National Donut Day
Glazed, jelly, powdered, Boston cream… Any of these sound familiar? Of course they do! You would be hard pressed to find anyone that did not recognize these as different types of donut varieties, and even harder pressed to find someone who didn’t have their own personal favorite. That’s why, in honor of National Donut Day, we are sharing a history of donuts along with one of our healthier, savvier recipes for homemade donuts below.
Just like many of our favorite foods that we love, the donut did not always look and taste like what we know and recognize today. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “doughnuts in some form or other have been around so long that archaeologists keep turning up fossilized bits of what look like doughnuts in the middens of prehistoric Native American settlements.” It is thought though that the more modern version as we think of it came to the US and what is now known as New York in the 1700s with the Dutch settlers’ olykoek (oil cake). These cakes were “simply balls of cake fried in pork fat until golden brown.” The pork fat sounds like an interesting spin to us!
An article by The Spruce Eats tells us the origin of the actual shape of the donuts as we know them today. American ship Captain Hansen Gregory wanted a solution to the uncooked center of the fried dough that occurred in olykoeks. His idea: punch a whole in the center before frying. This hole increased the surface area and exposure to the hot oil, eliminating the uncooked center. Voila! The modern donut shape was born.
The first donut machine that would eventually lead to mass production of this favorite confectionary was invented by Adolph Levitt. New York City theater crowds prompted him to invent this machine so he could churn out the donuts faster, thus feeding more people and making more money, eventually earning him $25 million a year by 1931 (we’d take making that kind of money even now in 2021)! At the same time Levitt’s machine was taking off, the Great Depression led a Frenchman named Joe LeBeau to sell his secret donut recipe and accompanying name. That name: Krispy Kreme, and what started off as a door-to-door sales operation eventually became one of the most well-known donut franchises today.
And while donuts have definitely evolved into the delicious circles of delight we know and love, we don’t always want the negative health aspects that come with them. That’s where we come in. We highly recommend making this healthier homemade version if you’ve got a craving. Not only are they savvy because they don’t have as much sugar or fat content as traditional recipes, they are savvy because they only call for 5 ingredients, they are backed, not fried, and you can custom decorate them!
Healthy Donut Recipe
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
1/4 cup coconut oil melted
1 cup milk of choice I used coconut milk
1 cup chocolate frosting
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 12-count donut pan and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, sift your flour into it. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a thick dough remains.
Spoon out dough amongst the donut pan. Lightly wet your hands and shape them into the donut cavities. Do not overfill.
Bake for 12-17 minutes, or until a skewer comes out just clean.
Remove the donuts from the oven and let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, frost them.
Full recipe by The Big Man’s World
Let us know your favorite donut type in the comments below!
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
