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Received call from Lil Orbits
March 11, 2010 | 
Author I received a phone call from Rob Sturdy from Lil Orbits yesterday (Wed) regarding my questions about the donut making process with his company's products. I was impressed that he would take time to call me--you don't see that kind of follow up very often in the real business world. He mentioned that when making the donuts by hand with the applicator that they wouldn't come out in a perfect round shape, and the exercise should be used more for a taste test. I told him that we'd already discovered that and that it was a bit of a relief. I thought we were doing something wrong, and he said no probably not as far as the shape is concerned. Rob also confirmed what my partners and I were thinking. Making a small batch of donuts with a small amount of batter is much different than making a large number of donuts with a large amount of batter. Surface area of the batter matters due to evaporation as does the surface area of the heated grease for sufficient cooking with limited absorption. He said better, more consistent results are noted when using their large automated donut making machines. This makes sense to me. We'll be making more donuts this weekend using a new thermometer to control the grease temperature. I am interested to see if the the temperature wheel on the fry daddy is even close. I will blog about the experience later.
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Tags: applicator, call, donut, exercise, grease, phone, round, surface, taste, test | 
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Reply to questions from Lil Orbits
As promised, here are the answers to my questions sent to Lil Orbits.
Thanks for your interest in Lil Orbits - here are the answers to your questions -
1) The donut shortening is good for about 40+ hours of cooking time -
You will know when it is time to change it out - it starts a clear dark amber color and as you cook it will become darker - more opaque and brown. It will start to smoke and you may see a film on the top of the shortening - then it is time to change -
The temp. has to be 375 degrees - our machine controls the temp. the best that I know of - our shortenings - cube and liquid are vegetable shortening and blended to work well with our donut mix. Our mix and shortenings are Kosher Certified.
2) Water can effect the taste of the donuts - some water in communities are fine - some have a smell or taste that is poor. Some people have gone to bottled water so that no matter where they are the donuts taste the same. I would not used distilled -
3) We recommend that you allow the mix to set for 10 minutes - first batch of the day to set in the hopper so that it can get down around the cutter and any air bubbles will be gone. The batter in the hopper is good for a few hours but I recommend that you use it sooner than that. It does thicken a little but the cutter in the hopper handles it.
I believe that the temp of the donut fry and it's age have more to do with the taste of the donuts - 350 degrees, does not cook the outside to a crisp and allows too much fry to soak in. 400 degrees cooks the outside too fast and in order to get the middle of the donut cooked the outside gets too dark -
More questions - just ask -
Rob
Third donut taste test
Our third taste test did not go as well as the first two. We repeated the process for the specific purpose of filming everything for the blog thinking that what we had done previously would replicate. But it did not, and we were unsure why. When mixed according to the directions the batter was too runny and formed strings in the grease. Our solution was to add more mix to thicken the batter which worked. But did this change the texture or amount of grease absorbed? Unknown.
The donuts were easier to make in round shapes and actually looked donut-like today, but otherwise were inferior to what we'd made before. This was the third time the grease from Lil Orbits was used, and as expected after repeated use it turned darker. All grease does this so it was not unexpected, but we were unsure how the quality of the product would be affected. I also noted that when cooled, it took longer for the substance to solidify from a liquid back to its solid, partially hydrogenated state. Chemically, there had to have been a change between the three tests. The donuts that were produced were excessively greasy with a less fluffy interior.
Another change that could have affected the outcome was in the water content. The house where the donuts were made had a water softener installed between the first and second taste test. A change in water quality was noted by the owners in other areas.
Overall, we just were not as happy with what we made. If we'd gotten these donuts on our first taste test we might have just quit as it's doubtful that customers would have liked them after they bought them. One thing we had not done from the start was control exactly for the temperature of the grease. We failed to purchase a cooking thermometer and relied on the fry daddy temperature gauge which went in 50 degree increments. The directions called for a cooking temperature of 375 so we set the fry daddy wheel halfway between 350 and 400—logical yes but not necessarily accurate.
After the conslusion of the third test, we purchased more dry mix from Lil Orbits for further experimentation as well as some dry mix from a competing company. We'll also use the soy bean oil purchased from Sam's. I believe we can draw the same conclusions about how may time grease can be reused with donuts whether we use the Lil Orbits product or the Sam's product.
I am going to contact Lil Orbits to ask them some very specific questions about their product and the recommended process. My questions will be: Does is matter if soft water is used in the mixing of the batter? How often can the Lil Orbits grease be used before taste is affected and it needs to be discarded? How long can the batter sit before the consistency is affected and how can we keep this from happening without compromising the taste and texture? How critical is the cooking temperature? Are there any other variables that could affect the taste, texture, and absorption of grease? I will post the answers to my questions on this blog.
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Second Donut Taste Test
My business partners and I tried another experiment using liquid soybean oil from Sam's and the partially hydroginated soybean oil from Lil Orbits. It should be noted that the ingrediants for each were the same according to the nutritonal labels, but the amounts of each ingrediant were not stipulated. So, exactly how much citric acid is in there? Does it really matter? Who knows. There was one glaring difference between the oils, however. The Lil Orbits oil contained transfat while the Sam's oil did not. I guess you could say we were trying to make healthy donuts with the Sam's oil! Okay, maybe not. But, we were interested to see it there was a taste difference.
We started with the Sam's oil, and I made a small mistake in preparing the batter. Two weeks ago during our last taste test session we noted that if prepared exactly to the directions the batter set up quickly. This made it too thick to pour through the applicator. I noted the same consistency again and added a bit more water to the batter to thin it out. Apparently, I added too much as the batter became too stringy. Ugh! Frustrating! So much for finding a happy medium.
Instead of coming out in nice rings through the applicator the batter came out in clumps with strings attached. Someone commented that it looked we were deep frying tarantulas. Yum Yum! The cooking time was the same, but more bubbles were noted rising through the batter in the oil kind of like what you see when cooking pancakes. With the thinner batter more tiny pieces were left in the oil follwing the cooking process "dirtying" the oil. Note to self--easy on the water.
Surprisingly, I did notice a taste difference between the oils. We tried both sets of donuts together, some hot and some cold after sitting for an hour. Same results. The donuts made in Lil Orbits oil were slightly better with a pleasant cake-like taste. The donuts cooked in the Sam's oil were a bit heavier and greasier. Even though there was a noticable difference in was only slight, and in my opinion insignificant. When running a business it's a no-brainer that costs must be controlled. Getting oil from Sam's is less expensive than from Lil Orbits mostly because of shipping costs. The Lil Orbits does make a tastier donut, but it would also have to be a more expensive donut to turn a profit. I can say that the donuts we made last time with the pure vegetable oil were my least favorite with the ones being made with the Sam's oil being superior.
My business partners and I plan on videotaping the donut making process next week using our Lil Orbits test kit. Stay tuned!
Donut Recipes – Trying Out Samples
My business partners and I experimented with a donut making sample kit today, and as promised in a previous blog entry I want to tell you about it. Actually, you're going to get an individual perspective from each of us as we probably all had different reactions, concerns, and thoughts on the process. From Lil Orbits we received a package of dry mix, a container of partially hydrogenated soybean oil (meaning that it was firm and not a liquid), a dispenser, written instructions and an instructional DVD.
We broke up the tasks in making the donuts to make the process go faster. I measured out the mix and added the appropriate amount of water. No milk or eggs were required thank goodness. The first thing I noted was that the batter mixed up very quickly and smoothly. I've made several box cakes in my day from Betty C. and Duncan H., and I always seem to be stuck with lumps. I hate using mixers so I always use a whisk--old fashioned and time consuming I know but it's my way. Lumps are a pain to get out, but with this mix there were none! In less than a minute of whisking the batter was ready and smooth as pudding. And it smelled great, like cake batter! Yum!
That was the good part. The bad part that I learned later was that the longer the batter sat the thicker it got. This made it more difficult to squeeze through the dispenser and caused the batter to come out in very odd shapes. Sometimes we got a round donut, sometimes an octopus, sometimes a hush puppy, and sometimes an amoeba. Who knew making donuts for the first time would be so creative! Keep in mind that with Lil Orbits equipment the process is automated so that the donuts come out perfect every time. The dispenser was just for people like us interested in doing it by hand. The taste was the more important variable than looks at this point.
Once the batter was dropped into the fry daddy of Lil Orbit soybean oil it cooked rapidly. Per instructions 20 seconds was recommended for each side and that was about right. The oil was heated to between 350 and 400 degrees, so it didn't take long for the donuts to turn golden brown. They were moist without being greasy. We sprinkled a mix of cinnamon and sugar on them and set them aside to cool.
So let's talk about the taste. OMG! Incredible! Maybe it was the thrill of making them ourselves, or the fact that they were fresh and hot, or maybe it was because we hadn't eaten breakfast yet, but those things were good! They were technically bite sized, but so that I didn't look like too much of a pig I finished each one in two. That also let me note the texture on the inside which was different from a traditional fried or cake donut. The consistency was a combination between the two.
Next, just for funsies, we sampled some store bought products. The first were traditional fried donut holes and the second were powdered Dolly Madison versions out of a wrapper. There was no comparison between those and what we'd made. Ours were way, way, way, way better. Imagine the difference between a hot dog and a filet mignon--yeah it was like that. What I kept thinking was 'These things will sell like hotcakes!' Once a customer tastes these gems they won't willingly go back to Dolly. No, they will search us out for more.
Again, we decided to experiment. I cooked the next batch of donuts in Crisco All Natural Pure Vegetable Oil. I'm a food label reader, so I did some comparing. They had exactly the same number of calories per serving and surprisingly the Lil Orbits oil had slightly less saturated fat (the bad kind). Neither oil is artery friendly, but the Crisco was a bit worse. There was a flavor difference between the two batches. The Crisco donuts were greasier and not as tasty. When I read the Lil Orbits container I noted that the product was specially formulated for a "less greasy donut." Ahhhh...so that's why there was a difference. Hard to argue with the taste results though.
We're not done with our experimenting and will keep you savvy readers on the edge of your seats with our exploits. Or maybe we'll just keep dropping batter in the fry daddy looking for cool shapes. I'm going to try making a star fish next week. Stay tuned.
