"doughnuts" news and stories

Happy National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day!

Ever wonder how light, fluffy doughnuts manage to burst with heavy, juicy jelly? Truth be told, I've only ever sampled jelly doughnuts from my childhood favorite pit stop, Dunkin' Donuts -- and even as a kid would typically skip the fruity pastries for a less messy variety. But who knew homemade jelly doughnuts were so simple to make? Unlike the meticulous assemblage of the likes of ravioli, pot stickers and dumplings, which require precise amounts fastidiously stuffed in their casing, the jelly doughnut is a less daunting endeavor, as the jelly gets pumped into cooked doughnuts with the tip of a pastry bag.

Check out the Food Network's easy instructions to make your own jelly-filled doughnuts -- and pick your own fresh preserves!

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured on the site.

Ron Henderson maintains it's a myth that police officers eat a disproportionate number of doughnuts, but his entrepreneurial fantasy involves cops selling lots of them.

Henderson recently took over Police Doughnuts from a fellow retired officer, and hopes to spin the Louisville storefront into a franchise. While he concedes there might be a few other former officers with doughnut bakeries of their own – the Internet was briefly abuzz last year with news of a small-town force in Michigan buying a century-old pastry shop -- Henderson says he's the first to fully mine the possibilities of a law enforcement theme.

And, in good law-and-order fashion, he's also trademarked the concept.

Enticed by Bon Appétit's 10 Best Places for Donuts, CafeMom released their own drool-worthy list of doughnuts found on the web. The fried pickings came from all over, including blogs and bakery websites:

10. Vadas Doughnuts from Spicyandhra
9. Caramel Corn Donuts from Playing With Fire and Water
8. The Elvis Doughnut from Ike and Jane Cafe
7. Apple Cider Doughnut Holes from CafeMom
6. Bombolinis alla Nutella from bell'alimento

For their top five doughnuts along with mouth-watering photos and recipes, head over to CafeMom.com.

The new pecan and cinnamon rolls. Photo: Krispy Kreme.

A decade after quietly tiptoeing away from its first bagel experiment, Krispy Kreme is rolling out an expanded line of "baked creations," including muffins, cinnamon rolls and decidedly not-sugary bagels.

While the new menu items are currently available only at a single location in Greensboro, N.C., company officials predict folks from Tampa to Tacoma will soon be able to supplement their orders for cream-filled doughnuts and chocolate crullers with a flax-seed-and-barley-flake bagel schmeared with reduced-fat vegetable cream cheese.

"It gives the regular customer some variety," publicist Steve Baumgarner explains.

Krispy Kreme first introduced bagels in 1996, offering them in just three stores nationwide. "We were unsuccessful in finding a product the consumer could identify with," Krispy Kreme VP Jack McAleer told the Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area when the pilot project was shelved three years later. (Perhaps inadvertently reflecting the trouble the Southern chain had connecting with bagel culture, the Business Journal's story was headlined "Krispy Kreme puts the cabosh on bagels.")

"Fear of both fried food and the act of frying means that doughnuts are strictly outsourced," writes Kelly Alexander in the New York Times Magazine. But it wasn't always so. For centuries doughnuts (and crullers, and fritters, and beignets) were staples of home cooks, who weren't afraid of a little hot lard. And there's no reason you should be either, says Alexander - doughnuts, a combination of flour, eggs and milk with baking powder or baking soda, are easy to make.

The article includes recipes for churros (Mexican stick doughnuts) with bourbon-spiked chocolate sauce, basic powdered cake donuts, and Earl Gray tea flavored donuts.

Source