When we talk about Japanese donuts, Pon de Ring Donuts (ポンデリング) from Mister Donut instantly comes to mind. I’m talking about the slightly quirky donuts that look like a teething ring for babies. They really hit the sweet spot when snack time is calling! These donuts have a chewy (we call it the “mochi-mochi”) texture that sets them apart from regular donuts. They are GOOD! My family is crazy about eating them whenever we’re in Japan. So, I challenged myself to make a copycat recipe that we can make at home. I’m happy with the results, and I think you will be, too!
What is Pon de Ring?
Pon de Ring (ポンデリング) is Mister Donut’s signature donut made of a connected circle of 8 dough balls. The name Pon de Ring loosely comes from pão de queijo, a popular savory Brazilian cheese ball made of tapioca flour. Mister Donut is the largest donut chain in Japan with more than 1,300 stores in Asian countries like Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand. Mister Donut actually originated in the US and opened its first store in Osaka in 1971. While expanding in Japan over four decades, almost all the Mister Donut stores in the US were acquired by Dunkin’ Donuts and changed their name. In addition to the simple glaze I use in my recipe, Pon de Ring come in other classic flavors like brown sugar, strawberry glaze, cream filled, and chocolate dough. They also release seasonal and unique flavors. If you’re curious about current and past flavors, check out the official Mister Donut website in Japanese.
Pon de Ring vs. Mochi Donut
What is the difference between Pon de Ring and mochi donuts? The ingredients and textures are very different: Pon de Ring
made of tapioca flour and wheat flour (officially mentioned by Mister Donut) soft, airy, bouncy, and chewy
Mochi Donut
made of glutinous rice flour (mochiko) dense and chewy not sold in Japan, but popular in the US
In Japanese, we describe Pon de Ring’s texture as mochi-mochi (モチモチしてる) or mocchiri (モッチリしている). This description does not always mean that the food is made of mochi, though. For example, we might describe bagels with a chewy texture as being mochi-like. For a delicious mochi donut recipe, check out Mandy’s website Lady and Pups. I’ve made it before and they were excellent.
Ingredients You’ll Need
unsalted butter large eggs whole milk – slightly warmer than body temperature; do not use low-fat or skim milk instant yeast granulated sugar pure vanilla extract tapioca flour – use a kitchen scale to weigh your flour for the best results all-purpose flour – plain flour; again, weigh your ingredients kosher salt safflower oil – for deep-frying glaze ingredients – confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), whole milk, vanilla extract, and matcha green tea powder (optional)
How to Make Pon de Ring
See my full instructions with step-by-step photos in the recipe card below.
5 Helpful Tips to Make Pon de Ring
Key Ingredients & Tools
1. Tapioca Flour and All-Purpose Flour
2. Instant Yeast
Instant (quick/rapid-rise) yeast and active dry yeast are the two most common dry yeasts. What’s the difference? You need to dissolve active dry yeast in warm water or milk before use, but you can mix instant yeast right into the dough. For convenience, I like using instant yeast. Two popular instant yeast brands are Red Star and Fleischmann’s found in grocery stores. For this recipe, I used Red Star Quick-Rise instant yeast. After reading more, I’ve decided to hydrate my instant yeast even though it’s not the active dry type. I dissolved it in warm milk (110 ºF or 43 ºC—slightly warmer than body temperature) to give it a good start. It allows the yeast to become very active and ready to work.
3. Safflower Oil for Deep-Frying
We learned that Mister Donut deep-fries its donuts in lard, possibly in combination with vegetable shortening. These saturated fats stay solid at room temperature so the donuts stay crisp after deep-frying. However, I wanted to avoid these fats. We tried deep-frying the donuts in neutral oils with a high smoke point—vegetable oil and canola oil. However, we did not like the vegetable oil taste left on the donuts. After reading another article, we tried safflower oil and agreed that it’s the best oil for frying donuts.
4. Pastry Card or Dough Scraper
To work with the sticky dough, this thin plastic pastry card (shown above) came in very handy! If I used only my fingers, the dough would stick and grow spike tips everywhere I touched and lose its round shape. A pastry card also helps to divide, scrape, and transfer the mini dough balls. I didn’t let it go except when I was rolling the dough balls with my palms.
5. ThermoWorks ChefAlarm
After deep-frying Japanese croquettes, Chicken Karaage, and Tempura for over 20 years at home, I can deep-fry comfortably without a thermometer. On the other hand, Mr. JOC loves high-tech gadgets, so he set up my deep-frying station with our ThermoWorks ChefAlarm. ChefAlarm warned me when the oil temperature went outside the low- and high-temperature range we set. It was super convenient and helpful once I got busy juggling deep-frying and glazing the hot donuts at the same time.
My Journey to Creating This Recipe
Mr. JOC and I spent 2 weeks figuring out this Pon de Ring recipe, sometimes making donuts several times a day! Our focus from the beginning was to achieve the right airy and mochi-like texture with natural ingredients of the best possible quality.
Challenge #1: Choosing the right flours
We started by working out the main ingredients, specifically flours. We tried the following flours, in this order:
Challenge #2: Dealing with the sticky, soft dough
In the YouTube video I mentioned earlier, you can see Mister Donut’s Pon de Ring dough is quite sticky and soft when kneading. And the final stage of the dough (see below) is still pretty sticky and soft. Mister Donut uses a machine to squeeze out the dough into its funky ring shape. It’s then shot directly into the hot oil. Obviously, I don’t have that machine in the kitchen and I would need to shape the sticky dough by hand. I tested all-purpose flour and tapioca flour ratios to see if I could achieve a dough that’s easier to handle. Since the ratio for tapioca flour needs to be higher, it yields a pretty soft dough. But when you increase the flour, the final donut texture becomes dense and cakey. So, I just learned to deal with the stickiness and figured out some tricks to shape the connected bubble rings. For the donut fans out there, I hope you’ll give Pon de Ring donuts a try. The donut making is an endeavor, but you’ll feel rewarded when you make them perfectly!
