Doughnuts

Some form of fried dough is found in almost every culture, from Native American fry bread and sopaipillas in the Americas, to youtiao in China and koeksisters in South Africa. One of the oldest is loukoumades, dating from 776 B.C. in Greece, when they were presented as prizes to the winners of the first Olympic games. (Hey, what could be better than a gold medal if not balls of dough fried in hot oil and soaked in honey?)

The doughnuts we know and love in America are descended from Dutch olykoeks, or “oily cakes,” which were brought to Manhattan (then known as New Amsterdam) in the early 17^th century. While there is some dispute about how the name came to be doughnut, it is listed in an appendix of American recipes in an 1803 English cookbook, and just a few years later, the American author Washington Irving uses the term in his 1809 book A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, in which he describes a table laden with apple pies, preserved fruits and “an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called dough-nuts, or oly koeks: a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, excepting in genuine Dutch families.”

There’s a lot of history and legend surrounding the humble doughnut, from how it achieved its iconic round shape with a hole in the middle (presumably to eliminate the problem of the dough not being thoroughly cooked in the middle) to how dunking was popularized.

Its name was shortened to the more vernacular donut — in America, at least — in the 1920s, for marketing reasons, either to save on the cost of advertising signage (Neon sign-makers charged by the letter.) or to simplify spelling and pronunciation for a growing market of immigrant entrepreneurs whom makers of newfangled donut-making machines hoped to attract.

Doughnuts gained in popularity in World War I, when two women, volunteer officers in The Salvation Army, were assigned to the front line in France with the mission of improving soldiers’ morale. They hit on the idea of making fresh doughnuts for the troops, and soon doughnut tents were set up all along the front with “Doughnut Lassies” delivering warm pastries and good cheer among the trenches. This proved so popular that when the next world war came along, the Red Cross took up the call with a hundred Red Cross Clubmobiles outfitted with vats for frying doughnuts and staffed (and driven) by “Donut Dollies.”

With the strong link doughnuts have to Americana, the flavors I chose to use in this challenge have their own link to a slice of America that I grew up with — I call these my State Fair Doughnuts. 

Having grown up in Iowa and lived most of my life in the Midwest, I have fond memories of attending state fairs and sampling the flavors of local produce and home-baked goods. Past the Midway fare of deep-fried everything-on-a-stick, you’ll find local farmers selling ears of roasted sweet corn dipped in melted butter, freshly smoked bacon smothered in maple syrup, and home-canned applesauce “put up” by women using recipes passed from generation to generation. These are the flavors I invoked when I created these doughnuts. 

For the maple-bacon doughnuts, I started with my own mother’s doughnut recipe, which uses mashed potatoes to create a moister, airier dough. I added maple extract, as well as cinnamon, nutmeg and mace to the dough, and kneaded in some candied bacon (which I also used in my Maple-Bacon Cinnamon Knots), reserving some of the bacon to sprinkle on top after dipping the fried doughnuts in a browned-butter maple glaze. 

My sweet corn doughnuts feature homemade creamed corn using cut-fresh-from-the-ear farm-stand sweet corn. I combined a traditional raised doughnut recipe I found here and a cream-style corn recipe from The Spruce Eats. After frying, they’re filled with a spiced applesauce filling (borrowed from Richard’s toffee apple doughnuts, which he made for this episode) and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The corn and applesauce flavor combination reminds me of childhood summer suppers on the picnic table in our backyard with just-picked corn on the cob and a side of my mom’s freshly made applesauce.

Unlike the bakers in the Great White Tent, I made my dough and formed the doughnuts the night before, letting them prove in the refrigerator overnight so we could have fresh, warm doughnuts in the morning, so that’s how my recipes are written. (See my recipe notes for Paul Hollywood’s alternate method.)

While the maple-bacon doughnuts are shaped like traditional circle-with-a-hole-in-the-middle doughnuts, I tried making the corn-and-applesauce doughnuts more in the shape of an ear of corn. I actually used a carrot-shaped cookie cutter that I’ve used for cookies at Eastertime, except I cut off the “carrot-top.” After frying, rolling them in cinnamon and sugar, and filling them, I wrapped them in green tissue paper cut to look like corn husks. 

Deep-fat frying is not my favorite method of baking (or is it cooking?), but when it’s nice outside, I can set up the fryer on my screen porch so I don’t end up with the whole house smelling of fried foods. And I have to admit, there’s nothing quite like fresh, warm doughnuts with a cup of coffee in the morning. Both of these doughnuts were a treat to eat, and my friends and family gobbled them up!

State Fair Doughnut Duo

Recipe Notes: These recipes are written so you can make and form the dough the night before and let them prove in the refrigerator overnight, allowing you to fry them in the morning without a lot of prep work. Both of these doughs are rather sticky, so an alternate method, demonstrated by Paul Hollywood in the Masterclass episode of this challenge, makes them easier to work with. He mixes the dough and places it in a floured container in the fridge overnight (at least 8 hours). Then he forms the doughnuts the next morning and lets them prove for 20 minutes at room temperature before frying.

Next week: Baklava