Doughnuts - The Lighter Side

The word doughnut needs no explaining, nearly everyone is familiar with it. It is called "sufganiyah" in Israel and the Malaysians call it "Kuih keria". Nevertheless, it is a simple and delicious dessert with unique variations. A particular type of doughnut, The Boston Cream is so famous that it made its way far away to Pakistan and is called as "Navaz Sharif" variety, funnily after the current Prime Minister of Pakistan though.

Assorted Doughnuts
Courtesy Toria Vey

Now that I've said all about the fame of this simple little dessert, what actually is a doughnut?
Flour is made into a dough and then deep fried, but that doesn't make it a doughnut quite yet. What's unique of the doughnut is that it has a circular shape with a circle cut out from the center, it's actually a baked flour ring. To give it this ring shape, a doughnut cutter is used which will cut out a circle from the center
and make sure it is perfectly round from the outer side, or the dough can be simply kneaded into a rope like structure and the ends joined to form a circle. Baking times and recipes vary from types and variations, but that's just another thing.

  

The Boston Cream
Courtesy Tish Boyle

There are countless variations of the doughnut and it'll take another read to talk about them, but fortunately there are primarily only two types of this creative dessert, the cake doughnut and the yeast doughnut. As the name suggests, yeast doughnuts have yeast included in the dough and swell up to give a nice fluffy doughnut, but they take longer in the frying pan and are 25% oil. On the other hand, the cake based doughnuts are made from a special cake batter and take less oil to fry, but they get their share of fats already included in the batter.

Doughnut Holes
Courtesy The Frugal Girl

Doughnuts are also recognized without the center part cut out, well the center part that I've been referring to is actually called a doughnut hole, this doughnut hole after being cut out, can be added back to the mixture or be fried and served itself. Doughnuts have actually made these one-bite doughnut holes quite famous! With or without doughnut holes, doughnuts have a lot of variations and by a lot, I really mean like a lot! They can be topped with icing, cinnamon, granulated sugar or whatever confectionery you could think of. Aside from topping, filled doughnuts are quite popular too. Cream or flavoring of any color can be injected and you get yourself a delicious juicy doughnut. Doughnut holes are also very popular and can be similarly treated, but people like George Jean believe in the classic doughnut as he is famously quoted to have said, "An actor without a playwright is like a hole without a doughnut".

Doughnuts have been massively popular in the United States where they are written as donuts, and are a popular breakfast for many when coupled with a coffee. No doubt doughnut chains like "dunkin' donuts" have made a fortune out of this dessert and can be regularly seen advertising coffee with doughnuts for breakfast. Care needs to be taken with doughnuts because though they may be appealing to the taste buds, they are high on fats and calories. Nevertheless, they are very much of a tasty treat and popping them up occasionally wouldn't harm. Happy dunking!