Donuts!
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Donut Overview
Donuts being deep fried
Donuts can be formed either by joining the ends of a long, thin piece of dough into a ring or by using a donuts cutter which simultaneously cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a donuts shaped piece of dough and a donuts hole from dough removed from the center. This smaller piece of dough can be cooked or readded to the batch to make more Donuts.Donuts can be made using a yeast-based dough (raised Donuts), or a special type of cake batter. Yeast-raised Donuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake Donuts' oil content is around 20%, but cake Donuts have extra fat included in the batter, before frying. Cake Donuts are fried for about 90 seconds, turning once, at between 190 and 198 degrees Celsius. Yeast-raised Donuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at 182 to 190 degrees Celsius. Cake Donuts typically weigh between 24 g and 28 g, whereas yeast-raised Donuts average 38g but are generally larger (when finished).
After being fried, ring Donuts are often topped with a glaze icing or a powder such as cinnamon or sugar. Ringless Donuts such as fritters and jelly Donuts may be glazed and/or injected with jam or custard.
There are many other specialized donuts shapes such as bear claws, old-fashioneds, bars (a rectangular shape), and twists (where the dough is twisted around itself before cooking). Doughnut holes are small spheres that are made out of the dough taken from the center of ring Donuts or made to look as if they are. They are also known by brand names, such as Munchkin (from Dunkin' Donuts in the United States), or Timbits (from Tim Hortons in Canada). In certain areas of the UK, Krispy Kremes are becoming known for their specialised Donuts and have opened "drive thru" donuts stores around the country.
Donut History
Donut Possible origins
Donuts have a disputed history. One theory is that they were introduced into North America by Dutch settlers, who are responsible for popularizing other desserts, including cookies, cream Pie, and cobbler.Another story credits the invention of the donuts hole to a Danish sea captain named Hanson Gregory. During a particularly violent storm, Gregory needed both hands free to man the wheel of his ship, and impaled a fried cake upon the wheel, creating the signature hole. The center of fried cakes were notorious for being undercooked, so the innovation stuck. By cooking fried cakes with the center hole, the surface area increased, and the donuts cooked faster.
Another possible origin has the dessert's invention as part of the story of Hanukkah. Called sufganiyot, Jews make these pastries (and other oily foods like latkes) to remind them of the sacramental oil that was used to light the eight-branched Menorah in the Temple.
Donut Making
Before the ring shape became common, Donuts were often made as twisted ropes of dough, but in the U.K. were always made into a ball. (When cooked they were either injected with jam/jelly, and always rolled in granulated sugar. This practise still contiues.) When placed into a pot of boiling fat, they floated until the lower half was cooked, then rolled themselves over to cook the other side. Ring Donuts have to be flipped over by hand, which was more time-consuming. The twisted-rope type is called a cruller in some parts of the U.S., but cruller also refers to a particularly airy type of ring donuts, usually glazed.Donut Derivation
Washington Irving's reference to "Donuts" in 1809 in his History of New York is an early printed use of the word. Irving described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called Donuts, or olykoeks." These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called donuts holes. "Doughnut" is the more traditional spelling, and still dominates outside the US. At present, "donut" and "donuts" are both pervasive in American English. The first known printed use of "donut" was in an Los Angeles Times article dated August 10, 1929. There, Bailey Millard jokingly complains about the decline of spelling, and that he "can't swallow the 'wel-dun donut' nor the ever so 'gud bred'." The interchangeability of the two spellings can be found in a series of "National Donut Week" articles in The New York Times that covered the 1939 World's Fair. In four articles beginning October 9, two mention the "donut" spelling. Dunkin' Donuts, which was founded in 1948 under the name Open Kettle (Quincy, Massachusetts), is the oldest surviving company to use the "donut" variation, but the now defunct Mayflower Donut Corporation appears to be the first company to use that spelling, having done so prior to World War II.Donut Variations
Donuts Varieties Doughnut makers come in many shapes and sizes. Sprinkle(d) Donuts are Donuts covered with sprinkles that adhere to the icing. These sprinkles may vary in color and are sometimes offered in holiday schemes (e.g. red and green sprinkles for Christmas or yellow, orange, and black for Halloween).Donut Regional variations
In the Netherlands, the Oliebollen, referred to in cookbooks as Dutch Donuts, is a type of fritter containing pieces of apple and/or dried fruit like raisins, and are traditionally eaten as part of New Year celebrations.In Poland and parts of the U.S. like Detroit, Michigan, the round, jam-filled Donuts eaten especially - though not exclusively - during the Carnival are called paczki (pronounced PUNCH-key). Russian, ponchiki and Ukrainian, pampushky are the equivalent designations for paczki. Romanian gogosi are similar to the Polish paczki.
In Lithuania a kind of Donuts, called spurgos is widely known. Sometimes spurgos are similar to Polish Donuts, but some specific recipes, such as cottage cheese Donuts (var'kes spurgos) have also been invented.
Jelly Donuts, known as Sufganiyah, pl. Sufganyot in Israel have become a traditional Hanukkah food in the recent era, as they are cooked in oil, associated with the holiday account of the miracle of the oil. In France and in New Orleans, Louisiana, there is a fried pastry called a beignet which is sometimes described as a French donuts.
A popular donuts in Hawaii is the Malasada. Malasadas were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by early Portugese settlers and is a variation on Portugal's filhoze. They are small, eggy balls of yeast dough deep fried and coated in sugar.
In Germany, the donuts equivalents are called Bismarcks or Berliners, except for the town of Berlin where they are called Pfannkuchen. In southern Germany they are also called Krapfen and are especially popular during Carneval season (Karneval/Fasching)in Southern and Middle Germany and on New Year's Eve in Northern Germany. These don't have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid, usually filled with jam. Bismarcks and Berlin Donuts are also found in the U.S. Donuts similar to these are also prepared in Northern Balkans, particualrly in Croatia and Serbia's Vojvodina province. They are called "krofna", a name obviously derived from a German word for this pastry. This type of donuts is popular in Chile because of the large German community there, and is called a Berlin (plural Berlines). It may be filled with jam or with manjar, the Chilean version of dulce de leche.
Italian Donuts are called zeppole.
Some savory fried items not based on wheat-flour pastry are referred to as Donuts, such as the ring-shaped Indian vadas, made of lentils.
Chinese cuisine has long, fried donuts sticks that are often quite oily, hence their name: you tiao (Mandarin), these pastries are not sweet. In Cantonese, this donuts-style pastry is called yow ja guei. Often this is served with the traditional rice porridge of Chinese cooking, congee. Chinese restaurants in the US sometimes serve small fried pastries similar to donuts holes.
Many bakeries in South Korea offer Donuts either filled with or made entirely from the Korean traditional rice dessert. These come in a variety of different colors, though normally in green, pink, or white. They are often filled with a sweet red bean paste or sesame seeds.
To celebrate Fat Tuesday in southeastern Pennsylvania, churches sell a potato-starch donuts called a Fastnacht (or Fasnacht). The treats are so popular there that Fat Tuesday is often called Fastnacht Day.
In the U.S., Donuts sometimes incorporate seasonal agricultural products, often made at the farms or orchards, such as maple syrup Donuts in spring in the Northeast and apple cider Donuts during the apple harvest. These form an important product of agritourism.
Donut and topology
Donuts, as ring-shaped items, are an important explanatory tool in the science of topology where the ring donuts shape (a ring with a circular cross-section) is called a torus or toroid, and an example of using the ring donuts as an illustrative term can be found in popular explanations of the Poincar' conjecture. The other toroidal food item used in topological explanations is the bagel. However, the bagel has a hole to allow it to be retrieved from boiling water, while a donuts hole is intended to allow the donuts to cook faster and more thoroughly. There is no historical connection between bagels and Donuts.Jelly Donuts and politics
Donuts Kennedy in Berlin
According to a false urban legend, U.S. president John F. Kennedy made a grammatical error in his statement to the people of Berlin, saying in German: "Ich bin ein Berliner." The legend tells that Kennedy's use of the article "ein" implied that he was not a citizen of Berlin, but "ein Berliner", which refers to a jelly-filled donuts.Donuts See Ich bin ein Berliner
Donuts and popular culture
By analogy, donuts is a slang term for a circular maneuver made with an automobile or other vehicle from a sharp turn in which the rear of the vehicle swings around, the rear tires constantly spinning, to form a larger circle as the front of the vehicle turns in a tight circular motion. "Doughnut" also refers to the small rigid spare tire that comes as original equipment with many new cars.In North America, it is not infrequent to see police officers taking their breaks at a donuts shop, which has led to police being stereotyped as pudgy donuts eaters. While people in many trades and professions work "on the road" and take coffee breaks at donuts shops, the stereotype exists largely because police officers and their vehicles are identifiable. Police officers may also prefer to visit donuts shops because many of them serve free coffee to the police. As well, many police officers work late at night, and often the only place to go to get something to eat or drink is at a donuts shops, which are frequently open all night.
Homer Simpson of the American animated television show The Simpsons is an avid consumer of Donuts as is Police Chief Clancy Wiggum of the same series. These two in particular, represent major elements of American life (Homer the average joe, Wiggum your typical "thin blue liner") which is a great example of how deeply rooted the donuts has become in American culture. While it is without a doubt one of the most distinct and recognizable foods of North American origin, right alongside hamburgers, it also shares a slightly more negative symbolism as Donuts are very often a representative food for America's overeating problem as well as the general problem of Americans being overweight in far higher numbers. Donuts are used to poke fun at this more often than not by Americans and other countries around the world alike, although ironically it is also now one of the world's most popular foods. It is an especially popular food in Asia, where on-the-go foods have been becoming incredibly successful due to the generally fast paced life of the working class of the eastern continent. The American company Mister Donut was acquired by a Japanese company, and the brand no longer exists in the US. Mister Donut has enjoyed mass popularity for years, even before the great invasion of American fast food chains in the mid to late 1990's. The anime character Vash the Stampede is quite famous for his love of the donuts.
