Donuts are considered one of the most beloved sweets, which is adored by children and adults. Moreover, in each country they are prepared differently, which explains not only the variety of recipes and modifications of the set of ingredients, but also the appearance of the product.
It is believed that for the first time such goodies were prepared by the ancient Romans. The dessert of that time did not look very much like its modern counterparts, but looked more like an antique pie. But it was precisely that dough, fried in fat or lard, that served as an example of inspiration for the culinary specialists of our time.
At the same time, the cooks came up with the obligatory topping, which included poppy seeds or pouring honey. The result was hearty and fragrant, and donut progenitors were sold to both the poor and the local rich. The resulting dish was called globules and was in consistently high demand during the Middle Ages.
Mysterious pioneers
Since finding the original instructions for frying donuts is quite problematic, it is difficult to say which classic ingredients are required. Each nationality has its own canon in reserve.
Originally, Europeans who loved to indulge in krapfen, their own variety of donuts, made them in the shape of the letter “S”. But today, most national cuisines welcome the round, spherical shape or the famous “donuts” with a hole in the middle.
Due to the fact that historians for several centuries have not been able to figure out who was the discoverer of a recipe close to the modern one, the townsfolk came up with a legend about this. It is believed that the first copy appeared due to the sluggishness of some inattentive confectioner.
Instead of sending the prepared ball of dough to the oven, he dropped it into a frying pan and fried it in oil. After his mistake, in order not to throw away the product, he decided to taste it and came to the conclusion that the resulting result was very even nothing in terms of taste characteristics.
Since then, people have been preparing supplements for the table at home, choosing the main ingredients according to their own budget and personal preferences. But the first official mention of the dish is dated only in 1803, when the English author of one of the cookbooks included a step-by-step recipe in the content of the textbook.
A hundred years later, donuts acquired the form familiar to contemporaries, and at the dawn of the twentieth century, during the global automation of food production, flour products began to be made by mechanisms.
The incredible popularity of delicacies in America is explained by the fact that in the twenties of the last century, the production of bagels in the country was controlled by trade unions. But no one particularly followed the donuts, which made it possible to produce them according to various recipes in almost bottomless quantities.
A little later, two giants in the confectionery industry picked up the wave of popularity: Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts. They still compete in who is the best of them prepares fragrant additions to tea.
But the most interesting topic of all fans of this treat is not even a historical background. Even today, people argue about who and why made a hole in the middle of a fried round. There are several theories about this. One of them says that the Jews were the first to “hole” the product. According to legend, the hole appeared in memory of a special oil, which is poured into menorah-candlesticks in Jerusalem temples.
Some prescribe the fashion for the absence of the core to the Dane Hanoson Gregory, who was the captain of the local fleet. During one of his voyages, his crew was suddenly overtaken by a storm. The captain, who had been chewing on a bun in the storm to free both hands for steering the helm, strung a half-eaten dessert onto the helm.
But practitioners believe that the explanation lies in a more prosaic reason, because it is the hole in the center that allows you to better fry the confectionery and spend less time cooking. This allowed street vendors to spend less dough on delicious snacks and at the same time not significantly delay the queue of people who want to eat.
Culinary classification
Before you cook sweets for the whole family, you need to figure out which country’s standard should be preferred. Usually, the treat does not include toppings, being limited to sprinkles or icing.
But if the filling still takes place, then it is laid out on top of a confectionery product that has a rounded shape. Jam is unlikely to be put on traditional American versions with a void in the middle, so it is better to give preference to old recipes. They are based on rounded patties that are fried in a large portion of fresh oil.
Other popular versions include:
- Donuts. It is characteristic of many Slavic peoples. The bakery product is kneaded with yeast, after which it is dipped into a vat of boiling oil. After roasting, each copy is separately sprinkled with powdered sugar.
- Smultring. Norwegians make them almost according to the typical scheme, but at the same time they pay attention to some other nuances.
- Loukoumades. Greek delicacies fried in the finest oils.
- Berlin confectionery without holes in the core.
- An American classic, abbreviated as donuts, after the company that first released them to the general public.
The exact calorie content for each variety will not be voiced even by an experienced culinary specialist, since home-made analogues of popular offers are usually prepared according to the “by eye” principle. But even taking into account the variety of solutions, finding a low-calorie dish of this kind will not work. Any donuts require obligatory frying in an abundance of oil, as well as shock doses of sugar both inside the dough and on top of it.
If you add more icing, fudge, sweets or nuts on top, you get a boycott of the diet. Because of this, nutritionists recommend leaving even the thought of trying lush foods to those who have problems with being overweight. Even the most modest specimen weighing about 100 grams is shocking with a calorie content of over 400 kcal. What can we say about variations with a filling of marmalade, jam or cream.
The average composition of the finished product should include:
- kefir;
- vegetable oil;
- flour;
- sugar;
- soda;
- salt.
An instruction that tells you how to make a yummy step by step usually relies on just a few basic points:
- Soda quenched with vinegar is added to kefir.
- Sugar, salt, oil are also sent there.
- Flour is added last.
- Knead the dough directly on the cutting board and leave it to rest for about half an hour.
- Roll out in a thick layer about three centimeters.
- Cut out circles with a glass.
- Baked in the oven or fried.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
But since these are just generally accepted basic steps, they may differ if you want to make curd versions, or versions with nuts in the dough itself.
Tips from experts
The easiest way is to buy a finished product. Those who have never tried such culinary delights should start with just such a test. Because fried desserts are heavy foods, tasting store-bought items will let you know if the food is right for a particular eater.
If everything is fine, then you can start looking for a detailed diagram of how to make a treat for dear guests. At the same time, experienced confectioners prefer to fry semi-finished products not in deep frying pans or pans, but in special deep fryers. This allows you to protect your hands from splashes of hot oily liquid.
Aces also advise before sending the first batch to the pan, first heat the oil to a temperature of 160 to 180 degrees, constantly maintaining the specified range. If you hurry and put the workpiece in a colder environment, then it will be saturated with much more fat.
Separately, you need to make sure that at the same time there are only a couple of copies in the container. If you go too far with portions, then the rounds will get a crispy crust on only one side. For the same reason, you will have to constantly turn them over, so you can’t move away from the stove during cooking.
After the frying comes to an end, the sweets are transferred to a sieve or spread on a paper towel folded in several layers. This is necessary in order to drain excess fat. Leave them on the pallet for five minutes.
If the family likes yeast confectionery, but you don’t want to use a loading dose of vegetable oil, then you can use the oven. But with this approach, each piece is pre-coated with butter.
Despite the rather high calorie content of the final product, doctors do not deny some of their benefits. If you eat such additions to tea infrequently and in small quantities, baking them according to the correct recipe, you will be able to saturate your body with B vitamins.
Also in the proposals on kefir there are several other useful components:
- ascorbic acid;
- vitamin PP;
- phosphorus;
- sodium;
- potassium;
- calcium.
The dough itself does not pose a significant threat, but if you eat products from it in catering establishments, then the threat of risks of eating carcinogens increases. They are formed when frying the workpiece in oil, the temperature of which is about 130 degrees and lower. This is due to the fact that conventional kitchen appliances are not always able to pump higher temperatures.
The problem also lies in the fact that dishonest owners of small kiosks with such popular fast food change the oil in the pan according to some personal schedule, not paying attention to sanitary standards. This leads to lesions of the gastrointestinal tract of varying severity.
There are also such businessmen who use palm kernel fat for cooking, which is also unlikely to add health.
But the most dangerous thing is to eat Berliners in an unverified place – German dense donuts. They provide for the need to additionally use preservatives.
Regardless of whether a ready-made dessert was bought or made independently, its shelf life is only two days.
Fragrant donuts
If you don’t want to start honing your culinary skills with complex proposals of cottage cheese and many fillings, then it’s better to try to immediately master a simpler option. Classic American donuts are relatively short to cook and do not require any exotic ingredients. Enough to get in the fridge:
- 500 g flour;
- 100 grams of sugar;
- 200 ml of milk;
- 2 g of fresh yeast;
- 60 g butter;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- 5 g salt.
As a result, the cook should get about thirty copies.
First you need to melt the butter over low heat, and you can not hold out until it starts to darken. At the same time, flour is sifted onto the table. A small depression is made in the resulting slide. Next, you need to dilute the yeast in warm milk.
Returning to the deepening made, it is worth putting salt and sugar there, as well as pouring in all the yeast, eggs and butter. It is necessary to knead the dough until an elastic homogeneous consistency is obtained. Outwardly, it should be similar to the one needed for bread.
Upon completion of the kneading, the dough is sent to a warm place for about half an hour, and after it has risen, you can begin to form donuts. The layer is rolled out with a thickness of one and a half centimeters, and with the help of two glasses with different diameters of the neck, shapes are cut out. Moreover, the void in the middle should be small.
After molding, the semi-finished products are laid out on a baking sheet so that they fit a little.
It remains only to fry the donuts in boiling oil, throwing a few pieces into the pan. And after uniform frying with constant turning of donuts, they are laid out on a paper towel. To add sweetness, sprinkle with powdered sugar on top or dip in honey and eat immediately.