Freezing jam doughnuts (an experiment gone right)

When I walk into a supermarket and see the reduced section, I have no shame in saying that my eyes light up a little bit. It's my chance to grab a bargain, and I love it.

Often, when I see nice bread in the reduced section that has a best before date of the day I've found it, I'll buy the bread then take it home and stick it in the freezer. I can do this with bread but can't really do it with most other things that I might find in the reduced section, such as sandwiches.

One thing I seem to find reduced a lot is jam doughnuts - all of the major UK supermarkets have in-store bakeries, and these bakeries seem to churn out jam doughnuts like they're going out of fashion. This means that I'll often find jam doughnuts in the reduced section. Although it's more fun to eat all of the jam doughnuts before the best-before date, I wanted to see if I could freeze jam doughnuts to make them last for longer.

Quick summary - you can freeze jam doughnuts from the supermarket, but let them defrost on their own rather than putting them in the microwave, because putting them in the microwave seems to make the jam taste a bit funny.

Now let's get into the story of my little experiment:

Where did I get the jam doughnuts from?

I visited my local Co-op, which has a really good bakery section, and found the reduced jam doughnuts there. They were only 63p, reduced from £1.25, so they were a good bargain.

Freezing them

Freezing the jam doughnuts is as easy as putting them in the freezer, just make sure they're quite deep into the freezer so that they freeze properly. I kept them in the bag and scrunched the bag up to make sure it was deep into the freezer (pictured). I left them in the freezer overnight (at least 12 hours).

Defrosting them

So this is where the real experimenting started for me. I decided to let all but one of the doughnuts defrost on their own. The other one I put in the microwave on the 'defrost' setting. This was not a good idea, and seemed to almost curdle the jam filling. Definitely don't do that!

As for the other doughnuts which defrosted on their own, after about 4 hours on the kitchen counter, they were perfect (pictured)!

So there you have it, if you see jam doughnuts in the reduced section of your local supermarket, don't be afraid to buy a few bags and put them into the freezer (if you have the space!). I used Co-op jam doughnuts for this guide, but given that the jam doughnuts from other supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, Asda, and Tesco have almost exactly the same ingredients, I'd imagine this would work for jam doughnuts from those supermarkets too.

Freezing jam doughnuts from the supermarket – an experiment gone right

Where did I get the jam doughnuts from?

Freezing them

Defrosting them

Finn H

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