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Dessert

Bakers' Raised Doughnuts

A sweet, lard-based doughnut with raisins, rolled in powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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, baking soda dissolved in a little milk, salt, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough, then let it rise again until very light.

Shape and fry

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

  2. Place a Sultana raisin in the center of each round, mold into balls, and 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 light brown, remove with a skimmer, and drain on soft white paper.

  6. 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 thick batter and stiff dough that give the doughnuts their structure.
Yeast
Ferments the batter so the dough rises and becomes light and airy.
Egg whites
Whipped to trap air, adding lightness and helping the dough rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with ingredients in the dough to add extra lift and tenderness.
Lard
Adds richness and fat that gives the fried doughnuts a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the doughnuts brown evenly when fried.

The step that matters

Frying at a steady, very hot temperature. Lard must be boiling hot when the doughnuts go in. If it is too cool, the dough absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly and staying light inside.

“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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