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Dessert

Raised Doughnuts

A yeast-leavened doughnut made with boiled milk, butter, sugar, and spices, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Make a sponge with the yeast, 1½ cups of flour, and warm water; beat thoroughly.

  2. Cover the mixture and let it rise.

Make and rise the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the boiled milk, sugar, butter, egg, salt, baking soda mixture, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  2. Add the sponge to the mixture and gradually incorporate the remaining flour until a soft dough forms.

  3. Knead the dough until smooth, then let it rise until doubled in size.

  4. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper towels and serve 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough, supporting structure and tenderness.
Butter
Adds fat, contributing tenderness and richness to the finished doughnuts.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning during frying.
Boiled milk
Adds moisture and richness to the dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. The yeast needs time to produce gas and stretch the gluten network; under-proofed dough fries up dense and heavy, while the rise must be complete before shaping so the doughnuts stay light.

“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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