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Raised Doughnuts
1 cup milk 1/4 yeast cake 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup butter and lard mixed 1 cup light brown sugar 2 eggs 1/2 grated nutmeg Flour Scald and cool milk; when lukewarm, add the yeast cake dissolved in water, salt, and flour enough to make a stiff batter; let rise over night. In morning add shortening melted, sugar, eggs well beaten, nutmeg, and enough flour to make a stiff dough; let rise again, and if too soft to handle, add more flour. Toss on floured board, pat, and roll to three-fourths inch thickness. Shape with cutter, and work between hands until round. Place on floured board, let rise one hour, turn, and let rise again; fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper. Cool, and roll in powdered sugar.
Doughnuts I 1 cup sugar 2 1/2 tablespoons butter 3 eggs 1 cup milk 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Flour to roll Cream the butter, and add one-half sugar. Beat egg until light, add remaining sugar, and combine mixtures. Add three and one-half cups flour, mixed and sifted with baking powder, salt, and spices; then enough more flour to make dough stiff enough to roll. Toss one-third of mixture on floured board, knead slightly, pat, and roll out to one-fourth inch thickness. Shape with a doughnut cutter, fry in deep fat, take up on a skewer, and drain on brown paper. Add trimmings to one-half remaining mixture, roll, shape, and fry as before; repeat. Doughnuts should come quickly to top of fat, brown on one side, then be turned to brown on the other; avoid turning more than once. The fat must be kept at a uniform temperature. If too cold, doughnuts will absorb fat; if too hot, doughnuts will brown before sufficiently risen. See rule for testing fat.
An overnight sponge doughnut, richer and less cakey than the baking-powder kind. Nearly everything hinges on the fat holding a steady temperature.
- Yeast quantityA yeast cake here is a compressed fresh cake; modern ones weigh 0.6 oz, though cakes of this period varied in size, so a quarter cake works out very roughly at 1/2 teaspoon of active dry or instant yeast. The small amount suits the slow overnight rise at room temperature that the recipe calls for.
- Scalding the milkScalding is usually explained as deactivating components of raw milk that weaken gluten, though the mechanism is debated. With modern pasteurised milk many bakers treat it as unnecessary, and simply warming the milk to lukewarm still speeds the sponge along.
- Nutmeg"1/2 grated nutmeg" means half a whole nutmeg, grated - roughly 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated. Pre-ground nutmeg loses its aroma in the jar, so you may want a little more of it if that is what you have.
- ShorteningThe butter-and-lard mixture gives flavour from the butter and tenderness from the lard. Equal parts of each in a 1/3 cup measure works; all butter is fine, and vegetable shortening substitutes for the lard without complaint.
- Flour, unspecifiedExpect roughly 4 to 4 1/2 cups in total between the overnight sponge and the morning dough. Add it by feel - the dough should be soft but no longer sticky, since excess flour makes the finished doughnut dense and dry.
- Frying temperatureThe original assumes you know the bread-cube test; in practice hold the fat at 365-375F and check it between batches. Below about 350F the dough soaks up grease, above 385F the outside colours before the raised centre cooks through.
- The second rise on the boardLetting the cut rings prove an hour, turning them, and proving again is what gives these their lightness. Handle them gently going into the fat - a deflated ring will fry heavy.
- Draining and sugaringBrown paper means any absorbent paper or a wire rack set over a tray; a rack keeps the underside crisper. Roll in powdered sugar only after they have cooled, as the original directs, or the sugar dissolves into a glaze.
- YieldAbout two dozen doughnuts plus holes, depending on your cutter.