Doughnuts

Doughnuts

In almost every corner of the globe people love deep-fried dough. Coated with icing sugar, syrup, honey or chocolate, here’s a sweet temptation not many will be able to resist.

On the Japanese islands of Okinawa the small, sweet, fried dough balls are called “Andagi”, in Lebanon “Awwamaat”, in India “Balushai” or “Gulab Jamun”, in Kazakhstan “Baursaki”, in Germany “Krapfen” and in southern USA “Hush Puppy”. As different as all these names may be, they all refer to a small ball of simple yeast, choux or quark dough, deep-fried in hot vegetable oil or animal fat.

What sounds so simple has understandably inspired creative spirits everywhere to hide all manner of delicious surprises inside: sweet creams, fruity jams, confitures, jellies or preserves, chopped nuts, marzipan, chocolate, dried and marinated fruit. Because the dough balls are only dipped into the oil for a few minutes, the filling should be ready to eat before frying and it should not expand or the dough will burst.

In Spain, Mexico and southern China they do not form the dough into small balls – they use piping bags to make long snakes called “churro” or “youtiao”. In Portugal these snakes are formed into spirals and are called “farturas”. In Hungary “lángos” are a popular snack for the road: a round flat cake the size of a hand, filled with fruit sauce – similar to Germany’s fist-sized “Berliner” or Poland’s “pączki”, which are filled with rose hip preserve.

If you intend to add sugar, syrup, honey or chocolate to the doughnut after frying, you should lay them out on kitchen paper and make sure they have completely cooled first because if the surface is too warm the sugar will melt and the chocolate will run.

Text: Rainer Meier