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| Left: My collection's "Uncorrected Proof;" Right: Final version (photo from internet) |
Date I made this recipe:
June 3, 2016 – National Doughnut Day
The Donut Book by
Sally Levitt Steinberg (Ann's Note: This
is an uncorrected proof of the book, not the final version)
Published by: Alfred
A. Knopf
© 1987
Purchased at Half Price Books (for a whopping $1.98!)
Recipe: Pennsylvania
Dutch Doughnuts – p. 141
I tell you what, folks, it seems to me that someone out
there is just making up these national food days just to mess with me because I
sure as heck don't recall celebrating a National Doughnut Day before but what
do I know? Perhaps these holidays have
been in existence forever and are now only coming to light because of the
internet?
And there are so, so...so many of these holidays (once a day
and twice in Sundays), that I cannot possibly keep up even if my collection is
filled with books for every occasion.
And so most of them have flown by, without cooking recognition from me
(mea culpa) except I did manage to stop the presses on National Doughnut
Day. Whew. That said, making a dish on the exact day of
said food holiday is a challenge and so we celebrate D-Day (Doughnut Day) a few
days later.
Now I ask you, are not some of these national food
observances overkill? Because in my
house, every day is "national" chocolate day, coffee day, bakery day,
and so on. But okay fine, if we must
designate a specific day for these things then we must.
I may or may not have told this doughnut story before on my
blog but it bears repeating and it goes something like this:
Once upon a time, in a Catholic grade school, far, far away,
my posse and I ditched the playground one day to head to the local bakery which
was only a few blocks from the school.
The fact that we managed to slip past the eagle eye of the supervising
playground nun in the first place is amazing (and true!). One of my friends told me that one of her
nuns always said "I have eyes in the back of my head" and she wasn't
kidding.
So all of us rouge and very naughty 6th graders
went to the bakery, got our sugary delights including doughnuts, and then
walked back as sweet as you please (pardon the pun) to the playground only to
find it deserted save for one person:
Sister Rita. "SR" was
our 6th grade teacher and the school's principal. SR was not amused. As a note, it was 1970 and most nuns I knew
had yet to find a sense of humor under that uniform.
At any rate, SR asked us where we had been and all six of us
chirped "No where, sister."
And then she asked what we were eating and we said "Nothing,
sister."
We should have been struck down by a lightning bolt
(something I feared growing up when I told a lie) for this huge fib and really,
we had only ourselves to blame if that happened because the evidence was
damming: vestiges of powdered sugar and
jelly were smeared all over our faces, hands and uniform, plus, it should be
known that we were still carrying our bakery bags. In other words, SR had this one in the bag (yes,
again with the pun)!
It should be known that soiling a uniform is akin to soiling
the U.S. flag i.e. it just is NOT done and, in the Catholic church, I suspect
it is on the list of Cardinal Sins for which we were surely doomed to hell
right then and there. And this explains
much of how my life went for me thereafter but that's a whole other story, even
book, folks.
As was usual and customary at the time, my posse had to clap
erasers (to clean them, Goggle it) and had to also clean the classroom to atone
for our sins. I received worse
punishment while in that Catholic school but this ranked pretty high on the list. Naturally, we were also expected to confess
all in the confessional although I'm betting none of us did it and if we did,
we still lied about it because that's what Catholic kids know how to do best: lie.
Like a rug. People always laugh
when I say this but let me assure you that I am not kidding. Swear to God. ;)
By the way, holding a séance on the playground was also not
our best idea (fun though) and we once again received SR's wrath. Frankly, I think our very existence ticked
her off but that's another Catholic School Survivor story for another day.
And so this brings us back to the matter at hand: donuts (or doughnuts). Love
them. Love bakeries. Love, love.
These days, I'm more of a cookie or brownie gal but every now and then I
simply must have a doughnut. And like
many people, I can't decide if I like raised and glazed over cake doughnuts but
luckily, nobody has a gun to my head forcing that decision. And I have fond memories of both types of
doughnuts. When in New
York and New Jersey
visiting relatives, we had Entenmann's
which I love. And while on vacation in California in the early
70's, one of the hotels we stayed at served us chocolate covered cake doughnuts
for their continental breakfast (they were way before their time) and my
brother, a chocoholic, just about swooned.
As to The Donut Book,
today's featured cookbook, there are more stories here and doughnut lore than
recipes although as a reminder, I own an uncorrected proof of this book, not
the final version with photos. Just
thought you should know that. But all
this is fine by me because I like the story as much as I do the recipes. In the version I have, here are some of the
recipes: Pumpkin; Buttermilk; Graham
Cracker; Beignets; Salvation Army Doughnuts; Elderberry Funnel Cakes and mine, Pennsylvania Dutch Doughnuts (originally
published in Gourmet Magazine).
You will also read how and why soldiers returning from war
were called doughboys, how the donut got its hole (no calories in those, no
sir!) and so on.
As between making a yeast doughnut and a cake doughnut, "cake"
won out hands down. Plus, there is
something about a yeast doughnut that requires the skill of a bakery baker and
that is most decidedly not me. And so to
cake....
This is an easy recipe although actually shaping the
doughnuts per the instructions was another matter. I put my best baker – husband Andy – on that
detail and after a fashion, he just gave up trying to follow the book's design
specs and just made up his own! He can
be such a rogue in the kitchen.
These doughnuts can flavored with either nutmeg or
cardamom. Since I am not a nutmeg fan, I
went with cardamom, a flavor I don't dislike, but one that doesn't float my
boat, either. And in my opinion, it was
kind of hard to detect the flavor even though I used what I thought was a
generous amount.
Still, our first attempt at making doughnuts was not half
bad. If I had more time to experiment with some of the others (sour cream? Oh yes!) I would be time marches on, food
holidays come and go and so it's on to the next kitchen session.
Pennsylvania Dutch
Doughnuts – serving size not given
3 large eggs
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup cream
Generous grating of fresh nutmeg, or powdered cardamom seeds
(Ann's Note: by which I think they mean us to give some
seeds a good whirl in a coffee/spice grinder or food processor?)
Pinch of salt
About 3 cups cake flour (Ann's
Note: I added as I went along and
ended up using 2 cups. I think for best
results though, stop at 1.5 cups and see what you think as our dough ended up
just shy of "easy to handle.")
Deep fat or oil for deep frying
Powdered sugar
Beat eggs until foamy, add granulated sugar, and beat again
until well mixed. Add cream, nutmeg (or
cardamom), and salt to taste. (Ann's Note: I always chuckle when it is suggested that I
'salt to taste' a recipe involving raw meat or eggs because that is not going
to happen. When I was a kid, sure, we
ate raw cookie dough but now that is verboten so food companies have figured
out a way to allow kids to eat raw dough without the threat of salmonella. And for this, we salute them!)
Blend the mixture well and sift in enough cake flour to make
a soft dough that is easy to handle.
Roll out dough as thin as possible on a lightly floured
board and cut it into narrow triangular shapes about 5 inches long. In the center of each triangle make a cut
about
1 ½ inches long and
pull point of the triangle through it.
Fry these twisted shapes in hot deep fat or oil until they are lightly
browned. Drain them on paper towels and
sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve hot
or cold.
Ann's Note: These weren't bad "cold" but they
aren't great, either. I mean, we'll eat
them and are eating them but the best doughnut is one that has just been pulled
from the fat vat!
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