Cook and Andi’s Quick Doughnuts

It’s cold, rainy, and the perfect time to make sizzling hot doughnuts. How about old-fashioned doughnuts like Andi and Cook often made? Back in 1803, they were actually called “Dough Nuts,” because by the time they were fried, they looked like big, brown nuts made out of dough (with no holes). Andi did not make these doughnuts up at Mirror Lake, mostly because she needed them quick, and the original 1803 dough nuts were made with yeast, which needs to rise. If you want to give them a try, here is the original 1803 recipe. If you want the quick recipe, keep reading!

1. one pound flour (hmm, how many cups is that?)
2. 1/4 cup butter, melted
3. 1/4 pound sugar (how many cups?)
4. 2 spoonful’s yeast
5. Mix is all together with enough warm milk until it is the consistency of bread dough. Let it rise for an hour. Shape the dough however you want (round, twists, etc.) and fry in very hot lard for about 5 minutes or less (hot’s fat back then; Crisco now). Roll in powered sugar if you like.

These dough nuts look yummy, but where’s the doughnut hole? In fact, these look like a bunch of fried doughnut holes!

A little doughnut history is in order, and then I’ll share Andi and Cook’s QUICK doughnut recipe, Cook needed to fry up doughnuts in a hurry after a disaster hit the trail drive in Heartbreak Trail. Andi fried up quick doughnuts after a disaster up at Mirror Lake, when one of the ranch hands fell through the ice (the crew were harvesting winter ice for the summer ice house, and it went sideways and almost ended in tragedy).

HISTORY OF THE DOUGHNUT

Doughnuts are an all-American dessert food. Some people say doughnuts were invented by Dutch settlers after they arrived in North America. They must have liked desserts, for they also made popular other tasty treats like cookies, apple pie, and cobblers. A recipe for doughnuts showed up as early as 1803 in an English recipe book, under the index for “American food.”

 The word “doughnut” was first used in 1809. In his History of New York, Washington Irving wrote “. . . balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called doughnuts.” (The 1803 word “dough nut” was pretty close to Irving’s new word.)

The greasy treat could be twisted into shapes and fried in lard (fat). A sailor, Hanson Gregory, says he invented the “ring” doughnut aboard a ship in 1847. He didn’t like the uncooked middle of doughnuts, so he punched a hole in the center of the dough with the ship’s pepper tin. He then passed his idea on to his mother. And ta-da! The doughnut we recognize was invented! By the middle of the 1800s doughnuts looked and tasted like today’s doughnuts.

COOK AND ANDI’S QUICK DOUGHNUTS

You can also find this recipe on page 259 of Stranger in the Glade, Milestones book 6. Neither Andi nor Cook had a stovetop, so the doughnuts were fried over a campfire (Heartbreak Trail) and over a hot fire in a fireplace (“Winter Ice for Summer”). Now, let’s get to it!

In a large bowl, mix together these first five ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda (no yeast needed)
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (if desired. Andi had not nutmeg at the cabin. Cook had it on his chuck wagon)

Next, add these next ingredients by hand (if possible, since that’s how Cook and Andi did it).

• 1 cup softened (or even melted) butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 (or more) cups of milk

Mix until it’s doughy but not too sticky. You can roll the dough out and cut with a doughnut cutter (which includes the piece to make the hole), but Andi (and Cook) rolled them out like “nuts.”

Drop the doughnuts them into the sizzling-hot lard. You can use oil. Fry for about 30 seconds. Then flip the doughnuts with tongs and fry for another 30 seconds. Remove and drain. Andi and Cook made the doughnuts plain, but you can sprinkle powered sugar on them or drizzle chocolate glaze, or all kinds of things to make them just right!!