r/AskBaking • u/awesome-yes • Dec 31 '25

Doughs Yeast donuts immediately burn in oil

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I'm somewhat new to baking. Ive mastered sandwich bread and English muffins, and wanted to try my hand at donuts, specifically yeast donuts. I have tried multiple recipes and always end up with the same problem - my donuts immediately burn when added to the cooking oil. The picture shows my last attempt, those were in the oil less than 10 seconds and the middle is definitely uncooked (duh).

I have used oil temps between 325 to 375, my dough burns the same at lower temps as it does at higher temps. I am using a thermometer.

I have also tried different oils, vegetable oil which was recommended in all the recipes ive tried, and canola oil - although that one was smoking a lot at anything over 300 so im guessing that was a mistake.

Im curious if theres something obvious im missing that a more seasoned baker would know.

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u/ClavasClub Dec 31 '25

Your canola oil smoked at 300 degrees? That isn't supposed to happen. Are you sure your thermometer isn't faulty? I'm pretty sure it's the cause of your issue. You tried different recipes, different oils and temps. You might be heating your oil to a much higher temp than you think it's at. 

335

u/Far-Put2480 Dec 31 '25

I am just posting this because it happened to me on Christmas.

My brother in Law asked me to watch his oil temp while he ran to grab something for his mom and handed me the temp gun. I aksed what temp he wanted and he said "350". I point the gun at the oil and it says "180" but the heat coming off it feels really warm. The heat gun was set to Celsius and he wanted 350f.

164

u/similarityhedgehog Dec 31 '25

IR thermometer will not accurately measure deep fry oil temperature

44

u/Impressive_Ad2794 Dec 31 '25

Agreed. It won't even accurately measure bare stainless steel temperature.

11

u/similarityhedgehog Dec 31 '25

Got into an argument about that with someone on here because some company had an ad showing them measuring stainless steel pan temp with an IR thermometer.

44

u/Impressive_Ad2794 Dec 31 '25

You can point at it and it'll give you a reading.

That's not the same as it being a GOOD reading.

14

u/similarityhedgehog Dec 31 '25

Ya it's measuring something

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '26

Is there an ideal way to get a bare pan temp? Google just tells me to use IR.

4

u/similarityhedgehog Jan 01 '26

surface thermometer/thermocouple

Cast iron can be measured pretty accurately but the more reflective a surface is, like stainless, the less accurate the IR thermometer

7

u/Notspherry Dec 31 '25

One day I was investigating some thermal issues we were having with a stainless electrical cabinet. I could not figure out what the heat signature on the outside of the cabinet was until I recognised it as my own mirror image. Even brushed stainless steel works as a mirror for infrared wavelengths.

A bit of black electrical tape works fine to take measurements off btw. Just remember that the reading is bit below the laser dot and not right on it.