Do Custard Donuts Need To Be Refrigerated?
Love your custard donuts? Us too! Chances are, you’ll probably gobble your donut up in a matter of minutes. But, what should you do if you have some left over? Do custard donuts need to be refrigerated?
Yes. Because custard is made from dairy and egg yolks, it is important that you refrigerate them. They should be fine at room temperature for a few hours, at most. Beyond that, bacteria will start to grow. Eating the custard donuts at this point could make you sick.
On this page, we’ll explain the importance of refrigerating custard donuts. We’ll also let you know how long you can keep them in the fridge before you’ll need to throw them away.
Do Custard Donuts Need to Be Refrigerated?
Yes. Custard is made from several ingredients, but both milk and egg yolks play a major role in the ingredient list. Both of these require refrigeration if you don’t want bacteria to start growing in your custard donut.
Now, don’t worry. You don’t need to make a beeline for the fridge as soon as you have bought or made those delicious sweet treats. They’ll keep for at least an hour or two at room temperature. But, after that, put them in the fridge.
You may find that there are some store-bought custard donuts that claim they can be stored at room temperature, but we wouldn’t really recommend it. Donuts really don’t like to be stored at room temperature (they go stale very quickly), so put them in the fridge regardless of what the product packaging says.
How Long Do Custard Donuts Keep in the Fridge?
How long is a piece of string? The problem is that there is no way to know exactly how long they’ll keep in the fridge. A variety of factors will be at play here, including the temperature of your fridge and when they were baked.
We do want to point out that donuts don’t really do well when kept for more than a day or so. They go hard very quickly (because they start to stale), and while they are edible, they’ll never taste as good as eating them fresh.
In our experience, you’ll get between 3-4 days of life out of your custard donuts if you store them properly in the fridge (more on that in the next section). They may be a little bit harder than when they were first baked, but they’ll still be wonderful to eat!
How To Properly Store Custard Donuts In The Fridge
You have two options here:
- Wrap them in parchment paper.
- Put them in an airtight container.
We prefer the second option as it will slow down the speed that they will dry out. The parchment paper should only be used in a pinch, and if you use it, you should wrap them up tightly. You don’t want any air to come into contact with the donut.
Under absolutely no circumstances should you store them in the fridge ‘uncovered’. If you do, they’ll go stale within the day, and they won’t be nice to eat at all.
How Do You Know Your Custard Donut Has Expired?
Again, this is something that is incredibly difficult to know. Chances are that the outside of the donut is going to go ‘bad’ long before the inside does. Plus, you can’t really look inside the donut to see how the custard is faring.
If your donut is hard, then throw it away. You don’t want to be eating a stale donut. Plus, it will be a good indicator that the inside has started to go bad.
If you’ve kept them in the fridge for more than a couple of days, you may want to put them on a plate and cut them in half. If the custard is an odd color or gives off a strange odor, then throw them away.
Remember, eating ‘bad’ custard will make you sick. It’s basically you eating rotten eggs or sour milk. You wouldn’t do that normally, would you? No. So don’t do it with a donut!
Our website has a number of articles you might find interesting like Can You Freeze Crumbl Cookies?, Can You Freeze Bologna?, Do Cupcakes With Buttercream Frosting Need To Be Refrigerated? , and Do Crumbl Cookies Need To Be Refrigerated?
Can You Freeze Custard Donuts?
Yes. You can freeze custard donuts. They should keep in the freezer without impacting the flavor for 1-2 months. They can be stored indefinitely but the longer you leave them there, the less flavor they will have when you pull them out.
We recommend that when you want to eat them, you defrost them slowly. So, place them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge. It’ll take a few days to defrost, but you’ll be glad that you waited!
Final Thoughts
Do custard donuts need to be refrigerated? Yes, they do. Custard is made of dairy and egg yolks, both of which can harbor bacteria. While it is fine to leave the donuts out for a couple of hours without any issues, if you aren’t planning on eating them right away, we suggest that you put them in the fridge. If you don’t, the custard will go bad and it’ll make you sick.
