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Dessert

American Doughnuts

A yeast doughnut filled with jam, fried, and rolled in castor sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

American Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the yeast with a little sugar and lukewarm water.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour, add sugar and a pinch of salt.

  3. Pour the yeast mixture into the center, adding a little of the milk.

  4. Let it stand for 15 minutes, then mix to a light dough with the egg and the rest of the milk.

  5. Let it rise for at least 1 hour.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the dough quickly, then cut out and line well-floured patty tins.

  2. Place a little jam in the center of each, cover with a lid of dough, wetting the edges.

  3. Allow to rise again for half an hour.

  4. Slip out into hot fat and fry for about 6 to 7 minutes.

  5. Roll in castor sugar and serve.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that traps gas and holds the doughnut's shape.
Yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, making the dough rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer texture.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping bind the dough and add softness.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form a soft dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the shaped doughnuts. The fat must be hot enough to seal and cook the outside quickly; if it is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy.

“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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