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Dessert

Bakers' Raised Doughnuts

A sweet doughnut made with lard, milk, flour, yeast, sugar, egg whites, baking soda, spices, and raisins, then fried and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bakers' Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Warm the lard in the milk until nearly cool.

  2. Add enough flour to make a thick batter and stir in the yeast.

  3. Beat well and set aside to rise until light.

  4. Gradually mix in the sugar, whipped egg whites, dissolved baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough that can be rolled out.

  6. Let the dough rise again until very light.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick and cut into rounds.

  2. Place a seeded Sultana raisin in the center of each round and mold into balls, then flatten slightly.

  3. Let them stand for a few minutes before frying.

  4. Heat plenty of lard in a pot until boiling, then drop in the doughnuts.

  5. Fry until they are a light brown, then remove with a skimmer.

  6. Drain on soft white paper and roll in powdered sugar while warm.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the batter and then the stiff dough that holds the doughnut's shape.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise until light.
Egg whites
Whipped into the dough to add lightness and help it hold air during rising.
Lard
Enriches the dough with fat for a tender texture and provides the medium for frying.
Baking soda
Reacts to add lift and help the doughnuts rise and lighten further.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be boiling hot so the outside sets and browns quickly, keeping the doughnuts from absorbing excess fat and turning greasy. Frying until just light brown avoids a dense, undercooked centre.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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