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Dessert

Bakers' Raised Doughnuts

A yeast‑leavened doughnut made with lard, milk, flour, sugar, egg whites, spices, filled with raisins, fried and coated in powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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.

  3. Stir in the yeast.

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

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

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

  7. Let the dough rise again until very light.

Shape

  1. Roll out the dough to 1-inch thick.

  2. Cut the dough into rounds.

  3. Place a large seeded Sultana raisin in the center of each round.

  4. Mold the dough into balls.

  5. Flatten the balls slightly.

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

Fry and coat

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

  2. Drop the doughnuts into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until they are light brown.

  4. Remove them with a perforated skimmer.

  5. Drain on soft white paper.

  6. 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 gives the doughnuts their structure.
Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Egg whites
Whipped into the dough to add lightness and help it hold its structure.
Lard
Enriches the dough with fat for tenderness and fries the doughnuts to a golden crust.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough to add extra lift and a softer crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the surface brown during frying.

The step that matters

Frying at a steady, hot temperature. If the lard is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks. Holding the lard at a steady temperature gives even cooking and a light, well-set interior.

“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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