Your favorite doughnut? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 10-04-2008, 03:53 PM

Quote:

View: Fry, Baby
Source: Nytimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Fry, Baby
October 5, 2008
The Way We Eat: 10-5-08
Fry, Baby
By KELLY ALEXANDER
It’s tricky to claim that eating a ring of fried dough will improve your life. But Jacques Chiron, the creator of the biodiesel-fueled AstroTurf car, says it’s so. He recently told reporters that his pioneering ride could run on the stuff of “French fry . . . barbecue . . . doughnut.” America might solve this energy crisis yet.

Although they’d long existed in Central Europe as enticements at saints’ days and festivals, doughnuts were popularized as a quotidian treat in this country. In the early 19th century, Washington Irving wrote that Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam had a table that “was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat and called dough nuts.” The holes were removed toward the end of the century, as an 1870 baking catalog attests. As recently as 1950, when the journalist Clementine Paddleford edited the food pages of The New York Herald Tribune, cooks were still making doughnuts at home. Martin Weldon, a reporter for WCBS radio, spent the better part of a week trailing Paddleford; she let him mix the batter for the recipe of the week, crullers. “Well, the batter stayed up, and I thought I passed with flying crullers,” he wrote.

Home doughnut-making peaked shortly thereafter. Who wanted to wield her tongs over a caldron of boiling oil when Dunkin’ Donuts, franchised in 1955, was just up the block? Today, the fear of both fried food and the act of frying means that doughnuts are strictly outsourced. Savvy New Yorkers count on folks like Mark Isreal, the grandson of a doughnut baker and owner of Doughnut Plant, to elevate the form with creative flavors like pistachio and lavender.

While testing Paddleford’s recipes for a book I was co-writing about her, I was reluctant to try the crullers, heeding the wishes of my waistline. But once I got up the gumption, they were so easy and delicious that I wondered what was wrong with everybody else.

Whether they’re called doughnuts, crullers, fritters or beignets, they’re usually made of a combination of flour, eggs and milk that is raised with baking powder or baking soda. The ideal dough is stiff enough to be shaped but moist enough to retain its sponginess. A good doughnut should have an airy puffiness, which is achieved when small pieces of dough are dropped into hot fat and quickly heated to well above the boiling point, so that steam aerates the inside before the outside can harden. A brief blotting on a paper-towel-lined plate and they’re ready to eat.

Chefs have never abandoned the doughnut, however humble or trans-fatty. Alain Ducasse has offered doughnut holes as a dessert course. For years, Thomas Keller has sent out cinnamon-sugar-dusted doughnuts with cappuccino semifreddo after meals at the French Laundry. The Manhattan chef Doug Psaltis, who has cooked with Ducasse and Keller, said chefs love the whimsy of making them. “The fun part is that they bob around in the oil like duckies in the bathtub,” he said. And in an era of intellectualized food, he pointed out, doughnuts remain a simple pleasure: “The best thing about them is that you’re not eating air cakes from some molecular gastronomy chef.”

But it wasn’t until recently that doughnuts began appearing on menus in earnest. The latest haute incarnation is at Dovetail in Manhattan, where the pastry chef Vera Tong spikes her cream-and-orange-infused doughnuts with Earl-Grey-tea sugar for a delicately fragrant result. At the Southern end of the spectrum, Amy Tornquist, the chef at Watts Grocery in Durham, N.C., fries up her version of Mexican churros (which, after all, are just straightened-out doughnuts) to be dipped in bourbon-spiked chocolate sauce.

The one fact that no one can dispute is that doughnuts are best consumed immediately. Sure you can pack Paddleford’s crullers in a picnic basket, but nothing beats eating one while it’s still hot. And as soon as you’re done, you can take that leftover oil out to the garage.

Kelly Alexander is the co-author of “Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate.”

I love fried dough.... I love all kinds of fried dough from zeppolis to chinese doughnuts, mexican churros to spanish churros, regular doughnuts...

I have a couple of all time favorite picks... raised chocolate iced or an apple fritter.

What's your favorite?

Bear Cub · 10-04-2008, 04:03 PM

Lemon filled with chocolate frosting. I could sit and eat them until I begin vomiting all over myself. That's why I don't eat doughnuts.

Charlatan · 10-04-2008, 04:27 PM

I am with Cyn on the fried dough thing...

My favourite doughnut is either the chocolate glazed from Tim Horton's or a glazed sour cream.

The_Jazz · 10-04-2008, 04:30 PM

I had a bismark from the Swedish Bakery this morning that was phenomenal. One of the best I've ever had.

Lucifer · 10-05-2008, 01:48 AM

What the hell is a Bismark?

Usually honey dip does it for me, unless it's from the drive through (cause you never get napkins) then I get an old fashioned.

little_tippler · 10-05-2008, 03:24 AM

I agree, doughnuts make life better!

My favourite is chocolate hazelnut filled, with no hole. Holes are a waste of doughnut!

Tully Mars · 10-05-2008, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucifer

What the hell is a Bismark?

Usually honey dip does it for me, unless it's from the drive through (cause you never get napkins) then I get an old fashioned.

To me Bismark is a custard or chocolate filled powdered sugar covered pastry. I've had guys in the service tell me "that's a not a Bismark that's a Berliner."

Personally I love donuts. I like maple bars myself, or bear claws. The shops down here make great donuts. In the morning the whole market will smell like fresh donuts. I've taken to shopping in the early evening hours. I figured out it's either that or buy larger pants.

ratbastid · 10-05-2008, 05:40 AM

You just can't beat Krispy Kreme plain glazed, hot from the fryer.

jewels · 10-05-2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

a glazed sour cream.

YES YES YES! I had them in North Carolina but haven't seen them down in Florida anywhere.

snowy · 10-05-2008, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tully Mars

To me Bismark is a custard or chocolate filled powdered sugar covered pastry. I've had guys in the service tell me "that's a not a Bismark that's a Berliner."

What you're describing is a Berliner. We tend to think of them as jelly doughnuts here because that's what's typically available as fillings go. The Bismarck is a custard or Bavarian creme filled doughnut topped with chocolate. A lot of people get the two mixed up and use the terms interchangeably. I personally don't like to, as a Bismarck is one of my favorite doughnuts. Yum. I don't care if it's custard or creme filled. I'll eat both.

I love doughnuts in general. My favorites are the Bismarck, the Berliner, apple fritters, and maple bars. My great-great-grandfather was a baker in NW Washington state in the late 19th-early 20th century, and introduced the maple bar to bakeries there after emigrating from Minnesota.

Might have to go get a box of doughnuts.

lostgirl · 10-05-2008, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratbastid

You just can't beat Krispy Kreme plain glazed, hot from the fryer.

+1

ryfo · 10-05-2008, 06:21 PM

Wow I am such a noobie when it comes to these. Never had a Krispy Kreme (although they havent ben in Melbourne that long) My fav would have to be hot jam donuts from the local market. A bit boring when reading what you guys like, but yummy all the same.

Dammitall · 10-06-2008, 06:35 AM

The Fractured Prune's donuts are super tasty, and you can choose from their own selections (Hot Hand-Dipped Homemade Donuts - The Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe) or create your own.

I also thoroughly enjoyed a sack of mini donuts that we got in San Francisco a bunch of years ago.

perfecto1 · 10-06-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinelust

The Fractured Prune's donuts are super tasty, and you can choose from their own selections (Hot Hand-Dipped Homemade Donuts - The Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe) or create your own.

I also thoroughly enjoyed a sack of mini donuts that we got in San Francisco a bunch of years ago.

Fractured Prune FTW!!!

Talk about the perfect hangover food... mmmm

Leto · 10-06-2008, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

I am with Cyn on the fried dough thing...

My favourite doughnut is either the chocolate glazed from Tim Horton's or a glazed sour cream.

I, too, am with you on the sour-cream glazed.

It's a toss up between those and the honey crullers. (French crullers at places other than Tim Horton's).

Before Krispy Kreme went out of business, I couldn't get enough of the still hot plain glazed doughnuts. In fact my waistline is kind of thankful that the low carb trend did in Kripsy Kreme in these parts!

One local delicacy not mentioned yet is the Beavertail. This is still fried dough, but it's flat (beaver tail shaped) and has cinnamon sugar and lemon juice sprinkled on it while it is still hot. You can especially enjoy these on a blisteringly cold winter's day while skating on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.

Baraka_Guru · 10-06-2008, 12:40 PM

glazed sour cream...

oh, god, yes

...glazed sour cream

Willravel · 10-06-2008, 12:45 PM

I don't eat them anymore. I used to like Krispy Kream, though.

genuinegirly · 10-06-2008, 03:36 PM

There's this little doughnut shop in Berkeley called Kingpin. It's just off Telegraph, on Durant. Oh my goodness yummy. Anything they make is yummy. Though, I am a huge fan of their buttermilk doughnut.

lostgirl · 10-06-2008, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by genuinegirly

There's this little doughnut shop in Berkeley called Kingpin. It's just off Telegraph, on Durant. Oh my goodness yummy. Anything they make is yummy. Though, I am a huge fan of their buttermilk doughnut.

I've been to Kingpin, they are yummy!

Plan9 · 10-06-2008, 05:56 PM

I have a weakness for toasted coconut donuts. I'm big on texture.

Daval · 10-07-2008, 05:30 AM

I like the plain sour cream. the glazed hurt my teeth. I actually like the old fashioned plain as well. When I am really treating myself I get a blueberry fritter.

Leto · 10-07-2008, 05:40 AM

Yup. the blueberry fritter is a staple. Every friday morning, me and the work mates each get a large coffee (double-double), a honey cruller and a blueberry fritter from Timmy's

Grasshopper Green · 10-07-2008, 04:35 PM

My fried dough of choice is actually a hot scone with honey butter. Mmmmmmmmmm. I also like donuts that are covered with granulated sugar instead of glaze.

Skutch · 10-08-2008, 06:00 AM

Custard-filled, plain with a little chocolate on the outside, not bismarks, forgot the name. Big glass of cold milk.

Cynosure · 10-13-2008, 06:55 AM

I love cinnamon buns, but only the kind that is more of flattened spiral and made with pastry dough, not the puffy, gooey kind made with bread dough. (I dislike Cinnabon's.) I like mine with pecans, but with no raisins.

I also love cake donuts (all varieties: plain, glazed, or chocolate) and chocolate crullers.

Oh, and I love apple fritters, too.

(Man, I love pastries! IMHO, a pastry and a good cup of coffee is an awesome way to start the day. When I used to work downtown, I'd walk four blocks, to and from the office, to a nearby bakery to get a couple of pastries for my morning breakfast.)

alicat · 10-14-2008, 06:56 AM

I'm a little surprised so many of you like my favorite, Apple Fritter's. They have to be extra crunchy on the outside though. Not a fan of cherry.

I look forward all year to Fat Tuesday when my beloved Paczki show up (usually available the week leading up to). I luuurve raspberry and barvarian cream filled. I try to only buy one box or I'd be in trouble.

I don't know what they're called, maybe just a glazed? The light as air plain ones with a really thin glaze are yummy. I'd guess that's what Krispy Kreames plain are, allthough I've never had them fresh and the ones at the grocery aren't very fresh or light.

I love this time of year when fresh cider doughnuts and cinnimon one's are available at cider mills, nostalgic eats.

Every once in a blue moon, I'll get a hankering for those really cheap little doughnuts with the waxy thin chocolate coating.

Believe it or not I actually don't eat doughnuts very often!

Leto · 10-14-2008, 07:10 AM

Anybody try these (Beavertails)?

Beavertails at the Byward Market Ottawa

snowy · 10-14-2008, 08:13 AM

It looks like an elephant ear stretched in a different shape. I've had elephant ears; any time there is a festival here a local philanthropic group sets up an elephant ear booth, and my SO and I always split one. They're really good. Typically they come covered in cinnamon and sugar, but some places also put chocolate sauce or strawberry sauce on it.

Leto · 10-14-2008, 09:24 AM

ya! I remember our beavertail/elephant ear comparisons in TFP Chat. Sounds the same. You're right, the best topping is with cinnamon sugar and then lemon juice squeezed on top. Those things are served friggin hot, so be careful when you eat them. Nothing beats these on a blistering cold day of skating, accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate.

10-04-2008, 04:03 PM	#2 (permalink)
Bear Cub The Reverend Side Boob Location: Nofe Curolina	Lemon filled with chocolate frosting. I could sit and eat them until I begin vomiting all over myself. That's why I don't eat doughnuts. __________________ Living in the United Socialist States of America.

10-04-2008, 04:27 PM	#3 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I am with Cyn on the fried dough thing... My favourite doughnut is either the chocolate glazed from Tim Horton's or a glazed sour cream. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

10-04-2008, 04:30 PM	#4 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	I had a bismark from the Swedish Bakery this morning that was phenomenal. One of the best I've ever had. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

10-05-2008, 01:48 AM	#5 (permalink)
Lucifer Husband of Seamaiden Location: Nova Scotia	What the hell is a Bismark? Usually honey dip does it for me, unless it's from the drive through (cause you never get napkins) then I get an old fashioned. __________________ I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. - Job 30:29 1123, 6536, 5321

10-05-2008, 03:24 AM	#6 (permalink)
little_tippler Leaning against the -Sun- Super Moderator Location: on the other side	I agree, doughnuts make life better! My favourite is chocolate hazelnut filled, with no hole. Holes are a waste of doughnut! __________________ Whether we write or speak or do but look We are ever unapparent. What we are Cannot be transfused into word or book. Our soul from us is infinitely far. However much we give our thoughts the will To be our soul and gesture it abroad, Our hearts are incommunicable still. In what we show ourselves we are ignored. The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged By any skill of thought or trick of seeming. Unto our very selves we are abridged When we would utter to our thought our being. We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams, And each to each other dreams of others' dreams. Fernando Pessoa, 1918

10-05-2008, 05:40 AM	#8 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	You just can't beat Krispy Kreme plain glazed, hot from the fryer.

10-05-2008, 06:21 PM	#12 (permalink)
ryfo Psycho Location: melbourne australia	Wow I am such a noobie when it comes to these. Never had a Krispy Kreme (although they havent ben in Melbourne that long) My fav would have to be hot jam donuts from the local market. A bit boring when reading what you guys like, but yummy all the same.

10-06-2008, 12:40 PM	#16 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	glazed sour cream... oh, god, yes ...glazed sour cream __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

10-06-2008, 12:45 PM	#17 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I don't eat them anymore. I used to like Krispy Kream, though.

10-06-2008, 03:36 PM	#18 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	There's this little doughnut shop in Berkeley called Kingpin. It's just off Telegraph, on Durant. Oh my goodness yummy. Anything they make is yummy. Though, I am a huge fan of their buttermilk doughnut. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

10-06-2008, 05:56 PM	#20 (permalink)
Plan9 I Confess a Shiver	I have a weakness for toasted coconut donuts. I'm big on texture. __________________ *Whatever you can carry.* "You should not drink... and bake."

10-07-2008, 05:30 AM	#21 (permalink)
Daval Junkie Location: The True North Strong and Free!	I like the plain sour cream. the glazed hurt my teeth. I actually like the old fashioned plain as well. When I am really treating myself I get a blueberry fritter. __________________ "It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it." Winston Churchill

10-07-2008, 05:40 AM	#22 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	Yup. the blueberry fritter is a staple. Every friday morning, me and the work mates each get a large coffee (double-double), a honey cruller and a blueberry fritter from Timmy's

10-07-2008, 04:35 PM	#23 (permalink)
Grasshopper Green ...is a comical chap Location: Where morons reign supreme	My fried dough of choice is actually a hot scone with honey butter. Mmmmmmmmmm. I also like donuts that are covered with granulated sugar instead of glaze. __________________ "They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa

10-08-2008, 06:00 AM	#24 (permalink)
Skutch Crazy	Custard-filled, plain with a little chocolate on the outside, not bismarks, forgot the name. Big glass of cold milk.

10-13-2008, 06:55 AM	#25 (permalink)
Cynosure Psycho Location: the center of the multiverse	I love cinnamon buns, but only the kind that is more of flattened spiral and made with pastry dough, not the puffy, gooey kind made with bread dough. (I dislike Cinnabon's.) I like mine with pecans, but with no raisins. I also love cake donuts (all varieties: plain, glazed, or chocolate) and chocolate crullers. Oh, and I love apple fritters, too. (Man, I love pastries! IMHO, a pastry and a good cup of coffee is an awesome way to start the day. When I used to work downtown, I'd walk four blocks, to and from the office, to a nearby bakery to get a couple of pastries for my morning breakfast.)

10-14-2008, 06:56 AM	#26 (permalink)
alicat Baffled Location: West Michigan	I'm a little surprised so many of you like my favorite, Apple Fritter's. They have to be extra crunchy on the outside though. Not a fan of cherry. I look forward all year to Fat Tuesday when my beloved Paczki show up (usually available the week leading up to). I luuurve raspberry and barvarian cream filled. I try to only buy one box or I'd be in trouble. I don't know what they're called, maybe just a glazed? The light as air plain ones with a really thin glaze are yummy. I'd guess that's what Krispy Kreames plain are, allthough I've never had them fresh and the ones at the grocery aren't very fresh or light. I love this time of year when fresh cider doughnuts and cinnimon one's are available at cider mills, nostalgic eats. Every once in a blue moon, I'll get a hankering for those really cheap little doughnuts with the waxy thin chocolate coating. Believe it or not I actually don't eat doughnuts very often! __________________ 'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, The frumious Bandersnatch!'--Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll "You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

10-14-2008, 07:10 AM	#27 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	Anybody try these (Beavertails)? Beavertails at the Byward Market Ottawa

10-14-2008, 08:13 AM	#28 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	It looks like an elephant ear stretched in a different shape. I've had elephant ears; any time there is a festival here a local philanthropic group sets up an elephant ear booth, and my SO and I always split one. They're really good. Typically they come covered in cinnamon and sugar, but some places also put chocolate sauce or strawberry sauce on it. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

10-14-2008, 09:24 AM	#29 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	ya! I remember our beavertail/elephant ear comparisons in TFP Chat. Sounds the same. You're right, the best topping is with cinnamon sugar and then lemon juice squeezed on top. Those things are served friggin hot, so be careful when you eat them. Nothing beats these on a blistering cold day of skating, accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate.