Specially FriedKitchen5 Best Oils for Frying Donuts! – These Oil Never Disappoint!
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5 Best Oils for Frying Donuts! – These Oil Never Disappoint!

FACT CHECKED BY EXPERTS
Immad Amir
Written by
Immad is a talented home cook and editorial director at Specially Fried. With his culinary expertise, love for gadgets and creative flair, he brings a fresh perspective to the world of food blogging.
Reviewed by

Lisa is a nutritionist with a passion for promoting healthy eating habits. With her expertise, she meticulously cross-checks the content on Specially Fried, ensuring accurate and reliable nutrition information.

5 Best Oils for Frying Donuts!
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No doubt, there is nothing more pleasurable than biting into your favorite donut and enjoying its toothsome flavor. However, your moment of happiness can be completely ruined if, instead of that sweet donut taste, you are welcomed by a greasy oiliness. Hence, a lot of people wonder which oil is the best oil for frying donuts?

An oil that properly cooks donuts without meddling with their original flavor is undoubtedly the one that qualifies as the best oil for frying donuts! In this article, you will come across some amazing options that you can choose to fry donuts without having to compromise on their taste.

Why does frying donuts require any different kind of oil?

Donuts should be fried in a specific oil to keep their flavor and texture perfect. Therefore, you need to use a neutral flavor oil to not meddle with the donut’s taste. Moreover, that oil should have a high smoke point. As donuts fry for a long time, the oil will burn if the smoke point is low.

Just like donuts, you need to be careful about what kind of oil you are using to fry various other things such as egg rolls and chicken.

What kind of oils are best for frying donuts?

The oil with the least flavor and high smoking point qualifies as the best oil for frying donuts.

In order to determine the flavor of the oil, you can taste it. If you taste a strong flavor, the oil will probably overpower the donut’s taste; so it’s best to avoid it.

Along with that, you need to determine the smoke point of oils you are looking forward to using. The smoke point for an oil ideal for frying donuts must fall in the range of 300-500 F. This is because donuts tend to fry for a long time, and for that, the smoke point of the chosen oil should be high.

How are donuts fried?

Create the batter of donuts by yourself from scratch instead of using pre-made batter. This way, your donuts will taste fresh. Then, activate the yeast; this will give a nice fluffy texture to your donut dough. Next, knead the dough and give shape to your donuts. Lastly, deep fry donuts lightly; this will cook them completely from inside.

Now that you have gotten a brief overview of frying donuts let’s move on to a detailed step-by-step guide.

  • Choose an oil with the least flavor and neutral taste, along with a high smoke point.
  • Next, create a dough using fresh ingredients. Make sure to use yeast to give your dough a fluffy texture!
  • Shape your donuts. You can use a biscuit cutter for this too.
  • Now, fry the donuts until they are cooked completely from inside, or you spot the desired texture and crisp.
  • Ideally, fried donuts gain a light brown color on their exterior. Moreover, donuts should not be dripping excess oil.

List of oils that are best for frying donuts!

We have listed down some of the best oils that you can choose from in order to fry donuts without having to compromise on their flavor!

Refined Sunflower oil

As the name suggests, sunflower oil is extracted from pressed sunflower seeds. Refined sunflower oil indicates that it has undergone a refining process. Refining removes any natural odor and flavor of oil. Hence, refined sunflower oil serves as the best fit for frying donuts.

Refined sunflower oil offers a very natural minimal flavor that does not mess with the taste or texture of donuts whilst they are frying. Apart from that, it has a considerably high smoke point that is 450-500 degrees F; this makes it perfect for frying donuts. Lastly, sunflower oil is quite affordable, and it’s readily available at any grocery store.

Refined Canola oil

Refined canola oil is an alternative to refined sunflower oil that can be used for frying donuts. It has a very light color and neutral flavor, which helps to preserve the taste of donuts and cooks them thoroughly. In addition to that, it has a high smoke point, between 375-450 degrees F, that contributes to the ideal cooking of donuts from inside without burning them.

As a matter of fact, refined canola oil is way cheaper than refined sunflower oil, and it does its job perfectly. Hence, you can consider refined canola oil for the perfect cooking of donuts within a minimal budget.

Refined Peanut oil

Peanut oil is a vegetable-derived oil with a very mild and neutral flavor, making it ideal for frying donuts. It has a smoke point of around 448 degrees F which is another factor that makes it perfect for frying donuts. Moreover, peanut oil is affordable and is sold in bulk for culinary purposes.

Safflower oil

Safflower oil is produced from safflower plant seeds. You can label safflower oil as the sister oil of sunflower, both of these oils are quite similar in every aspect. Like sunflower oil, safflower oil also has a smoke point of 440-520 degrees F; this quality makes the safflower oil an ideal choice for frying donuts.

Likewise, sunflower oil safflower oil is cheap and readily available in the market.

Palm oil

Palm oil is another vegetable-derived oil that comes out of the mesocarp of various palm fruits. It is usually used as a blend with plenty of other oils, such as canola oil. Palm oil has a very neutral taste; it does not overpower the taste of donuts being fried in it. Plus, it has a high smoke point of up to 440 degrees F, which makes it a suitable choice for frying donuts.

However, the cost factor of palm oil might not be appealing because it varies from place to place due to availability.

What oils should you avoid when frying donuts?

You should completely stay away from some oils when frying donuts. Utilizing such oils will ruin the flavor of your donuts and make them taste unbearably awful. Hence, we have listed down a few oils that you should avoid at any cost for your ease.

Vegetable shortening

Vegetable shortening is the kind of far that tends to turn solid at room temperature. It is not the best choice that you can make for frying donuts. The primary reason why vegetable shortening should not be used for frying donuts is that it has a very low smoke point, meaning that it will burn and turn black at high temperatures.

Another reason why vegetable shortening is not suitable is that you will find it quite difficult to store it. Vegetable shortening tends to solidify at room temperatures. This means whenever you want to use it for frying donuts, you will have to liquefy it first, which will be time-consuming.

Butter

Butter is one of the worst options that one can choose to fry donuts. When we say this, we seriously mean it. This is because butter has the lowest smoke point of only 250 degrees F. Even though butter is an expensive option, it can only withstand the temperature until 250 degrees F before burning completely.

Apart from this, butter has a powerful flavor that will mask your donuts’ flavor and ruin their taste.

Unrefined flavored oils

Most oils obtained from flavored ingredients such as coconut oil, sesame oil, or olive oil are left unrefined. Using any such oils will mess with the taste of donuts and leave them tasting unusual.

In addition to that, unrefined flavored oils usually possess a very low smoke point, so they are not suitable for frying donuts.

Moreover, flavored oils are also very expensive, thus not appropriate to be used as frying oils.

Note: Keep in mind that some refined flavored oils also possess a low smoking point. So, always check the smoking point before using that oil for frying donuts!

Concluding our thoughts on the best oils for frying donuts!

There are only two things that you must keep in mind when choosing an oil for your donuts. The oil should have a neutral taste along with a high smoke point. Determining these things will help you choose the perfect oil for frying donuts without changing the taste!

We hope that this article was helpful. Happy frying!


Immad Amir
Written by
Immad is a talented home cook and editorial director at Specially Fried. With his culinary expertise, love for gadgets and creative flair, he brings a fresh perspective to the world of food blogging.
Reviewed by

Lisa is a nutritionist with a passion for promoting healthy eating habits. With her expertise, she meticulously cross-checks the content on Specially Fried, ensuring accurate and reliable nutrition information.

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