Doughnut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A doughnut, or donut, is a sweet deep-fried piece of dough or batter. The two most common types are the torus-shaped ring doughnut, and the filled doughnut, a flattened sphere injected with jam/jelly, cream, custard, or another sweet filling. A small spherical piece of dough, originally made from the middle of a ring doughnut, can be cooked as a doughnut hole. Doughnuts are usually fried, but in rare cases the dough is squeezed into a ball and rested between the rims of an electric cooker.
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[edit] Overview
Ring doughnuts can be formed either by joining the ends of a long, skinny piece of dough into a ring, or by using a doughnut cutter which simultaneously cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a doughnut-shaped piece of dough and a doughnut hole from dough removed from the center. This smaller piece of dough can be cooked or re-added to the batch to make more doughnuts. A disk-shaped doughnut can also be stretched and pinched into a torus until the center breaks to form a hole. Alternatively, a doughnut depositor can be used to place a circle of liquid dough directly into the fryer.
Doughnuts can be made from a yeast-based dough for raised doughnuts, or a special type of cake batter. Yeast-raised doughnuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake doughnuts' oil content is around 20% but have extra fat included in the batter before frying. Cake doughnuts are fried for about 90 seconds at approximately 190 to 198 degrees Celsius, turning once. Yeast-raised doughnuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at 182 to 190 degrees Celsius. Cake doughnuts typically weigh between 24 g and 28 g, whereas yeast-raised doughnuts average 38g and are generally larger when finished.
After being fried, ring doughnuts are often topped with a glaze (icing) or a powder such as cinnamon or sugar. Styles such as fritters and jelly doughnuts may be glazed and/or injected with jam or custard.
There are many other specialized doughnut shapes such as bear claws, old-fashioneds, bars or Long Johns (a rectangular shape), and the dough twisted around itself before cooking. In the northeast USA, bars and twists are usually referred to as crullers. Doughnut holes are small spheres that are made from the dough taken from the center of ring doughnuts or made to look as if they are. These holes are also known by brand names, such as Munchkin in the United States and Timbits in Canada.
[edit] History
[edit] Possible origins
Doughnuts 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.
American Hanson Gregory claims to have invented the ring shaped donut in 1847, when he was sixteen and on a lime trading ship. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes, and with the raw center of regular doughnuts. He claims to have punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship's tin pepper box, and later taught the technique to his mother. [1]. Note that there is no independent verification of Gregory's claims.
[edit] Making
Before the ring shape became common, doughnuts were often made as twisted ropes of dough. In the UK, doughnuts were always made into a ball. When cooked, they were injected with jam or jelly and always rolled in granulated sugar. This method is still in practice, but ring doughnuts are also now widely available. When placed into a pot of boiling fat, they floated until the lower half was cooked and then rolled themselves over to cook the other side. Ring doughnuts 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 doughnut, usually glazed.
[edit] Etymology
The earliest known recorded usage of the term dates an 1808 short story [2] describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts." Washington Irving's reference to "doughnuts" in 1809 in his History of New York is more commonly cited as the first written recording of the term. Irving described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks."[3] These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes. "Doughnut" is the more traditional spelling, and still dominates outside the US. At present, "doughnut" and the shortened form "donut" are both pervasive in American English. The first known printed use of "donut" was in a 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.
[edit] Regional variations
[edit] 
Argentina
In Argentina, the local equivalent to donuts are "facturas", a popular baked doughnut-like pastry of German origin. Facturas are consumed massively and can be found in every corner bakery. However, doughnuts are starting to gain popularity, probably because of American influence through television, series and films. They can be found in some bakeries and hypermarkets like the American Wal-Mart or Chilean Jumbo.
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Austria
In Austria doughnuts are called Krapfen, Faschingskrapfen, Gebackene Mäuse and Bauernkrapfen and exist in other various forms.
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China
Chinese cuisine features long fried doughnut sticks that are often quite oily, hence their name: Youtiao (Mandarin); these pastries are not sweet. In Cantonese, this doughnut-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 doughnut holes.
[edit] 
Croatia and 
Serbia
Doughnuts similar to the Berliner are also prepared in the Northern Balkans, particularly in Croatia and Serbia's Vojvodina province. They are called krofna or krafna, a name derived from a German word for this pastry. This type of doughnut 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.
[edit] 
France
In France and in New Orleans, Louisiana, there exists a fried pastry called a beignet, which is sometimes described as a French doughnut.
[edit] 
Germany
In Germany, the doughnut equivalents are called Berliner {sg. and pl.}, except in the city of Berlin, where they are called Pfannkuchen (US President John F. Kennedy's famous saying 'Ich bin ein Berliner' is often humorously translated 'I am a doughnut'). In middle Germany they are called Kreppel. 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 do not have the typical ring shape but instead are solid and usually filled with jam. Bismarcks and Berlin doughnuts are also found in the U.S., Canada and Denmark.
[edit] 
Greece
In Greece, there is a doughnut-like snack, called 'loukoumas', which comes in two types, from which the first one is smaller and crispier, whereas the second one is larger.
[edit] 
India
Some savory fried items not based on wheat-flour pastry are referred to as doughnuts, such as the ring-shaped Indian vadas, made of lentils. Indian vadas are food of masses. In south india vadas are eaten with sambar.
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Indonesia
Donat Kentang is known as Indonesian style potato doughnut. A fritter that comes in ring shape and it's made from combination of flour and mashed potatoes, coated in powder sugar or icing sugar.
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Iran
Persians are known for their zooloobiya, a fritter that comes in various shapes and sizes, and coated in a sticky-sweet syrup.
[edit] 
Israel
Jelly doughnuts, known as Sufganiyah (סופגניה, pl. Sufganyot סופגניות) 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. Tradional sufganyot are filled with red jelly and topped with icing sugar. However, many other varieties exist, with the more expensive being ones filled with dulce de leche.
[edit] 
Italy
Italian doughnuts are called ciambelle, "krafen" or "bomboloni".
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Lithuania
In Lithuania, a kind of doughnut called spurgos is widely known. Sometimes spurgos are similar to Polish doughnuts, but some specific recipes, such as cottage cheese doughnuts (varškės spurgos), have also been invented.
[edit] 
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the Oliebollen, referred to in cookbooks as Dutch Doughnuts, is a type of fritter containing pieces of apple and/or dried fruit like raisins; they are traditionally eaten as part of New Year celebrations.
[edit] 
Okinawa (Japan)
Native to Okinawa is a spheroid pastry similar to doughnuts called sata andagi.
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Poland
In Poland and parts of the U.S. with a large Polish community, like Chicago and Milwaukee, the round, jam-filled doughnuts eaten especially - though not exclusively - during the Carnival are called pączki (pronounced (p-unchke). Russian "пончики", ponchiki and Ukrainian "пампушки", pampushky are the equivalent designations for pączki, but are usually not filled with jam. Romanian gogoşi are similar to the Polish pączki.
[edit] 
South Africa
In South Africa, a variation known as the koeksuster is popular.
[edit] 
Republic of Korea
Many bakeries in South Korea offer doughnuts either filled with or made entirely from the Korean traditional rice dessert tteok (떡).These come in a variety of different colors, though they are normally in green, pink, or white. They are often filled with a sweet red bean paste or sesame seeds.
[edit] 
United Kingdom
In some parts of Scotland, ring doughnuts are referred to as doughrings, with the doughnut moniker being reserved exclusively for the nut shaped variety. Glazed, twisted rope-shaped doughnuts are known as yum-yums.
[edit] 
United States
A popular doughnut in Hawaii is the Malasada. Malasadas were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by early Portuguese settlers and are a variation on Portugal's filhós. They are small eggy balls of yeast dough deep fried and coated in sugar.
To celebrate Fat Tuesday in southeastern Pennsylvania, churches sell a potato-starch doughnut called a Fastnacht (or Fasnacht). The treats are so popular there that Fat Tuesday is often called Fastnacht Day.
In the U.S., doughnuts sometimes incorporate seasonal agricultural products, often made at the farms or orchards, such as maple syrup doughnuts in spring in the Northeast and apple cider doughnuts during the apple harvest. These form an important product of agritourism.
The Polish doughnut, the pączki, is popular in U.S. cities with large Polish communities such as Chicago and Milwaukee.
[edit] Doughnuts and topology
Doughnuts, as ring-shaped items, are an important explanatory tool in the science of topology where the ring doughnut shape (a ring with a circular cross-section) is called a torus or toroid, and an example of using the ring doughnut as an illustrative term can be found in popular explanations of the Poincaré 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 doughnut hole is intended to allow the doughnut to cook faster and more thoroughly. There is no historical connection between bagels and doughnuts.
[edit] Doughnuts and popular culture
By analogy, doughnut 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 addition in the UK it is not uncommon for the word to be used as a term of abuse, meaning "stupid" or "devoid of common sense".
In North America, it is not uncommon to see police officers taking their breaks at a doughnut shop, which has led to police being stereotyped as pudgy doughnut eaters. While people in many trades and professions work "on the road" and take coffee breaks at doughnut shops, the stereotype exists largely because police officers and their vehicles are easily identifiable. They may also prefer to visit doughnut shops because many serve free coffee and doughnuts to police officers[citation needed]. Furthermore, some officers work night shifts and a lot of doughnut stores are open during that time, making doughnuts for the morning.
In Robert McCloskey's children's book Homer Price, the most famous scene is "The Donuts". In this story, an automatic doughnut machine couples with an overabundant batch of batter to make more doughnuts than the town of Centerville can possibly handle.
Homer Simpson of the American animated television show The Simpsons is an avid consumer of doughnuts and Duff beer (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 doughnut has become in American culture. Doughnuts also appeared often in the American television series Twin Peaks.
While it is without a doubt one of the most distinct and recognizable iconic foods of North America, right alongside hamburgers, it also shares a slightly more negative symbolism as doughnuts 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. Doughnuts are used to poke fun at this more often than not by Americans and other countries around the world alike.
However, the doughnut ironically is also now one of the world's most popular foods. It is especially popular 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 doughnut. Monkey D. Garp (One Piece) is also a lover of doughnuts.
Stemming from television advertising in the early 1980s by Dunkin Donuts an American company, "time to make the doughnuts" has come to mean "time to get to work". This is also seen in "I have doughnuts to make" as "I have work to do" and "doughnut time" as "time to work".
Donut is the code-name for a cutting-edge RPG in development by the designers of Burning Wheel and InSpectres.
[edit] Consumption
Per capita, Canadians consume the most doughnuts in the world and Canada also has the most doughnut stores per capita.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ 'Old Salt' Doughnut hold inventor tells just how discovery was made and stomach of earths saved. Special to The Washington Post.; The Washington Post (1877-1954), Washington, D.C.; Mar 26, 1916; pg. ES9
- ^ Originals, Selections, &C. for the Times. Sketches and Views-No. V; The Times, page [29], vol. I, iss. 8; January 30, 1808; Boston, Massachusetts.
- ^ etimonline.com Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ The unofficial national sugary snack
- Jones, Charlotte Foltz (1991). Mistakes That Worked. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26246-9. - Origins of the doughnut hole
- Rosana G Moreira et al, Deep Fat Frying: Fundamentals and Applications. ISBN 0-8342-1321-4
- Edge, John T. (2006). Donuts: An American Passion. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-15358-6.
