It’s the Hole that Makes the Doughnut
December 26, 2013
“Between an optimist and pessimist, the difference is droll.
The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist the hole!”
— Oscar Wilde
“Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.”
— Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase
Today I got to play with my new Christmas present from my daughter, a pan for baking doughnuts. I don’t like the splatter and smell of hot grease (nor the extra calories), so I’m attracted to the advantages of baked doughnuts. One big disadvantage, however, is no round doughnut holes to eat.
I remember rainy summer days of my childhood when my brothers, sisters and I would stop for day-old doughnuts at the bakery in town on our way to a day of fishing — long bamboo poles sticking out of the back windows of the car. My mother would occasionally make doughnuts, using brown paper bags to soak up the grease. Each warm doughnut was shaken inside another brown bag with sugar and cinnamon. Oh, the yeasty, sugary taste and smell of fresh doughnuts!
The baking pan will be good for cake-type doughnuts. For my first batch, I used a recipe for Brown Butter Baked Doughnuts from Joy the Baker blog. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, so I substituted a mix of milk and sour cream. I love doughnuts, and I can see that these will be too tempting to have around unless I restrict myself to making them when we have company, so that I don’t end up eating them all.
Next time I’m going to try Apple Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts, also from the Joy the Baker blog.
What was your favorite Christmas gift this year?
December 26, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Oh yum..those look so good…now i’ll have to get a donut pan! But, like you, I will miss the holes! 🙂 My favorite gift was a pr. of waders for razor clamming…
Love your calendar BTW…You must have made it! Would you sell one for 2014? 🙂 I would surely love to have one!
December 26, 2013 at 4:25 pm
Oh, I like your gift and that reminds me that my sister and brother-in-law have promised to take me clamming sometime. I’ve never been. The calendar was a cherished gift from my friends and kindred spirits from Bow. I’ve been trying to sneak a photo of the beautiful calendar paintings throughout the months as a secret greeting. And since I am one of the lucky recipients of their new 2014 calendar, I will once again try to remember to include/sneak in a photo sometime during each month of 2014.
December 26, 2013 at 6:53 pm
One of my students has one of those pans. I’ll have to get some of her recipes for you as she is a real good cook. My favorite Christmas gift was an organic chocolate turtle candy made in Durand Wisconsin. It was delicious, not too sweet, and it’s a good thing I got only one of the special treat or I would have just kept on eating. I savored every bite.
December 26, 2013 at 8:41 pm
I’d love to get some good recipes, so yes, please send some. I like the emphasis on quality, not quantity, exemplified by your favorite Christmas present.
December 26, 2013 at 10:31 pm
We have appreciated the secret greetings immensely… and enjoyed being in your kitchen!
December 27, 2013 at 10:24 am
Oh, then you must keep reminding your sister to take you along razor clamming…it is so much fun and not just the eating of the clams later but the hunt for them, especially out on a beautiful, (calm) morning or early evening as the sun is going down at the ocean! Wonderful!
December 28, 2013 at 7:09 am
My favorite gift was a jigsaw puzzle, I always get a new one every Christmas.
December 28, 2013 at 8:06 am
I would love to keep a holiday jigsaw puzzle out to work on in odd moments. There is something therapeutic about fingering the pieces and finding the ones that fit together. But our cat jumps up on tables, messes up the in-progress bits and piles, and even chews on puzzle pieces. So it’s just not possible right now.
December 26, 2018 at 6:15 am
I laughed at your need to restrict doughnut baking to times when company’s coming. There’s a reason I never bake unless I know someone else is going to be around. I have no self-discipline when it comes to sweets.