A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough.
Doughnuts are usually deep fried from a flour dough, but other types of batters can also be used. Various toppings and flavors are used for different types, such as sugar, chocolate or maple glazing. Doughnuts may also include water, Leavening agent, eggs, milk, sugar, oil, shortening, and natural or artificial flavors.
The two most common types are the ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, which is injected with fruit preserves (the jelly doughnut), cream, custard, or other sweet fillings. Small pieces of dough are sometimes cooked as doughnut holes. Once fried, doughnuts may be glazed with a sugar icing, spread with icing or chocolate, or topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon, sprinkles or fruit. Other shapes include balls, flattened spheres, twists, and other forms. Doughnut varieties are also divided into cake (including the old-fashioned) and yeast-risen doughnuts. Doughnuts are often accompanied by coffee or milk.
History
Forerunner
A recipe for a deep-fried dough ball was recorded by Cato the Elder in his
de agri cultura, using cheese, honey, and poppy seeds, called
globi.
Similar types of fried dough recipes have either spread to, or originated, in other parts of
European cuisine and the World.
A 13th century Arabic cookbook, written by Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī contains a recipe for a doughnut-like variant of sfenj, made by frying leavened semolina dough, the dough is meant to be shaped into a small ball, the recipe also calls for shaping the dough into a Ka'ak with a hole in the middle to test its proofing.
The cookbook Küchenmeisterei ( Mastery of the Kitchen), published in Nuremberg in 1485, offers a recipe for "Gefüllte Krapfen", stuffed, fried dough cakes.
The Spanish and Portuguese churro is a choux pastry dough that would also be served in a ring-shape. The recipe may have been brought from, or introduced to China, in the 16th century.
England and North America
Dutch Americans brought
olykoek ("oil(y) cake") to New York (or
New Amsterdam) in the early 18th century. These doughnuts closely resembled later ones but did not yet have their current ring shape.
[ The History of Doughnuts, The Spruce]
A recipe for fried dough "nuts" was published, in 1750 England, under the title "How to make Hertfordshire Cakes, Nuts and Pincushions", in The Country Housewife’s Family Companion by William Ellis.
A recipe labelled "dow nuts", again from Hertfordshire, was found in a book of recipes and domestic tips written around 1800, by the wife of Baron Thomas Dimsdale,
The first cookbook using the near conventional "dough nuts" spelling was possibly the 1803 edition of "The Frugal Housewife: Or, Complete Woman Cook", which included dough nuts in an appendix of American recipes.
One of the earliest mentions of "dough-nut" was in Washington Irving's 1809 book A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty:
The name oly koeks was almost certainly related to the Oliebol: a Dutch delicacy of "sweetened cake fried in fat."[See entries for oliebol and oliekoek in ]
Etymology
"Dough nut"
One of the earliest known literary usages of the term dates to an 1808 short story
[Originals, Selections, &C. for the Times. Sketches and Views-No. V; The Times, page 29, vol. I, iss. 8; 30 January 1808; Boston, Massachusetts.] describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts". Washington Irving described "dough-nuts", in his 1809
History of New York, as "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called dough-nuts, or
oliebollen."
These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called
doughnut holes. The word
nut is here used in the earlier sense of "small rounded cake or cookie", also seen in
ginger nut.
[ doughnut in the American Heritage Dictionary] Doughnut is the traditional spelling and still dominates even in the United States
though
donut is often used.
[Norbert Schmitt and Richard Marsden (2006) Why is English like that?: historical answers to hard ELT questions, University of Michigan Press, , p. 166: "... and British English in the spelling of individual words include ax/axe (though the British form is also frequently used in America), check/ cheque (a money order), donut/doughnut, draft/draught (an air current), mold/mould,..."][Richard Ellis (2003) Communication skills: stepladders to success for the professional, Intellect Books, , p. 113 "... US spelling is influencing users to spell programme as program, center for centre and donut for doughnut."] At present,
doughnut and the shortened form
donut are both pervasive in American English.
[Janet Sue Terry (2005) A Rich, Deliciously Satisfying Collection of Breakfast Recipes, Just My Best Publishing Company, , p. 233 "At present, "donut" and "doughnut" are both pervasive in American English, but only "doughnut" is listed in Thorndike and Lorge's (1942) The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words. There are sparse instances of the "donut" spelling variation prior to WWII. For instance, it is mentioned in an LA Times article dated August 10, 1929. There, Bailey Millard complains about the decline of spelling, and that he "can't swallow the 'wel-dun donut' nor the everso'gud bred'." "]
"Donut"
The first known printed use of
donut was in
Peck's Bad Boy and his Pa by George W. Peck, published in 1900, in which a character is quoted as saying, "Pa said he guessed he hadn't got much appetite, and he would just drink a cup of coffee and eat a donut."
According to author John T. Edge the alternative spelling "donut" was invented in the 1920s when the New York–based Display Doughnut Machine Corporation abbreviated the word to make it more pronounceable by the foreigners they hoped would buy their automated doughnut making equipment.
[John T. Edge (2006) Donuts: an American passion, Penguin Group US, : "Donuts" came to the fore in the 1920s, when the New York-based Doughnut Machine Corporation set its eyes upon foreign markets. "In order to obviate difficulty in pronouncing 'doughnuts' in foreign languages," a press release announced .."] The donut spelling also showed up in a
Los Angeles Times article dated August 10, 1929 in which 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 9 October, two mention the donut spelling. Dunkin' Donuts, which was so-named in 1950, following its 1948 founding under the name Open Kettle (Quincy, Massachusetts), is the oldest surviving company to use the donut variation; other chains, such as the defunct Mayflower Doughnut Corporation (1931), did not use that spelling.[Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera, 1920s–1987: "In 1931, the company opened the first Mayflower doughnut shop in New York City; ultimately, 18 shops were opened across the country—the first retail doughnut..." NOTE:.] According to the Oxford Dictionaries while "doughnut" is used internationally, the spelling "donut" is American,[
doughnut. Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English) "The beginning of doughnut is spelled dough- (the spelling donut is American)."] with Krispy Kreme being a notable exception.[" donut, doughnut", Google Ngram viewer]
Types
Rings
Hanson Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship when he was 16 years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes and with the raw center of regular doughnuts. He claimed to have punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship's tin pepper box, and to have later taught the technique to his mother.
["'Old Salt' Doughnut hole inventor tells just how discovery was made and stomachs of earth saved." Special to The Washington Post; The Washington Post (1877–1954), Washington, D.C.; 26 March 1916; p. ES9] Smithsonian Magazine states that his mother, Elizabeth Gregory, "made a deep-fried dough that cleverly used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind," and "put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through", and called the food 'doughnuts'.
Ring doughnuts are formed by one of two methods: 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 (the dough removed from the center). This smaller piece of dough can be cooked and served as a "doughnut hole" or added back 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 (batter) directly into the fryer.
There are two types of ring doughnuts, those made from a yeast-based dough for raised doughnuts, or those made from a special type of cake batter.
Daniela Galarza, for Eater, wrote that "the now-standard doughnut’s hole is still up for debate. Food writer Michael Krondl surmises that the shape came from recipes that called for the dough to be shaped like a jumble – a once common ring-shaped cookie. In Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People, culinary historian Linda Civitello writes that the hole was invented because it allowed the doughnuts to cook faster. By 1870 doughnut cutters shaped in two concentric circles, one smaller than the other, began to appear in home-shopping catalogues".
Topping
After frying, ring doughnuts are often topped. Raised doughnuts are generally covered with a glaze (icing). Cake doughnuts can also be glazed, powdered with confectioner's sugar, or covered with
cinnamon and granulated sugar. They are also often topped with cake frosting (top only) and sometimes sprinkled with coconut, chopped peanuts, or
sprinkles.
Holes
Doughnut holes are small, bite-sized doughnuts that were traditionally made from the dough taken from the center of ring doughnuts. Before long, doughnut sellers saw the opportunity to market "holes" as a novelty and many chains offer their own variety, some with their own brand names such as "Munchkins" from Dunkin' Donuts
and "Timbits" from
Tim Hortons.
Traditionally, doughnut holes are made by frying the dough removed from the center portion of the doughnut.[.] Consequently, they are considerably smaller than a standard doughnut and tend to be spherical. Similar to standard doughnuts, doughnut holes may be topped with confections, such as glaze or powdered sugar.
Originally, most varieties of doughnut holes were derivatives of their ring doughnut (yeast-based dough or cake batter) counterparts. However, doughnut holes can also be made by dropping a small ball of dough into hot oil from a specially shaped nozzle or cutter.
Filled
Filled doughnuts are flattened spheres injected with
fruit preserves,
cream,
custard, or other sweet fillings, and often dipped into powdered sugar or topped off with frosting. Common varieties include the Boston cream,
coconut doughnut,
key lime, and
jelly doughnut.
Other shapes
Others include the
fritter and the Dutchie, which are usually glazed. These have been available on
Tim Hortons' doughnut menu since the chain's inception in 1964,
and a 1991
Toronto Star report found these two were the chain's most popular type of fried dough in Canada.
There are many other specialized doughnut shapes such as old-fashioned, bars or Long Johns (a rectangular shape), or twists. Other shapes include balls, flattened spheres, twists, and other forms.
Regional variations
Asia
Cambodia
Nom kong (នំបុ័ងកង់), the traditional Cambodian doughnut, is named after its shape – the word ‘កង់’ (pronounced
kong in Khmer) literally means “wheel”, whilst
nom (‘នំបុ័ង’) is the general word for pastry or any kind of starchy food. A very inexpensive treat for everyday Cambodians, this sweet pastry consists of a jasmine rice flour dough moulded into a classic ring shape and then deep fried in fat, then drizzled with a palm sugar toffee and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The rice flour gives it a chewy texture that Cambodians are fond of. This childhood snack is what inspired Cambodian-American entrepreneur
Ted Ngoy to build his doughnut empire, inspiring the film The Donut King.
China
A few sweet, doughnut-style pastries are regional in nature. Cantonese cuisine features an oval-shaped pastry called
ngàuhleisōu (牛脷酥, lit. "
ox-tongue pastry", due to its tongue-like shape).
A spherical food called saa1 jung (沙翁), which is also similar to a cream puff but denser with a doughnut-like texture and usually prepared with sugar sprinkled on top, is normally available in dim sum
Cantonese restaurants. An oilier Beijing variant of this called 高力豆沙, gaoli dousha, is filled with red bean paste; originally, it was made with egg white instead of dough. Many Chinese cultures make a chewy doughnut known as shuangbaotai (雙包胎), which consists of two conjoined balls of dough.
Chinese restaurants in the United States sometimes serve small fried pastries similar to doughnut holes with condensed milk as a sauce.
Chinese cuisine features long, deep-fried doughnut sticks that are often quite oily, hence their name in Mandarin, Youtiao (油條, "oil strips"); in Cantonese, this doughnut-style pastry is called yàuhjagwái (油炸鬼, "ghosts fried in oil"). These pastries are lightly salted and are often served with congee, a traditional rice porridge or soy milk for breakfast.
India
In India, an old-fashioned sweet called gulgula is made of sweetened, deep-fried flour balls. A leavening agent may or may not be used.
There are a couple of unrelated doughnut-shaped food items. A savory, fried, ring-shaped snack called a vada is often referred to as the Indian doughnut. The vada is made from dal, lentil or potato flours rather than wheat flour.
Sweet pastries similar to old-fashioned doughnuts called badushahi and jalebi are also popular. Balushahi, also called badushah, is made from flour, deep fried in clarified butter, and dipped in sugar syrup. Unlike a doughnut, balushahi is dense. A balushahi is ring-shaped, but the well in the center does not go all the way through to form a hole typical of a doughnut. Jalebi, which is typically pretzel-shaped, is made by deep frying batter in oil and soaking it in sugar syrup.
Along with these Indian variants, typical varieties of doughnuts are also available from U.S. chains such as Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts retail outlets, as well as local brands such as Mad Over Donuts and the Donut Baker.
Indonesia
The
,
donat kentang is a
potato doughnut, a ring-shaped fritter made from flour and mashed potatoes, coated in powder sugar or icing sugar.
Japan
In Japan,
an-doughnut (あんドーナッツ, "bean paste doughnut") is widely available at bakeries.
An-doughnut are similar to the German
Berliner, but contain red
azuki bean paste.
is one of the most popular doughnut chains in Japan. Native to Okinawa is a spheroid pastry similar to doughnuts called
sata andagi.
are "a cross between a traditional cake-like doughnut and chewy mochi dough similar to what’s wrapped around ice cream".
This hybrid confection was originally popularized in Japan by Mister Donut before spreading to the United States via Hawaii.
The Mister Donut style, also known as "pon de ring", uses
tapioca flour and produces mochi donuts that are easy to pull apart. Another variation developed in the United States uses glutinous rice flour which produces a denser mochi donut akin to Hawaiian-style
butter mochi.
Mochi donuts made from glutinous rice flour "typically contain half the amount of calories as the standard cake or yeast doughnut".
Malaysia
Kuih keria is a hole doughnut made from boiled sweet potato that is mashed. The sweet potato mash is shaped into rings and fried. The hot doughnut is then rolled in granulated sugar. The result is a doughnut with a sugar-crusted skin.
Nepal
Sel roti is a
homemade, ring-shaped, rice doughnut prepared during Tihar, the widely celebrated Hindu festival in Nepal. A semiliquid dough is usually prepared by adding milk, water, sugar, butter, cardamom, and mashed banana to rice flour, which is often left to ferment for up to 24 hours. A
sel roti is traditionally fried in
ghee.
Pakistan
Doughnuts are available at most bakeries across Pakistan. The Navaz Sharif variety, available mainly in the city of
Karachi, is covered in chocolate and filled with cream, similar to a Boston cream. Doughnuts can readily be found at the many Dunkin' Donuts branches spread across Pakistan.
Philippines
Local varieties of doughnuts sold by peddlers and street vendors throughout the Philippines are usually made of plain well-kneaded dough, deep-fried in refined coconut oil and sprinkled with refined (not powdered or confectioner's) sugar. Round versions of this doughnut are known as
buñuelos (also spelled
bunwelos, and sometimes confusingly known as "
bicho-bicho"), similar to the doughnuts in Spain and former Spanish colonies. Indigenous versions of the doughnut also exist, like the
cascaron, which is prepared similarly, but uses ground glutinous rice and coconut milk in place of wheat flour and milk.
Other native doughnut recipes include the shakoy, kumukunsi, and binangkal. Shakoy or siyakoy from the Visayas islands (also known as lubid-lubid in the northern Philippines) uses a length of dough twisted into a distinctive rope-like shape before being fried. The preparation is almost exactly the same as doughnuts, though there are variants made from glutinous rice flour. The texture can range from soft and fluffy, to sticky and chewy, to hard and crunchy (in the latter case, they are known as pilipit). They are sprinkled with white sugar, but can also be topped with sesame seeds or caramelized sugar.
Taiwan
In Taiwan,
shuangbaotai (雙胞胎, lit. "twins") is two pieces of dough wrapped together before frying.
Thailand
In Thailand, a popular breakfast food is
pa thong ko, also known as Thai donuts, a version of the Chinese
yiu ja guoy/youtiao. Often sold from food stalls in markets or by the side of the road, these doughnuts are small, sometimes X-shaped, and sold by the bag full.
They are often eaten in the morning with hot
Thai tea.
Vietnam
Vietnamese varieties of doughnuts include
Hujiao bing,
bánh cam, and
bánh rán.
Bánh tiêu is a sesame-topped, deep-fried pastry that is hollow. It can be eaten alone or cut in half and served with
bánh bò, a gelatinous cake, placed inside the pastry.
Bánh cam is from Southern Vietnam and is a ball-shaped, deep-fried pastry coated entirely in sesame seeds and containing a
mung bean paste filling.
Bánh rán is from Northern Vietnam and is similar to
bánh cam; however, the difference is that
bánh rán is covered with a sugar glaze after being deep-fried and its mung bean paste filling includes a
jasmine essence.
Europe
Austria
In
Austrian cuisine, doughnut equivalents are called
Krapfen. They are especially popular during Carnival season (
Fasching), and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid and usually filled with apricot jam (traditional) or vanilla cream (
Vanillekrapfen).
A second variant, called
Bauernkrapfen are also made of yeast dough, and have a thick outside ring, but are very thin in the middle.
Belgium
In
Belgian cuisine, the
smoutebollen in Dutch, or
croustillons in French, are similar to the Dutch kind of
oliebollen, but they usually do not contain any fruit, except for apple chunks sometimes. They are typical carnival and fair snacks and are coated with powdered sugar.
Czech Republic
U.S.-style doughnuts are available in the
Czech Republic, but before they were solid shape and filled with jelly (strawberry or peach). The shape is similar to doughnuts in Germany or Poland. They are called
Kobliha (
Koblihy in plural). They may be filled with
nougat or with vanilla custard. There are now many fillings; cut in half or non-filled knots with sugar and cinnamon on top.
Denmark
In
Denmark, U.S.-style doughnuts may be found at various stores, e.g. McDonald's and most
gas stations. The Berliner, however, is also available in bakeries.
Finland
in
Finland, a sweet doughnut is called a
munkki (the word also means
monk) and are commonly eaten in cafés and cafeteria restaurants. It is sold cold and sometimes filled with jam (like U.S. jelly donuts) or a vanilla sauce. A ring doughnut is also known as
donitsi.
A savory form of doughnut is the lihapiirakka (literally meat pie). Made from a doughnut mixture and deep fried, the end product is more akin to a savory doughnut than any pie known in the English-speaking world.
Former Yugoslavia
Doughnuts similar to the Berliner are prepared in the northern Balkans, particularly in
Bosnian cuisine,
Croatian cuisine, North Macedonia and
Serbian cuisine (
pokladnice or
krofne). They are also called
krofna,
krafna or
krafne, a name derived from the Austrian
Krapfen for this pastry. In Croatia, they are especially popular during
Carnival season and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid. Traditionally, they are filled with jam (apricot or plum). However, they can be filled with vanilla or chocolate cream. Other types of doughnuts are
uštipci and
fritule.
France
The French
beignet, literally "bump",
is the French and New Orleans equivalent of a doughnut: a pastry made from
deep-frying choux pastry.
[Alan Davidson (1999) Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press]
Germany
In parts of
Germany, the doughnut equivalents are called
Berliner (sg. and pl.), but not in the capital city of
Berlin itself and neighboring areas, where they are called
Pfannkuchen (which is often found misleading by people in the rest of Germany, who use the word
Pfannkuchen to describe a
pancake, which is also the literal translation of it). Both
Berliner and
Pfannkuchen are abbreviations of the term
Berliner Pfannkuchen, however.
In middle Germany, doughnuts are called Kreppel or Pfannkuchen. In southern Germany, they are also called Krapfen and are especially popular during Carnival season ( Karneval/ Fasching) in southern and middle Germany and on New Year's Eve in northern Germany. A Berliner does not have the typical ring shape of a doughnut, but instead is solid and usually filled with jam, while a ring-shaped variant called Kameruner is common in Berlin and eastern Germany. Bismarcks and Berlin doughnuts are also found in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and the United States. Today, U.S.-style doughnuts are also available in Germany, but are less popular than their native counterparts.
Greece
In
Greece, a doughnut-like snack called
loukoumas (λουκουμάς), which is spherical and soaked in honey syrup, is available. It is often served with sprinkled cinnamon and grated walnuts or sesame seeds.
Hungary
Fánk is a sweet traditional
Hungarian people cake. The most commonly used ingredients are
flour,
yeast,
butter,
egg yolk,
rum,
salt,
milk and
oil for frying. The dough is allowed to rise for approximately 30 minutes, resulting in an extremely light pastry.
Fánk is usually served with
powdered sugar and
lekvar.
It is supposed that Fánk pastry is of the same origin as German Berliner, Dutch oliebol, and Polish pączki.
Italy
Italian cuisine doughnuts include
Ciambella, krapfen from Trentino-Alto Adige,
Zippula or
Zeppola from
Calabria and
Campania,
maritozzi from
Latium, above all
Rome,
Bombolone from
Tuscany,
frittelle from
Veneto and many others. In the island of
Sardinia there is a particular donut, a ring cake called
lorica.
Lithuania
In
Lithuania, a kind of doughnut called
spurgos is widely known. Some spurgos are similar to Polish pączki, but some specific recipes, such as
cottage cheese doughnuts (
varškės spurgos), were invented independently.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands,
oliebollen, referred to in cookbooks as "Dutch doughnuts", are a type of fritter, with or without raisins or
zante currant, and usually sprinkled with powdered sugar. Variations of the recipe contain slices of apple or other fruits. They are traditionally eaten as part of New Year celebrations.
Norway
In Norway,
smultring is the prevailing type of doughnut traditionally sold in bakeries, shops, and stalls. However, U.S.-style doughnuts are widely available in larger supermarkets, McDonald's restaurants, 7-elevens and bakeries. The Berliner is more common than U.S.-style doughnut, and sold in most supermarkets and bakeries alongside
smultring doughnuts.
Poland
In Poland and parts of the U.S. with a large
Polish American, like
Chicago and
Detroit, the round, jam-filled doughnuts eaten especially—though not exclusively—during the
Carnival are called pączki (). Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jędrzej Kitowicz has described that during the reign of the
Augustus III under influence of French cooks who came to Poland at that time, pączki dough fried in Poland has been improved, so that pączki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient.
Portugal
The malasada is a common type of holeless donut created in Portugal. They are made of fried dough. In
Madeira and the
Azores they are eaten on
Fat Tuesday. It is also popular in
Hawaii and
Cape Cod. The malasada arrived after immigrants came in.
Romania
The Romanian dessert
gogoși are fried dough balls similar to filled doughnuts. They are stuffed with chocolate, jam, cheese and other combinations and may be dusted with icing sugar.
Russia
In
Russia and the other Post-Soviet countries,
ponchiki (, plural form of пончик,
ponchik) or (, especially in St. Petersburg) are a very popular sweet doughnut, with many fast and simple recipes available in Russian cookbooks for making them at home as a breakfast or coffee pastry.
[ Recipes for Russian and other ponchiki .]
Slovenia
In
Slovenia, a jam-filled doughnut known as
krofi, is very popular. It is the typical sweet during
Carnival time, but is to be found in most bakeries during the whole year. The most famous
krofi come from the village of
Trojane in central Slovenia, and are originally filled with
apricot jam filling.
[ Trojane doughnuts. Slovenia.info. Retrieved on 22 August 2013.]
Spain
In
Spain, there are two different types of doughnuts. The first one, simply called
donuts, or more traditionally
berlinesas, is a U.S.-style doughnut, i.e., a deep-fried, sweet, soft, ring of flour dough.
The second type of doughnut is a traditional pastry called rosquilla or rosquete (the latter name is typical in the Canary Islands), made of fermented dough and fried or baked in an oven. Rosquillas were purportedly introduced in Spain by the Roman Empire.
The churro is a sweet pastry of deep-fried dough similar to a doughnut but shaped as a long, thin, ribbed cylinder rather than a ring or sphere. Churros are commonly served dusted in sugar as a snack or with a cup of hot chocolate.
Switzerland
In
Switzerland, there are
Zigerkrapfen,
Berliner and
tortelli di San Giuseppe.
Sweden
Similar to the Finnish
munkki, the
Sweden munk is a sweet doughnut commonly eaten as
fika along with coffee. It is sold cold and is sometimes filled with jam (U.S. jelly) or a vanilla sauce. A ring doughnut is also known as simply
munk.
Ukraine
In
Ukraine doughnuts are called
pampushka ().
Pampushky are made of yeast dough containing wheat, rye or buckwheat flour. Traditionally they are baked, but may also be fried. According to William Pokhlyobkin, the technology of making
pampushky points to German cuisine, and these buns were possibly created by German colonists in Ukraine.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, both filled and ring doughnuts are popular, with
jelly doughnut and other varieties readily available at supermarkets. In some parts of
Scotland, ring doughnuts are referred to as
doughrings, with the 'doughnut' name being reserved exclusively for the nut-shaped variety. Glazed, twisted rope-shaped doughnuts are known as
yum-yums. It is also possible to buy
fudge doughnuts in certain regions of Scotland. Fillings include jam,
custard, cream, sweet
mincemeat, chocolate and apple. Common ring toppings are sprinkle-iced and chocolate.
In Northern Ireland, ring doughnuts are known as gravy rings, gravy being an archaic term for hot cooking oil.
North America
Caribbean region
A
kurma is a small, sweet, fried cube-shaped or rectangular doughnut which originated in Eastern India but is sold in Trinidad and Tobago.
Costa Rica
A traditional
Puntarenas cream-filled doughnut is round and robust, managing to keep the cream inside liquified. They are popular in
Costa Rica.
Mexico
The Mexican
donas are similar to doughnuts, including the name; the dona is a fried-dough
pastry-based
snack, commonly covered with powdered
brown sugar and
cinnamon, white sugar or chocolate.
United States and Canada
Frosted, glazed, powdered, Boston cream,
coconut doughnut, sour cream, cinnamon, chocolate, and
jelly doughnut are some of the varieties eaten in the United States and Canada. There are also
(sometimes referred to as
).
Doughnuts are ubiquitous in the United States and can be found in most grocery stores, as well as in specialty doughnut shops. They are equally popular in Canada.[Paul Mullins, Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut (Gainesville: The University of Florida Press, 2008).] Canadians eat more doughnuts per capita than any other nation and has more doughnuts shops per capita than any other nation.[ The unofficial national sugary snack. Archives.cbc.ca. Retrieved on 22 August 2013.]
A popular doughnut in Hawaii is the malassada. Malassadas 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.
Immigrants have brought various doughnut varieties to the United States. To celebrate Fat Tuesday in eastern Pennsylvania, churches sell a potato starch doughnut called a Fasnachts (or Fasnacht). The treats are so popular there that Fat Tuesday is often called Fastnacht Day. The Polish doughnut, the pączki, is popular in U.S. cities with large Polish communities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit.
In regions of the country where apples are widely grown, especially the Northeast and Midwest states, are a harvest season specialty, especially at orchards open to tourists, where they can be served fresh. Cider doughnuts are a cake doughnut with apple cider in the batter. The use of cider affects both the texture and flavor, resulting in a denser, moister product. They are often coated with either granulated, powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar.
In southern Louisiana, a popular variety of the doughnut is the beignet, a fried, square doughnut served traditionally with powdered sugar. Perhaps the most well-known purveyor of beignets is New Orleans restaurant Cafe Du Monde.
In Quebec, homemade doughnuts called beignes de Noël are traditional Christmas desserts.
File:Krispy Kreme glazed donuts 2.JPG|Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts
File:Entenmann's donut variety pack 1.jpg|Powdered, glazed and chocolate doughnuts from a variety pack sold at supermarkets
File:4_donuts.jpg|Donuts with sprinkles
File:Elegant donut in Miami Beach.jpg|Elegant doughnut served at a wedding breakfast in Miami Beach
File:Dough-Donut-Chocolate-Earl-Grey.jpg|Chocolate-frosted doughnut
File:Doughnuts on a plate.jpg|Doughnuts on a plate in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
File:Pon de wreath strawberry flavor of Mister Donut in Japan.jpg|Strawberry flavor mochi donut by Mister Donut
Middle East and North Africa
Iran
The Persian
Jalebi and
bamiyeh are fritters of various shapes and sizes coated in a sugar syrup.
Doughnuts are also made in the home in Iran, referred to as doughnut, even in the plural.
Israel
Jelly doughnuts, known as
sufganiyah (סופגניה, pl. sufganiyot 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.
Traditional
sufganiyot are filled with red jelly and topped with
icing sugar.
However, many other varieties exist, with some being filled with
dulce de leche (particularly common after the South American aliyah early in the 21st century).
Morocco
In
Morocco,
Sfenj is a similar pastry eaten sprinkled with sugar or soaked in honey.
Tunisia
In
Tunisia, traditional pastries similar to doughnuts are
yo-yos. They come in different versions both as balls and in shape of doughnuts. They are deep-fried and covered in a honey syrup or a kind of frosting.
Sesame seeds are also used for flavor and decoration along with orange juice and
vanilla.
Oceania
Australia
In Australia, the doughnut is a popular snack food.
are particularly popular,
especially in
Melbourne, Victoria and the Queen Victoria Market, where they are a tradition.
[ A hot piece of history. theage.com.au. 5 February 2004] Jam doughnuts are similar to a Berliner, but are served hot: red jam (raspberry or strawberry) is injected into the bun before it is deep-fried, and then it is coated with either sugar or sugar mixed with cinnamon as soon as it has been cooked. Jam doughnuts are sometimes also bought frozen. In
South Australia, they are known as Berliner or Kitchener and often served in cafes. Popular variants include custard-filled doughnuts, and more recently
Nutella-filled doughnuts.
Mobile vans that serve doughnuts, traditional or jam, are often seen at spectator events, markets, carnivals and fetes, and by the roadside near high-traffic areas like airports and the car parks of large shopping centres. Traditional cinnamon doughnuts are readily available in Australia from specialized retailers and convenience stores. Doughnuts are a popular choice for schools and other not-for-profit groups to cook and sell as a fundraiser.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the doughnut is a popular food snack available in corner dairies. They are in the form of a long sweet bread roll with a deep cut down its long axis. In this cut is placed a long dollop of sweetened clotted cream and on top of this is a spot of strawberry jam. Doughnuts are of two varieties: fresh cream or mock cream. The rounded variety is widely available as well.
South America
Brazil
In Brazil, bakeries, grocery stores and pastry shops sell ball-shaped doughnuts popularly known as "sonhos" (lit. dreams). The dessert was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonizers that had contact with Dutch and German traders. They are the equivalent of nowadays "bolas de Berlim" (lit. balls of Berlin) in Portugal, but the traditional Portuguese yellow cream was substituted by local dairy and fruit products. They are made of a special type of bread filled with "goiabada" (
guava jelly) or milk cream, and covered by white sugar.
Chile
The
Berlin (plural
Berlines) doughnut is popular in Chile because of the large German community. It may be filled with jam or with
manjar, the Chilean version of
dulce de leche.
Peru
Peruvian cuisine includes
picarones which are doughnut-shaped fritters made with a squash and sweet potato base.
These snacks are almost always served with a drizzle of sweet molasses-based sauce.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Africa
In
South Africa, an Afrikaans variation known as the
koeksister is popular. Another variation, similar in name, is the Cape Malay
koesister being soaked in a spiced syrup and coated in coconut. It has a texture similar to more traditional doughnuts as opposed to the Afrikaans variety.
A further variation is the
vetkoek, which is also dough deep fried in oil. It is served with mince, syrup, honey or jam.
In popular culture
The doughnut has made many appearances in popular culture, particularly in the United States and Australia. References extend to objects or actions that are doughnut-shaped.
In film, the doughnut has inspired Dora's Dunking Doughnuts (1933), The Doughnuts (1963) and . In video games, the doughnut has appeared in games like The Simpsons Game and Donut Dilemma. In the cartoon ¡Mucha Lucha!, there are four things that make up the code of mask wrestling: honor, family, tradition, and doughnuts. Also, in the television sitcom The Simpsons, Homer Simpson's love affair with doughnuts is a prominent ongoing joke as well as the focal point of more than a few episodes. In the children's book Homer Price, Homer's Uncle Ulysses installs a doughnut making machine in his lunchroom in the fictional town of Centerburg. There is also a children's book Arnie the Doughnut and music albums The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse.
In films, TV shows, and other popular culture references, police officers are associated with doughnuts,[On the B movie matinee show Mystery Science Theater 3000, cop/donut jokes were used so prevalently by the host Joel during the viewing of the science fiction cop drama Indestructible Man that his robot co-hosts insisted upon him signing a legal document forbidding any further usage of such jokes in the future. See one of the most spectacular "donut scenes" in the still on the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" website and read about it in the article "Twin Peaks Donut Shop Was Called Wagon Wheel Do-Nuts".] In the video game Neuromancer, there is a Donut World shop, where only policemen are allowed. During a citywide "lockdown" after the Boston Marathon bombing, a handful of selected Dunkin' Donuts locations were ordered to remain open to serve police and first responders despite the closing of the vast majority of city businesses.
Industry by country
Australia
Donut King is Australia's largest retailer of doughnuts. A Guinness Book of Records largest doughnut made up of 90,000 individual doughnuts was set in
Sydney in 2007 as part of a celebration for the release of
The Simpsons Movie.
[ World's largest D'oh Nut . News.com.au (5 December 2007). Retrieved 22 August 2013.]
Canada
Per capita, Canadians consume the most doughnuts, and Canada has the most doughnut stores per capita.
United States
Within the United States, the Providence metropolitan area was cited as having the most doughnut shops per capita (25.3 doughnut shops per 100,000 people) as of 13 January 2010.
National Doughnut Day celebrates the doughnut's history and role in popular culture. There is a race in Staunton, Illinois, featuring doughnuts, called the Tour de Donut.
Pink boxes
In the US, especially in Southern California, fresh doughnuts sold by the dozen at local doughnut shops are typically packaged in generic pink boxes. This phenomenon has been attributed to
Ted Ngoy and Ning Yen, refugees of the Cambodian genocide who began to transform the local doughnut shop industry in 1976. They proved so adept at the business and in training fellow Chinese Cambodian refugees to follow suit that these local doughnut shops soon dominated native franchises such as Winchell's Donuts. Ngoy and Yen allegedly planned to purchase boxes of a lucky red color rather than the standard white, but settled on a leftover pink stock because of its lower cost.
In the mid-1970s, pink doughnut boxes were already a common sight in the eastern and midwestern United States, due to the fact that Dunkin' Donuts used a solid pink color for its boxes at that time.
Owing to the success of Ngoy and Yen's business, the color soon became a recognizable standard in California. Due to the locality of Hollywood, the pink boxes frequently appeared as film and television props and were thus transmitted into popular culture.
Holidays and festivals
National Doughnut Day
National Doughnut Day, also known as National Donut Day, celebrated in the United States of America, is on the first Friday of June each year, succeeding the Doughnut Day event created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor those of their members who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I.
About 250 Salvation Army volunteers went to France. Because of the difficulties of providing freshly baked goods from huts established in abandoned buildings near the front lines, the two Salvation Army volunteers (Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance) came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. These are reported to have been an "instant hit", and "soon many soldiers were visiting The Salvation Army huts". Margaret Sheldon wrote of one busy day: "Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, of coffee."
Soon, the women who did this work became known by the servicemen as "Doughnut Dollies".
See also
Further reading
-
Origins of the doughnut hole.
-
