The history of the donut goes back centuries, long before the discovery of the New World. In ancient Rome and Greece, cooks fried slices of dough and covered them with honey or fish sauce (oh!). In medieval times, Arab chefs began to fry small portions of unsweetened yeast dough, soaking simple fried balls in sugar syrup to sweeten them.
These Arabian pancakes spread to northern Europe in the 1400s and became popular in England, Germany and the Netherlands. In 15th century Germany, where it was difficult to get sugar, they were often made unsweetened, but with fillings such as meat or mushrooms. Pilgrims and Dutch settlers brought donuts to America.
In the end, holes were added to the center of the pancakes to create the shape of the donut we are familiar with today. The holes were added not by accident, but by necessity :. at some point, egg yolks were added to the dough - it was found that this gives a richer and firmer final product. The problem was that the pancakes often turned out to be damp in the center after frying - the outer part was cooked earlier than the inner part of the donut. Adding a hole in the center fixed this problem.
This innovation is usually attributed to Captain Hanson Gregory, a Dutch sailor whose mother made him donuts for travel. There are many variations in this story, so who knows what really happened, but the most interesting version is that on June 22, 1847, Captain Gregory’s ship suddenly fell into a storm. He pierced the donut of one of the steering wheel spokes to free his hands. A needle pierced a hole in the untreated center of the donut, which seemed very convenient to him.
10. Classic donuts
To make a dozen (that's 12 pieces) of the most delicious donuts you need to take:
- egg,
- a quarter cup of milk
- 2 tablespoons butter,
- 50 g sugar
- 250-300 g flour,
- 25 grams of yeast (dry fit perfectly),
- some salt.
Cooking:
Rub the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar, add a third of the total amount of flour, milk, make the dough and refrigerate it for 20 minutes. Beat the egg with sugar, melt the butter, mix everything with the dough from the refrigerator, adding the remaining flour and salt. After that, let it stand for another 20 minutes and begin to fry the donuts: roll out a layer of dough, cut out circles in a shape, fry in a large amount of hot vegetable oil, turning over and making sure that they do not burn.
9. Lean donuts on the water
It's hard to imagine a donut recipe, easier than that:
- flour (we will take 5 glasses, if you take less, then proportionally reduce the amount of other products),
- a tablespoon of sugar
- as much yeast
- 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (in the dough, not for frying),
- 2 cups of warm water.
Cooking:
Mix the dry ingredients with flour, add water and knead the dough, which after leaving in a warm place for at least a quarter hour, or better longer. We crumple it again and form sausages, the ends of which are fastened together to make a ring - our donut. We fry and enjoy!
8. Fast donuts for the lazy
These donuts are obtained without a hole in the center (see photo), like the classic ones, but the filling is not provided here. The main thing is that you do not have to get your hands dirty, which for this dish seems to be something from the realm of fantasy. For the test we take:
- 400 g of milk
- 300 g flour
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 25 grams of yeast,
- a pinch of salt.
Cooking:
We warm the milk a little, dissolve sugar, salt and yeast in it, then add the flour and make a dough that should resemble sour cream. We leave the covered dough “to come up” for an hour and a half. After that, dip a tablespoon in oil, pick up the dough and dip the spoon into boiling oil. The donut will “bounce” itself from the spoon.
7. Donuts without yeast
For cooking, we need:
- a pound of flour
- a pair of large eggs
- 150 g sugar
- as much milk
- 30 g butter,
- 2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 3 tablespoons of vinegar
- vanilla, icing sugar - to taste.
Cooking:
In a deep bowl, mix the eggs with sugar, pour the melted butter and beat thoroughly with a whisk to completely dissolve the sugar, then add milk., Also warm. Then comes the soda, slaked with vinegar and flour. We make a tight, elastic dough, roll out and cut out donuts: first we make a circle in a large shape, in the middle of which we make a hole in a small shape. We fry, like all other donuts, in a large amount of oil.
6. Donuts in sugar glaze
In this recipe, all the “charm” lies in the sugar glaze, which goes well with any donuts. This means that you can take any of the above methods of preparing the dough, add the icing - and voila, you get donuts in sugar icing. It is prepared quite simply, for this we need:
- 170 g icing sugar
- 3 tablespoons of water,
- teaspoon of lemon juice (can be replaced with an incomplete spoon of citric acid).
Cooking:
Sift the powder without fail, add lemon juice and water, mix. Dip the finished donuts on the obtained icing on one side (choose where they will have the top and dunk on this side), after which we leave them briefly so that the caramel freezes. Don’t be afraid that the donuts will cool down - thanks to the glaze they will still be incredibly tasty.
5. Chocolate donuts
Here is a similar story as with donuts in sugar glaze, only we replace it with melted chocolate. You can take black, milk, even white - in any case it will be very tasty. Chocolate with nuts is better not to take, but sprinkle them with donuts after you dip in chocolate is very possible.
4. Donuts with jam filling
First, make the dough from:
- 150 ml of milk
- 400 g flour
- 2 eggs
- 20 grams of yeast,
- 50 g butter,
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- a pinch of salt and a bag of vanilla.
Cooking:
Roll out the dough, cut out circles. We spread any jam in the middle (or jam, it’s not so important) and cover it with the same “round” dough. The main thing is to gently but reliably close the edges, preferably inward, so that it looks perfect. Fry for 4 minutes on each side.
3. Donuts on kefir
Ingredients:
- a glass of kefir,
- a tablespoon of sugar
- 1 egg
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- 350 g flour
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Cooking:
We mix all dry ingredients, add a slightly beaten egg, kefir and butter. Knead the dough, which is divided into portions: from the specified number of products should be 15 donuts. You can just tear off pieces of dough, form a donut, and make a hole in the middle with your finger. They will turn out not quite neat in appearance, but it’s convenient, but it doesn’t affect the taste at all.
2. Homemade condensed milk donuts
You will need:
- a glass of flour,
- 100 g of condensed milk,
- half a teaspoon of baking powder,
- 1 egg
- a pinch of salt.
Cooking:
Add salt and egg to the condensed milk, mix thoroughly, add the sifted flour with baking powder and make the dough. We divide it into 3 parts and roll out each piece with our hands in the form of sausage. We cut them into pieces of 2 cm and form balls, which we fry until cooked. Not really donuts, but this is a necessary measure: if you make them large, then the dough will not have time to fry inside.
1. Curd donuts
For 250 grams of cottage cheese you need:
- 4 tablespoons of flour
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 eggs,
- half a teaspoon of soda with vinegar,
- a pinch of salt.
Cooking:
Mix eggs with cottage cheese, add sugar and soda, slaked with vinegar, mix thoroughly (you can blender). Add flour and knead the dough from which to form donuts with or without a hole and fry.