Le Donut

Recently, I've become obsessed with finding the perfect Donut (also known as a Doughnut).
Where did these tasty fried morsels come from- and why do they have that hole in the middle of them?

It is believed that the origins of the Donut came from Holland in the form of sweet dough balls fried in pork fat and called olykoeks. These fried dough balls were usually filled with some sort of dried fruit in the middle. The balls were referred to as "nuts of dough" hence where the name dough- nut comes from .

It is said that the Donut got its hole in the middle shape when a sea captain whose mother made these dough nuts with nuts in the middle of the sweet dough ball decided he didn't like the nuts in the middle and used a cutter to remove all the nuts from the middle of the fried ball of dough yielding us with the donut with the hole that we have today. Another possible theory is that the middle of the dough ball would not cook so they simply eliminated the under cooked problem but removing the middle when cooking the dough ball.

Every country has their version of a Donut- though not always in a ring form with a hole missing from the middle. Every country has a version of a starch based, fried, tasty morsel- sometimes savory and some times sweet. Some countries use a yeast starter- much like we see with krispy Kremes in America and others use a traditional cake based (egg as the levening agent).

In America, donut shops are a dime a dozen- what's the difference between a mediorce donut and an outrageously good donut? is it the frosting? is it the dough? These fried morsels are so simple but are often some of the best foods representing a country.

It's Donut hunting time!