The Bite Magazine Issue 17

nuts Y or I t is no secret that doughnuts are very well- liked in New York, so much so that there are a lot of doughnut parlours dotted around the city. However you want to spell them, donuts or doughnuts, they are one of the most popular on-the-go snacks that you can grab. Buns, sinkers, sweet rolls, dunkers, Danish, or crullers… would a doughnut by any other name taste just as sweet? Of course! But for brevities sake, the focus of this guided profile to the best fried dough in New York City is going to focus on those sweet, puffy, buttery rings of diet-ruining goodness also known as the iconic American doughnut. When one thinks of doughnuts, a myriad of images may come to mind: Homer Simpson sal- ivating as he dreams of devouring his beloved confectionery; the rings of dough rhythmi- cally dropping into a river of piping hot oil at Krispy Kreme on their mesmerising conveyer belt cooking journey; powdered-sugar covered fingers after eating a bag of Hostess Donettes; or finally, of a dented and grease stained pink bakery box sitting open under a flickering fluorescent light in a corporate office kitchen- ette. Yes, the doughnut has a spilt personality and reputation - ever so sweet and satisfying, and equally sinfully wicked to the waistline. However, this battle between good and evil has waged on for thousands of years; over 8,000 years in fact, as archeologists have uncovered fossilized loop-shaped cakes from ancient Native American settlements in the South- west. But it wasn’t just the Native Americans who enjoyed this easy-to-make snack of what were basically yeast, flour, water and lard. Most cultures around the world have some form of this treat in their culinary history that are just as popular today as they were centuries ago. That being said, it is thought that the classic American doughnut we recognise today was actually created from a recipe for olykoeks, the Dutch word for ‘oily cakes’.The Dutch pilgrims brought this recipe to the States, and shortly after, Anna Joralemon is thought to have pro- duced and distributed the first doughnuts in 1673 in NewAmsterdam, or what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan. Dawn Hunt describes the popularity of doughnuts in New York and provides the background of three of the city’s doughnuts companies. bite desserts