What Is Deep-Fried Dough?

Deep-fried dough is an ingredient often used in deep-fried cooking to coat various foods before they are immersed in an oil-filled deep fryer. Many recipes for deep-fried dough are fairly simple and call for a mixture of all-purpose flour, water, softened butter, and baking powder. Some deep-frying enthusiasts also add small pinches of sugar or salt to taste. Once the deep-fried dough is blended in a mixer and rolled out by hand, cooks then cut it into small pieces that they use to cover a wide range of foods to be dropped into the deep fryer. This type of dough recipe can also form the basis for deep-fried desserts such as doughnuts and pastries.

One of the first steps to making deep fried dough is to sift the flour and baking soda together until they are mixed thoroughly. The cook then mixes the butter, water, and white granulated sugar together before adding the dry ingredients. Some dough recipes also call for beaten eggs to be added for a fluffier texture. Other recipes for deep-fried dough may include other ingredients such as brown sugar and vanilla extract.

Cooks who enjoy deep-fried snacks generally have a wide range of choices for making treats wrapped in deep-fried dough. Deep-fried vegetables, fish, pickles, and even bacon are popular savory deep-fried snacks. Most cooks report the best results from using salt rather than sugar when mixing up the dough for these kinds of fried foods. Deep-frying can also be a favorite choice for many desserts and sweet snacks.

Sweet deep-fried dough is a favorite for desserts cooked in a deep fryer. Some cooks specialize in treats that they designate deep-fried everything, including cookies, chocolate candy bars, snack cakes, and even soda coated with dough and cooked in hot oil. Deep-frying some of these foods requires a dough that will stand up to the oil and prevent problems such as soaked cookies or melted chocolate stuck in the deep fryer.

Cooking these types of fried treats only takes one to three minutes on average once each one is dropped into the oil. Some of the most common types of oil used in deep frying are coconut and peanut oil. Most cooks who specialize in deep-frying note that a batch of treats is usually finished when the deep-fried dough turns a golden brown color. The fried foods are then lifted out of the oil with a fryer basket or large perforated cooking spoon and placed on paper towels that absorb any excess oil.