, but the baked doughnut recipe I used was from Dr Oetker. (Asynt is in no way affiliated with this brand and receives no benefit from providing this link). It’s simple enough that you could have a go with your kids, obviously with adult supervision (particularly for the baking), but that does mean that they’ll expect to eat the doughnuts too!
I’m sorry I don’t have any doughnuts left to share with you but I hope you enjoyed watching my efforts!
When the dough is fried in hot oil, a variety of chemical reactions take place. The high heat causes the moisture in the dough to evaporate, which creates steam that helps to puff up the doughnut. The oil also reacts with the dough, creating a crispy, golden-brown crust on the outside through the Maillard Reaction
Maillard Reaction
The Maillard reaction (/maɪˈjɑːr/ my-YAR; French: [majaʁ]) is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars to create melanoidins, the compounds which give browned food its distinctive flavor.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Maillard_reaction
The composition more particularly contains flour, sugar, chemical yeast and a shortening having a solid fat content of 25 to 50% at 10°C, of 3 to 20% at 20°C and of 1 to 10% at 30°C.
First and foremost, let's talk about the dough. The base of a donut lies in its dough, which is responsible for its texture, taste, and appearance. The three main ingredients involved are flour, yeast, and water. Flour provides structure and gluten, a protein that creates elasticity and helps the dough rise.
Doughnuts are usually deep fried from a flour dough, but other types of batters can also be used. Various toppings and flavors are used for different types, such as sugar, chocolate or maple glazing. Doughnuts may also include water, leavening, eggs, milk, sugar, oil, shortening, and natural or artificial flavors.
When the chemical leaveners baking powder and baking soda produce carbon dioxide, the batter is only able to trap some of the gas, which it does in small bubbles throughout the doughnut. All of this makes cake doughnuts denser than yeasted doughnuts.
The two lobes of dz2-orbital are distributed along z-axis and a sphere is situated with the nucleus at its centre. This sphere is called 'doughnut'. | Class 11CHEMISTRYSTRUCTURE OF ATOM.
When the dough is fried in hot oil, a variety of chemical reactions take place. The high heat causes the moisture in the dough to evaporate, which creates steam that helps to puff up the doughnut. The oil also reacts with the dough, creating a crispy, golden-brown crust on the outside through the Maillard Reaction.
We may be living in a doughnut. It sounds like Homer Simpson's fever dream, but that could be the shape of the entire universe – to be exact, a hyperdimensional doughnut that mathematicians call a 3-torus. This is just one of the many possibilities for the topology of the cosmos.
(aka Iced Pumpkin Cake Donuts, inspired by King Arthur Flour) Makes 12 to 18, depending on the size of your donut pans. 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree. 1 cup sugar. 3 eggs.
The Doughnut, or Doughnut economics, is a visual framework for sustainable development – shaped like a doughnut or lifebelt – combining the concept of planetary boundaries with the complementary concept of social boundaries. The name derives from the shape of the diagram, i.e. a disc with a hole in the middle.
Yeast. Yeast is a tiny yet magical organism that helps doughs of all kinds rise. Without yeast, your doughnuts might resemble dense disks rather than fluffy rings. There are a variety of types of yeasts available for purchase, and some bakers even capture native yeasts to create their own unique doughnut dough.
Milk adds a certain moooood to the doughnut dough, making it softer and udderly delicious. The lactose in the milk adds a subtle sweetness. The proteins in real milk, such as casein and whey, help to create a tender crumb that is absolutely the most soft bite.
The Doughnut emoji 🍩 depicts a doughnut, a commonly eaten baked good. It is commonly used to represent real and metaphorical doughnuts, breakfast, bakeries and baked foods, snacks, coffee breaks, The Simpsons, and negative stereotypes of police officers.
Flour: All-purpose flour is the dough's structure. You'll be tempted to add more and more flour as you mix the dough, but don't. You want a very soft, pillowy dough for soft, pillowy doughnuts.
If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.
A torus (plural: tori or toruses) is a tube shape that looks like a doughnut or an inner tube. In geometry, a torus is made by rotating a circle in three dimensional space.
= 2πr2R(Pi − 0) = πr2.2πR. I've written it like this to emphasise a rather remarkable fact. Note that the area of the circule cross-section of the doughnut is πr2 and the length of the circle traced out by the middle of the dough is 2πR.
The centre of gravity of a doughnut (or torus) is the middle of the doughnut hole. If several lines are calculated as 90 degrees from the outermost edge of the doughnut, they should all meet in the middle of the doughnut hole.
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Introduction: My name is Reed Wilderman, I am a faithful, bright, lucky, adventurous, lively, rich, vast person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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