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Saturday, August 11. 2018

Dough Nuts

AKA doughnuts, aka donuts. It seems like almost every culture has some version of sweet or not-sweet fried dough.  The problem in the USA is people baking it instead of deep-frying it in fat. To me, that's just sweetened bread.


In the US, they were probably derived from the Dutch "oily cakes" as discussed by Washington Irving in 1809. 


Because I do not work in law-enforcement, I am not a fan of jelly donuts. The only kind I like are "plain" donuts, not too sweet, deep fried and crusty, with or without a dusting of confectioner's sugar or sprinkled with sugar crystals. If the bag doesn't show grease, they are no good.


Donuts and coffee. Good ones are hard to find these days. 


What do readers like in doughnuts? 

Posted by The Barrister in Food and Drink at 08:31 | Comments (42) | Trackbacks (0)

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Anything but Krispy Kreme!
#1 Bob in Stafford on 2018-08-06 14:34 (Reply)
I'm with you, can't eat them.
#1.1 JC on 2018-08-06 15:29 (Reply)
I must disagree. When the Hot and Now sign flashes, my car turns (on its own, I must aver) into the drive-through off 291 in Greenville, SC. Warm, light as air, and sticky, the glazed doughnuts are just wonderful. However, I can walk by the grocery displays with never a qualm.
#1.2 SCReader on 2018-08-11 11:39 (Reply)
Amen Bob

I'm not a regular eater of donuts, I tried KC before really getting to know the local bakeries. There is no comparison really, to my palate Krispy Cremes taste like most any cake you buy from a big box retailer: full of chemicals and preservatives.
#1.3 bottomshot on 2018-08-12 13:41 (Reply)
LOL, Bob .. love them or hate them, no inbetween.

My favorite are the old fashioned style (not raised and glazed) probably because my mom made donuts at home for many years. Her's had a little grated potato in the dough, deep fried in real lard, with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.
#2 Christopher B on 2018-08-06 14:44 (Reply)
potato donuts or faustnuts.

using wild yeast and potato water and mashed potatoes.
#2.1 fjord on 2018-08-11 10:44 (Reply)
There's a shop in Richland, Washington, called "Spudnuts" using potato flour.

Best doughnuts I've ever had, after my Grandma Elsie's homemade ones.
#2.1.1 Whitehall on 2018-08-12 08:31 (Reply)
Beignets. They are why powdered sugar was invented.
#3 Andrew Stanton on 2018-08-06 15:13 (Reply)
I'm with you, but just a dusting, no clumps.
#3.1 Texan99 on 2018-08-11 10:25 (Reply)
The more sugar the merrier--just don't sneeze.
#3.1.1 James the lesser (Link) on 2018-08-11 17:48 (Reply)
This. Morning Call, how could you?
#3.2 MtnExile on 2018-08-11 11:09 (Reply)
Southern California has the best independent donut shops I've ever found. If you are ever in Newport Beach Seaside Donuts on the peninsula boardwalk is phenomenal. Not unusual at all to see a long line out the door. Freshly made, excellent variety.

Dunkin' is successful but they lost their soul years ago when they stopped making them in house. Limited variety, questionable (at best) taste, burnt coffee. And, as I always say about the famous Dunkin' drive through experience - order what you don't want. That gives you a much better chance of getting what you do want.
#4 Dunque on 2018-08-11 08:51 (Reply)
There are some nice donuts produced at independent bakeries in southern Maine. My son and daughter-in-law have established tradition with their girls called "Donut Friday". They visit a local bakery for a donut before school & work.

I too am turned off by Krispy Kreme donuts - too damn sweet for my taste.

My go to is the plain donut, fried, no sugar added. In the fall around here you can get apple flavored plain donuts, love them, especially when they're warm.

Violating my not-too-sweet rule I do occasionally get a hankering for a chocolate cruller from Dunkin Donuts - this dates to my youth when my parents would regularly pick up a dozen donuts for us to share after church on Sunday.

Once a year, or less, my wife and I will indulge in a jelly stick from DD.
#5 steve walsh on 2018-08-11 09:11 (Reply)
Creme or custard filled, or plain cake-style are the only kinds I care for, custard especially. I could go the rest of my life without another one and never miss it. Krispy Kreme are the best I've ever had.
#6 Jack Walter on 2018-08-11 09:34 (Reply)
Donut King in Quincy, Mass. If you’re ever passing through, it’s worth the stop. Get there early on weekends.
#7 Bruce Anderson on 2018-08-11 09:56 (Reply)
A mega ditto for the plain donuts at the Donut King in Quincy. But they are a second best to the ones at Frosty's in Brunswick, Maine and some other mid-coast towns. I no longer miss the dunkin' donut with the handle - the formula was so much better than the current DD plain donut which are a sorry excuse
#7.1 tanstafl on 2018-08-11 18:41 (Reply)
I used to like donuts as an occasional treat, when the selection was better at Dunkin' Donuts - now it's all about frosting which I do not like, at all.

No Krispy Kreme either. What is the matter with people? LOL

I still like cake donuts but they are so hard to find. So, whatevs, like Jack said above, I could live the rest of my life without eating another doughnut and not care one bit.

I did have a pretty good - excellent, actually - blueberry muffin at Dunkin' the other day. Worth trying if you like 'em.
#8 Jeff Brokaw (Link) on 2018-08-11 10:03 (Reply)
I too, prefer cake doughnuts over the yeast type. Probably because that's the kind my mother used to make when I was growing up. Here, in Canada, that seems to be the majority preference, as national chain Franchise's, such as Tim's, make mainly the cake style.
#8.1 Mel Zee on 2018-08-11 10:22 (Reply)
My mother always made yeast buns, some sort of Mennonite tradition, and every once in a while at the end of dough she would form squares out of the dough and deep fry them. We call them dough boys. A few blocks from my child hood home we had a bakery run by a couple from the Netherlands, they made the best bread and doughnuts I have ever eaten. The doughnuts were light and airy with just the right amount of glaze.
#9 Brad (Link) on 2018-08-11 10:10 (Reply)
The only good thing to happen in the Seattle area is this place:
http://www.frostology.com/menu

They used to make a PBJ doughnut that would make you cry with joy! Now, my pleasure is the Smoky Bacon Maple Bar!

It takes a light hand and a keen sensitivity to room temperature and humidity and clean oil.
#10 faculty wife on 2018-08-11 10:18 (Reply)
Plain, doughnut or cruller. Black coffee. Breakfast should be simple, and quick.
#11 Bob Dwyer on 2018-08-11 10:31 (Reply)
Crusty, freshly fried, either plain or an apple fritter.
#12 Portlandmermaid on 2018-08-11 10:41 (Reply)
Someone in America "bakes" doughnuts? If they ain't frying, I'm crying.
#13 Ron Snyder (Link) on 2018-08-11 11:00 (Reply)
NE of Philly we see faschnaunts in the stores at a certain time of year, don't care for them, but then again I'm not a Mennonite,
Donut Day, also called Faschnaut Day, is the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of making faschnauts (potato based donuts fried in Lard) on Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent.
#14 Oldblood on 2018-08-11 11:44 (Reply)
Paczkis, but you can only get them at Easter, and only if there enough Poles around who know how to make them.
#15 RebeccaH on 2018-08-11 11:53 (Reply)
I remember Dunkin Donuts when they were a local outfit south of Boston. They have turned into the McDonalds of the donut world.

In the Boston area, you can’t beat Kane’s in Revere. Donuts the size of a saucer with excellent stuffings and coatings. Thank God I don’t live any closer to them or I would weigh 100 pounds more than I do now.

In the Outer Banks, try Duck Donuts. Made to order as you watch the whole process. The grandkids love the show. The maple bacon donut is a unique treat.
#16 GalwayBoy on 2018-08-11 13:25 (Reply)
The chocolate Old Fashioned. All those corners with extra icing.
#17 jdgalt on 2018-08-11 13:55 (Reply)
In the cattle ranches in the Old West doughnuts were called 'bear sign'.
#18 Blick on 2018-08-11 14:30 (Reply)
Within reach. My only criteria. Any donut within reach is fine by me.

Krumpe's in Hagerstown, Maryland does a good job.
http://krumpesdonuts.com/
#19 Charlie D (Link) on 2018-08-11 15:08 (Reply)
Jelly or Bear Claw
#20 Bulldog on 2018-08-11 15:35 (Reply)
Tim Horton sour cream doughnuts, but NOT glazed, please.
#21 Chad C. Mulligan on 2018-08-11 16:45 (Reply)
Baked doughnuts must be a NY problem rather than an American one. I've never seen one or heard of one. Doughnuts are fried.
7-11 has great sourdough doughnuts.
#22 FRP on 2018-08-11 17:38 (Reply)
As you ramble on through life
whatever be your goal,
keep your eyes upon the doughnut
and not upon the hole
#23 GoneWithTheWind on 2018-08-11 17:58 (Reply)
Maple Bars. With 11 siblings, a quarter of a maple bar was a typical ration. Even with all the great German bakeries when I was stationed in Germany, I still missed maple bars.
#24 Martin Morehouse on 2018-08-11 19:16 (Reply)
Nothing better than stopping your tank in front of a little backerei and hopping off to buy a couple of bags of brotchen for your crew. If you were lucky there was a Spar Mart at the end of the block so you could add some of that excellent German butter. Those were the days. Standing astride the Fulda Gap like a steel colossus with a curry wurst in one hand and a flip top beer in the other, we...what was I saying? Oh, maple bars, no. Never missed ‘em.
#24.1 Steve on 2018-08-11 19:50 (Reply)
Old fashioned buttermilk fried. with coffee.
#25 JGEEP on 2018-08-11 20:23 (Reply)
Glazed. Maple bars, too. No donut shops near me. SAD!!!!
#26 Sam L. on 2018-08-11 23:22 (Reply)
Tim Horton's in Canada. Just the right "crust." Not too sweet. Not too large. And the coffee's good too.
#27 Donald Olson on 2018-08-11 23:47 (Reply)
Mashed potato in the flour gives your doughnuts a magnificent chewy texture. A bit of glaze on top and I could eat quite a few.
#28 Walt on 2018-08-12 04:25 (Reply)
In my childhood, a family friend made her own doughnuts. Crispy and tasty. They were part of the Sunday night meal. Since then, I have not eaten any homemade doughnuts. I have never had any commercially made doughnuts that were up to the standard of our family friend's doughnuts.
#29 Gringo on 2018-08-12 11:59 (Reply)
My grandmother used to make fry bread and call them donuts. One morning while visiting I heard, "Grandma made donuts" I came flying down the stairs, my grandmother had not made her donuts in ten years.

My kids were joking. My mother, their grandmother had bought donuts. I still blame them.
#30 TWS on 2018-08-12 15:17 (Reply)
Back in my deputy days, I would celebrate finishing another long night, with a raspberry Bismarck! Cause I WAS in Law Enforcement!
#31 SCOTTtheBADGER on 2018-08-13 18:21 (Reply)

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