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Dough Nuts, American
Into a pound of flour rub a piece of butter the size of an egg. Add a little pounded allspice, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar. Mix a table-spoonful of yeast with four eggs, and a little lukewarm milk. Work all well together, and put the mixture in a warm place to rise. Then roll it out about half an inch thick, cut into pretty shapes, and fry in boiling oil or lard until the nuts are a golden brown. Drain on a moistened sieve, strew sifted sugar over the nuts, and keep them in a dry place. Time to fry, five to ten minutes. Probable cost, 8d. per pound.
A yeast-raised doughnut of the older type, closer to a fried roll than to the cake doughnut. Two things in the original need correcting before you start: the yeast quantity assumes a wet barm, and the frying time is several times too long.
- Frying time is the hingeFive to ten minutes will burn a half-inch piece of dough long before the centre is done. Yeast doughnuts of this thickness take about 1 to 1½ minutes a side at 350-360F, turning once. Break the first one open to confirm the crumb is set.
- The yeastA tablespoon of yeast in this period would normally have been liquid barm or brewer's yeast, or possibly compressed yeast, not the dried granules sold now. Use about 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast, or 1½ teaspoons if the kitchen is warm.
- Butter the size of an eggRoughly 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. Rub it into the flour cold, as for pastry.
- A pound of flourAbout 3½ cups, or 450 g. Four eggs go a long way towards binding it, so add the lukewarm milk a spoonful at a time -- likely only a few tablespoons -- until the dough is soft but rollable.
- RisingNo times are given. Expect roughly an hour for the bulk rise in a warm place until doubled, then 20-30 minutes for the cut shapes on a floured tray before they go into the fat.
- Boiling oil or lardThe instruction means fat hot enough to bubble around the dough, not literally boiling. Aim for 350-360F and keep it there; below 340F the doughnuts drink fat, above 375F they colour before the middle cooks.
- Drain on a moistened sieveDamping the sieve was presumably to stop hot doughnuts sticking to the wires. A wire rack over a tray does the same job; skip the paper, which traps steam and softens the crust.
- Sifted sugarCaster or icing sugar, sifted to break lumps. Dust while the doughnuts are still warm so it clings.
- YieldA pound of flour gives roughly 20-24 doughnuts at half an inch thick, depending on your cutter. They are best the day they are made.
Cassell's files this under "American." The dish itself is generally traced to the Dutch olykoek, or oil-cake, carried to New Amsterdam and absorbed into New England baking, where the hole in the middle is traditionally credited to the difficulty of cooking the centre through — a problem this recipe, with its half-inch sheet cut into "pretty shapes," simply avoids by keeping the dough thin. The allspice is characteristic of nineteenth-century doughnut recipes, which often called for allspice, nutmeg or mace rather than the cinnamon that dominates now. The "probable cost, 8d. per pound" is a standard Cassell's feature.