May 13th-19th is National Donut week. Who doesn’t love a naughty donut? But where did they come from?
The humble doughnut has a convoluted past. The Dutch are credited for inventing them; they are fi rst mentioned in a recipe book back in 1803. Doughnuts as we know fi rst appeared in Manhattan, (originally New Amsterdam). They rejoiced under the unappetizing Dutch name of olykoeks, which translates as oily cakes!
From there history gets a bit hazy. Elizabeth Gregory was a New England ship captain’s mother. She made a deep-fried dough that incorporated her son’s spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind. One story says she invented it so that the crew could store a pastry on long voyages, and that it might help ward off scurvy and colds! Mrs. Gregory fi lled the centre of her deep-fried pastries with nuts, probably because that was the part of the dough which might not cook through. Hence they became known as doughnuts!
Her son claimed credit for putting the hole in the doughnut. Some people think he did it to save on ingredients and costs. One nice story has it that the doughnut acquired its hole when, one night in a storm, he needed both hands free so skewered one of his mom’s doughnuts on a spoke of his ship’s wheel.
In the First World War American soldiers were made gifts of doughnuts by French women volunteers, to give them a taste of home. The soldiers carried their taste for the sweet treat back to the US when the war ended.
The fi rst doughnut machine was invented by Adolph Levitt, an enterprising Russian refugee who sold fried doughnuts from his bakery to hungry crowds of New York theatre-goers. Doughnut machines were a hit at the 1934 World Fair in Chicago, where they were marketed as the future of food-production. Then a Frenchman named Joe LeBeau, who was struggling fi nancially, sold his secret doughnut and also the name Krispy Kreme, to a store owner named Ishmael Armstrong, who hired his nephew, Vernon Rudolph, and put him to work selling the treats door-to-door. A business legend was born.
By the late 1950s, there were 29 Krispy Kreme store-factories in 12 states. Today they have stores across the world but all the doughnuts are still made to the original recipe.
In the UK the doughnut is enjoying a surge of popularity. You can buy gourmet donuts at specialist shops and independent bakers pride themselves on their own variations. There has never been a better time to be a doughnut-lover.
National donut week has been running for 26 years. It was launched in 1991 by independent baker Christopher Freeman. The aim was to celebrate the donut and raise money for charity. Last year nearly £23000 was raised for The Children’s Trust, which supports brain-injured children.
So is it doughnut or donut? The dictionary states ‘doughnut’ with ‘donut’ listed as an American variant. But really, who cares? They are delicious and this month you can indulge and help a worthwhile cause. What could be better?
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