Can You Freeze Donut Dough
You can pop your donut dough in the freezer and it will be good to go whenever you’re ready to make some fresh donuts. Frozen donut dough is also great for those times when you want to make donuts but don’t have time to wait for the dough to rise.
After freezing your doughnuts or doughnuts, you will want to know how to defrost them, as you will want to re-use them for toasting or baking. If you are planning on baking doughnuts, you will want to know how long you can store your doughnut dough in the fridge. If you left your doughnut dough in the fridge overnight to ferment, you need to take it outside so that it is at room temperature for one hour before frying or baking.
Once it is time to use doughnut dough that has been sitting in your freezer, you are going to want to know how to take the doughnut dough from a frozen, solid, icy circle to a light, flaky baked or fried donut. Once your donut doughnut rings are defrosted and at room temperature, rising along the way, then you can bake or fry your rings the same way as normal. You can either chill a whole bowl of dough, or you can roll out and slice the doughnuts, then chill in their prepared-to-bake form.
If you would like to refrigerate your doughnuts that are already cut and shaped, you are better off chilling your dough just before rolling and cutting. Say, you do not want to form your dough prior to freezing; you can save your dough as one big batch, then form after the dough has cooled. The dough needs to be made, sliced into donut rings, and then proofed, and then frozen as one layer until firm.
Arrange the cooling bits in a single layer on the baking sheet, then freeze for at least four hours, until firm. For dough, cut doughnuts, allow to Proof (along with any excess), place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, freeze until firm, and store in plastic zipper-lock freezer bags. When you have several leftover doughnuts and do not want to use wax paper, you can stack them up in one, flat layer inside a freezer bag, but make sure those bags are flat to keep them frozen.
| Cautions | |
| Can Chill Doughnuts | Up to 48 hours |
| In Fridge | For 3 Days |
| In Freezer | Up to 24 Hours |
| Defrost Quickly | For 15-20 Seconds |
| In Microwave | Check After Every 30-60 Minutes |
| Before Eating | LOW 10 seconds |
To freeze baked or fried home-made donuts, you will want to use a large plastic freezer bag and cut two pieces of wax paper that are only supposed to be slightly smaller than your freezer bag. Place two rings of waxed doughnut dough in the resealable plastic freezer bag, writing the freeze date on the front of the bag.
It is important to write the date of freezing on the plastic wrapper, so that you can track the time when the yeast doughnut dough needs to be used.
You cannot make donuts without the dough If you are making yeast-risen donuts (pictured), you will want to make your dough the night before and chill it overnight first. Refrigerating the doughnuts will slow down yeast activity, but not completely stop it, so you can still let your doughrise overnight. Refrigerated Doughnuts Refrigerating will slow the yeasts activity, but it will not completely stop it, so your dough will still be able to rise overnight. You can chill dough up to 48 hours, but in a refrigerator, it lasts for about three days.
As long as you are not using the dough immediately, chilling your dough will delay the process of leavingning until later. When you chill cake batter for donuts, you are delaying the leavening process, and when the dough has thawed and is room temperature, baking powder or baking soda will start acting as a leavening agent. Once you have defrosted your donut dough, you simply fry or bake it right away, not have to mix the dough anymore. Freezing donut dough helps delay the rising dough process; therefore, it makes sure that a lower temperature is maintained consistently, rather than changing abruptly.
For baked doughnuts, use the same freeze-then-defrost-then-microwave-on-LOW 10 seconds before eating. Once you finish a batch of the home-made doughnuts, put the ones you wish to serve to one side, then use the steps outlined above to freeze the remainder. Along with freezing your homemade doughnut dough, you can also freeze your doughnuts that you have already baked or fried.
You can freeze a frozen doughnut in the fridge for up to 24 hours. To quickly defrost it for 15-20 seconds, you can either microwave it or pop it into the oven. Donuts are typically baked in an oven, but you can keep your dough overnight in a fridge if you would like to microwave. If you like fresh baked or fried donuts, but hate making the dough, you may be tempted to make a large batch and freeze part of the dough/batter.
If you freeze extra-fresh, simple doughnuts and use them in the coming weeks, you are pretty much set. Doughnuts can be frozen after filling with water and deglazing, once cooled to room temperature from fry-frying or baking. Because doughnuts need to be cool to room temperature before glazing, be sure to avoid heating them up too much in the microwave.
If you would like to fill some or all of your doughnuts with pastry cream (highly recommended), be sure that once you have finished baking your dough, cover your dough and place in the fridge. Freezing filled, shop-bought, or older doughnuts can be very prone to mold, so take care, and as discussed earlier, filled doughnuts do not freeze very well, unfortunately. The same methods described above can be used to fill and top your own doughnuts; however, you risk causing freezer burn on your fillings, and cream within your donuts may solidify or crack internally. If you are running out of time, you can place your doughnuts straight in the microwave, but you risk the oils and creams splitting out and drying your doughnuts this way, so you have to be extra-careful and check on them every 30-60 seconds.
Fortunately, you can freeze doughnuts up to two months, giving your glaze-covered treats a good, long lifespan. You can keep your glazed donuts to enjoy as a tasty treat another day by freezing them in a tight-sealed plastic bag or container. The freeze-thawing time of yeast doughnuts is as much as double that of cake donut dough, meaning that you can keep them up to 2 months.
Can you freeze doughnut dough with yeast?
The dough for yeast doughnuts can quickly be frozen. The dough should be prepared, cut into doughnut rings, and proofed before frozen in a single layer until solid. Each doughnut should be wrapped in two layers of plastic wrap, or you can put many of them in a freezer bag.
Can donut batter be made ahead of time?
Making the dough the previous night and chilling it overnight is recommended if you plan to produce the yeast-raised doughnut. When you are prepared to start, take the dough out of the refrigerator, sprinkle it with flour, and push it out flat onto a floured board.
Can you refrigerate the dough after it rises?
Certainly, dough that has risen can be kept in the fridge. Both amateur and professional bakers frequently place risen dough in the refrigerator. As the yeast is more productive when it’s warm, chilling yeasted dough in a freezer causes the yeast to become less active, which lowers the rate at which the dough will rise.