Donut

A donut or doughnut is a fried dough food and popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a mild (or sometimes spicy) snack, which can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, and food stalls. They are generally sweet, dough fried from flour and formed into small balls or flat, which may contain fillings. Other types of dough, such as the potato can also be used along with other batters, and assorted toppings and flavors are used for different types.

The most common donut types are the toroidal ring cake and filled donut, a flat ball jam (or jelly), cream, vanilla or other sweet fillings. A small spherical piece of dough can be cooked like a donut hole. Cooked donuts are cooked in the oven instead of fried variation. Donut varieties are divided the cake and become the type of donuts .

 Various donut incarnations are popular around the world. Shapes include rings, balls, and flattened spheres, as well as ear shapes, twists and other forms. Not all donuts are sweet: in Southern India for instance, savory donuts called vadai are served.

Ring donuts are formed by joining the ends of a long, skinny piece of dough into a ring or by using a donut cutter, which simultaneously cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a donut-shaped piece of dough and a donut hole from dough removed from the center. This smaller piece of dough can be cooked or re-added to the batch to make more donuts.

 

A disk-shaped donut can also be stretched and pinched into a torus until the center breaks to form a hole. Alternatively, a donut depositor can be used to place a circle of liquid dough (batter) directly into the fryer. Donuts can be made from a yeast-based dough for raised donuts or a special type of cake batter.

Yeast-raised donuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake donuts' oil content is around 20%, but they have extra fat included in the batter before frying. Cake donuts are fried for about 90 seconds at approximately 190 °C to 198 °C, turning once. Yeast-raised donuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at 182 °C to 190 °C. Cake donuts typically weigh between 24 g and 28 g, whereas yeast-raised donuts average 38 g and are generally larger when finished.

 

 After frying, ring donuts are often topped with a glaze (icing) or a powder such as cinnamon or sugar. Styles such as fritters and jam donuts may be glazed and/or injected with jam or custard.

In addition to being fried fritters can be completely baked in an oven. These have a slightly different texture of the fried variety with a slightly different flavor because of the lack of oil absorbed and have a lower fat content. The fried version is sometimes called "fried cakes".

There are many other specialized agencies such as the old donut shapes, bars or Long Johns (a rectangular shape), or with dough twisted around it before cooking. In the northern United States, there are bars and twists usually referred to as donuts. Donut holes are small balls of paste made from the center of the ring or donut made to look as if they are. These holes are also known under names such as Munchkins 'Donuts' Timbits Tim Hortons and Dunkin. There is also fritters, which are square donuts topped with powdered sugar.