Gaga’s Doughnuts

Nothing says friendship like sharing your great-grandmother’s doughnut recipe.

It all started on a typical drive down to RFK. I-66 was jammed so Steve decides to take the back roads through Arlington County. We both figure that this does not really save us time,  it just relieves us of the agony of sitting in traffic. I love these detours, they are never dull. Like the one time Steve stopped to buy charcoal  for our tailgate and  nearly got run over by a truck as he crossed/stumbled across the road without looking. Everyone held their breath as the truck driver frantically blew his horn while stepping on his brakes. My kids saw the whole thing. They mention Steve’s near-death experience  EVERY TIME we drive by.

This particular detour got us talking about doughnuts. How as a kid, Steve remembers the owner of Whitey’s making doughnuts on a Sunday afternoon and giving them out to customers. Why Steve was at Whitey’s on a Sunday afternoon is another story. He mentions that he has a particular affection for cake doughnuts and that he has his great-grandmother’s recipe. It calls for the usual pantry suspects plus lard and buttermilk. I almost always have buttermilk in my fridge and Steve, somehow, had lard in his. Because we had nothing better to do the next day, we decided to make Gaga’s Doughnuts.

There is nothing like food having a somewhat slight pork aftertaste when there are absolutely no pork elements in it. So let me say right now, if you are not going to use lard, there is really no point. Well, maybe that is somewhat harsh but to use regular shortening and not have that distinct taste afterwards will not give you the full experience. The smell alone when the doughnuts are frying is so enticing. To me, the doughnuts brought to mind the subtle flavor of pork rinds. Is this so wrong? It is delicious, rich and ridiculously simple all at the same time.

 The recipe is relatively simple to put together and we used his stand mixer to get the job done. The recipe says to allow the doughnuts to rest in the refrigerator for one hour. We of course, did not follow this step and while the doughnuts came out tasting perfect, the shaping and cutting out part could have used a firmer dough. We ended up adding  more flour which in the big picture did not make a big impact on the texture of the doughnut (adding flour to some recipes to make the dough less wet can sometimes throw off the proportions and make the end product tough). The extra resting time also allows the gluten to relax giving you a lighter doughnut.

We decided to fry the doughnuts in the mix of lard and canola for the simple reason that we did not know the heating point for lard. I knew that mixing the two would give us a stable mix when we began frying. Steve pulls out an old school electric skillet (s0mething we both could not remember the name of nor atriculately describe the night before) which regulated the temperature perfectly. Keeping the oil at 375,  allows the doughnut to develop a nice outer crust which acts as a barrier for absorbing oil. Ever had food that was almost oil-logged?  Chances are they fried whatever it was at the wrong temperature (most likely a lower one), allowing it to absorb the oil like a sponge. All that movement when you first put the batter in the hot oil, that is what you want. It cooks the outer layer faster forming that natural crust.

Lastly, we allowed the doughnuts to drain somewhat on a cooling rack lined with paper towels. We immediately sprinkled them with plain white granulated sugar. No glaze, powdered cinnamon, nor sprinkles. Just good old-fashioned sugar. Just like Gaga used to make it.

As the doughnuts were coming out of the fryer, we take our first few bites and exchange that look. The look that says that the doughnuts are so good they have the ability to slow down time and take Steve back to his childhood.  The look that says, this is the thing to be doing on a random Thursday summer morning. Not back-to-school shopping or being at the mall. This is what it is about. Steve calls his mom Jo Ellen, Gaga’s granddaughter,  who has moved to South Carolina. Over the phone he tells her that it is exactly how he remembers it. They go back and forth talking about how each remembers it from their own youth.

My older son, who is nine, helped roll and cut out the doughnuts. He also had first dibs on all the doughnut holes that came out.  I wonder if as an adult (and hopefully a father himself),  if he will look back and think of the time he made Gaga’s doughnuts or in this case he knows them as  Mr. Steve’s doughnuts. I guess it won’t matter as long as he remembers to use lard.

Isn’t making memories what this is all about? The choices we make whether to stay home with the kids or go to work, if we’ve put them in the right pre-school, or if they have the right friends. That all falls to the side when you do something like this and realize that the thing they will  most likely remember is this moment, more than anything else in their pressure cooker childhoods.

Gaga’s Doughnuts

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons lard

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

3 packages lard (for cooking in)

Mix sugar, 3 tablespoons lard, eggs, flour, baking soda, buttermilk, bakingpowder, salt and nutmeg well. 

Chill for 1 hour.  Roll dough into donutshapes and cook in lard or lard/canola oil mix at 375 until brown. We used a the rim of a glass to cut the dougnut and one of those small plastic cups that come with cough syrup to cut out the middle hole.

Roll in sugar. Enjoy.

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