Donut You Want Me, Baby

Filled with jam, dipped in glaze, or just dusted with caster sugar, you can’t go wrong with a hot, fresh donut.

Whether you yearn for youtiao, crave churros, or you’re mad for malasada, this week is National Doughnut Week, and we’re celebrating everyone’s favourite ring-shaped treat.

There are recipes for doughnuts scattered throughout history and across the world. In De Agri Cultura, Cato (234-149 BC) records a recipe for globi, a ricotta-enriched spelt dough that is fried in hot oil, glazed with honey, and sprinkled with poppyseeds. In the 13th century, Ibn Razin al-Tujibi (1227-1293) gives a recipe for sfenj made from semolina. The Forme of Cury (ca. 1390) has a recipe for 'fry blaunched', fried squares of frangipane-filled dough.

But what we would most easily recognise as a doughnut comes from the Netherlands. Oliekoek have been eaten by the Dutch for centuries, and were introduced to the wider world by Dutch settlers in early America. Round balls of dough were fried in oil, or, more commonly, lard, and often contained dried or candied fruit.

The only problem with oliekoek was the shape. Because they were round, the middle frequently remained raw when cooked.

Enter Hansen Gregory, a young sea captain from Maine. Tired of his doughnuts having a raw center, he used a tin pepper shaker to cut holes out of the middles of the round doughnuts.

(There’s a more interesting version of this story where Hansen’s ship was hit by a sudden storm, and, in order to have both hands free to steer the ship, he stuck his doughnut on one of the wheel spokes. You can believe whichever you like.)

Housewives in the USA had a different way of avoiding raw dough in the middle. Before the late 1800s, homemade doughnuts were frequently twisted, rather than round. Twisted doughnuts rotated themselves while they cooked, leaving busy housewives free to (briefly) get on with other things, like keeping little hands away from stoves, or tipping cows.

Laura Ingalls Wilder specifically writes about this* in Farmer Boy:

They rolled over, Mother said, because they were twisted. Some women made a new-fangled shape, round, with a hole in the middle. But round doughnuts wouldn’t turn themselves over. Mother didn’t have time to waste turning doughnuts; it was quicker to twist them.

Nowadays, doughnuts come in all sorts of shapes, and can be filled with anything, from matcha cream to lemon and lavender curd to gochujang caramel. From the cronut phase of 2014 to the more recent taste for mochi doughnuts, it looks like these fried treats aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

*the doughnut shape, not cow tipping.

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Sour-dough-nuts

Ingredients:

• 85g vegan butter

• 110ml plant milk of choice

• 150g sourdough starter

• 375g strong white flour, plus more as needed

• 3/4tsp salt

• 65g caster sugar

• 1/2tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2tsp cinnamon

• 1/2tsp nutmeg

• Oil, for frying

  
  

Cinnamon sugar:

• 100g caster sugar

• 1tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine the sourdough starter with the plant milk. Add the sugar, vanilla, spices, salt, and half of the flour. Stir well until all ingredients are combined.

Add in the butter one tablespoon at a time, beating between each addition, until it is evenly incorporated through the dough. You can do this by hand, or use an electric mixer on a low setting.

Slowly add the remaining flour until a dough forms. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a large bowl and cover. Leave it in a warm place until it has doubled in size, usually for six to eight hours, then transfer it to the fridge and leave it overnight.

The next day, turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and roll out to a thickness of around half an inch. Cut out doughnuts with a cutter of your choice. Once cut, put the doughnuts on a greased tray, cover, and leave to prove for another two hours. In a separate large bowl, combine the additional sugar and cinnamon, then put to one side.

Once the doughnuts have finished proving, heat a litre of neutral oil in a large pan to 180’C. Fry the doughnuts one to two at a time, making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Flip the doughnuts halfway through cooking.

When the doughnuts are golden brown on each side, take them out and immediately roll them in the cinnamon sugar. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Want to get your own sourdough starter going? Next time you’re in Guild Of Dough, just ask for some of ours - we’re always happy to share!