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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 sugared.

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 mix in the yeast.

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

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

  5. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough for rolling.

  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 large seeded Sultana raisin in the center of each round and mold into balls.

  3. Flatten slightly and let them stand for a few minutes.

  4. Heat plenty of lard in a pot until boiling.

  5. Drop the dough balls into the hot lard and fry until light brown.

  6. Remove with a perforated skimmer and drain on soft white paper.

Finish

  1. While warm, roll in powdered sugar.

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the batter and dough structure that traps gas and sets when fried.
Yeast
Produces gas during rising, making the dough light and airy.
Egg whites
Whipped to add lift and a tender, airy crumb.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and carries heat for frying the doughnuts.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown during frying.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to add rising and a lighter texture.

The step that matters

Drop the dough balls into the hot lard and fry until light brown. If the lard is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the interior cooks through. Steady heat gives an even, light result.

“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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