That night was Saturday night. All day long Mother had been baking, and when Almanzo went into the kitchen for the milkpails, she was still frying doughnuts. The place was full of their hot, brown smell…
Almanzo took the biggest doughnut from the pan and bit off its crisp end. Mother was rolling out the golden dough, slashing it into long strips, rolling and doubling and twisting the strips. Her fingers flew; you could hardly see them. The strips seemed to twist themselves under her hands, and to leap into the big copper kettle of swirling hot fat.
Plump! they went to the bottom, sending up bubbles. Then quickly they came popping up, to float and slowly swell, till they rolled themselves over, their pale golden backs going into the fat and their plump brown bellies rising out of it. They rolled over, Mother said, because they were twisted. Some women made a new-fangled shape, round, with a hole in the middle. But round doughnuts wouldn’t turn themselves over. Mother didn’t have time to waste turning doughnuts; it was quicker to twist them.(from Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder)
I had a ton of extra oil in the wok from egg rolls the other night, and when Tommy asked for pancakes and I realized our milk was gone, I decided to make some sour cream doughnuts instead. I used the electric wok instead of a kettle and candy thermometer, fried in canola oil instead of lard, and used regular sugar instead of powdered for the mess factor. I tried rolling some and shaping some into Os, and the round ones were easier to flip while the twisted ones did not turn over on their own like Mother Wilder’s. The recipe is right–serve immediately (while still warm). These are not sweet on their own, so sugar or syrup is a necessity!
Doughnuts (from The Little House Cookbook)
For 2 dozen (small) doughnuts, you will need:
Lard, 2 pounds
Egg, 1
Baking soda, 1 teaspoon
Salt, 1/2 teaspoon
Sour cream, 1 cup
white flour, 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose
Powdered sugar, a shaker-full
Kettle, 3 qt; bowl, 2 qt; rolling pin; candy thermometer
Melt lard in kettle over low heat. Beat egg, baking soda, and salt into the sour cream in the bowl. Beat in 1 cup of the flour until well mixed. Continue to work in flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled. Roll the dough into a strip about 4 by 16 by 1/4 inches. With a floured knife cut into 4-inch strips about 5/8 inch wide. (I was NOT this precise!)
Heat the lard to 375. Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will stretch as you do); bring ends together and pinch them. Drop twisted dough in hot fat. In 2 minutes the dough should be brown on both sides, crisp, and cooked through. If browning takes less time, the fat is too hot; if it takes more than 3 minutes, the fat is not hot enough.
Remove cooked doughnut to brown paper to drain and coat it with powdered sugar immediately before oils absorb and drain off. Continue twisting and cooking the remaining dough strips. Serve the doughnuts immediately.
oh man that sounds fantastic!! we will have to give that a try!!!
I have this cookbook, but haven’t used it yet–thanks for the inspiration!!