It is true that the humble doughnut does have a convoluted past that involves Dutch immigrants, Russian exiles, French bakers, Irving Berlin, Clark Gable and a certain number of Native Americans. Then again, it could just … They are made from sweet yeast dough fried in fat or oil, with a marmalade or jam filling and usually icing, powdered sugar or conventional sugar on top. Since at least the early 1800s, Germans had called jelly doughnuts simply Berliners. In Israel, however, ponchiks soon took the name sufganiyah (sufganiyot plural), from a “spongy dough”mentioned in the Talmud, sofgan and sfogga. https://www.rachelcooks.com/2020/12/11/roasted-cauliflower-salad/, https://www.rachelcooks.com/2020/12/18/buckeyes-recipe/, Donec ultricies mattis nulla, suscipit risus tristique ut. It was Krispy Kreme's 60th birthday. They were base and beloved. The Berliner, (Berliner Pfannkuchen or just Pfannkuchen in its native Germany), is a kind of doughnut without a hole. I realized Berliners must be the father of our American jelly doughnuts. Kringle Pastry. In Britain, they became jam doughnuts. The notion that President John F. Kennedy referred to himself as a jelly doughnut in his famous 1963 speech in Berlin, Germany, is an old and false … According to a German anecdote, in 1756 a patriotic baker from Berlin was turned down as unfit for Prussian military service, but allowed to remain as a field baker for the regiment. According to Michael Krondl, food historian and author of “The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin,” the ancient Greeks and Romans ate small cakes that were fried and dipped in honey. Her son always claimed credit for something less than that: putting the hole in the doughnut. At the National Museum of American History one day last July, an upright piano stood on a stage. 1. Levitt's doughnut machine was the first sign that the doughnut, till then merely a taste sensation, could, in production, become a public spectacle. They faced stiff competition. The word sphog, meaning “sponge,” is so ancient that there is a question as to whether it was initially of Semitic or Indo- European origin. Pour the flour in a bowl, make a well with your fingers and place the yeast, warm milk and sprinkle with some sugar.With a fork, stir only the part inside the well until you form a sludge. Some Australian Jews, many of whom emigrated from Poland, still refer to jelly doughnuts as ponchiks. ", One likes to think that less was more. Place the flour in a bowl, make a well in the center. or Berliner in preparation A Berliner Pfannkuchen(Berlinerfor short) is a traditional Germanpastrysimilar to a doughnutwith no central hole, made from sweet yeast doughfriedin fat or oil, with a marmaladeor jamfilling and usually icing, powdered sugaror conventional sugaron top. The first doughnut machine did not come along until 1920, in New York City, when Adolph Levitt, an enterprising refugee from czarist Russia, began selling fried doughnuts from his bakery. Dunkin' Donuts, started in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1950, has been flourishing ever since. Then a singer, Cindy Hutchins, stepped up to the mike and drawing on the museum's archive of popular sheet music (more than a million songs in all) sang, "Who made the doughnut with the hole in the middle? 6. In the United States alone, about 10 billion doughnuts are made every year, a mere 1.1 billion by Krispy Kreme. ADVERTISEMENT. These days the redoubtable doughnut, made by Krispy Kreme and others, is riding high. In the late 1920s, the Histadrut, the Israeli labor federation, decided to champion the less widespread jelly doughnut as a Hanukkah treat rather than levivot (latkes), because latkes were relatively easy and homemade, while sufganiyot were rather difficult for most home cooks, thereby providing work (preparing, transporting, and selling the doughnuts) for its members. Often, doughnuts were sold with their own can-do philosophy. This original German Doughnut Recipe is handed down from generation to generation. And so generations of kids like me, and adults, too, have stood transfixed by the Willy Wonka-like scene behind the glass of doughnut shops, learning in the process that the doughnut hole is built in, not cut out. Of course doughnuts in some form or other have been around so long that archaeologists keep turning up fossilized bits of what look like doughnuts in the middens of prehistoric Native American settlements. Within a century of the jelly doughnut’s initial appearance in Germany, every northern European country from Denmark to Russia had adopted the pastry, although it was still a rare treat generally associated with specific holidays. Much later, someone in Germany invented a metal pastry syringe with which to inject jelly into already fried doughnuts, making the treat much easier and neater, and in the twentieth century, machines were developed to inject doughnuts in mass production. It was in the 1930s, too, and half a country away from Levitt's busy Harlem bakery, that a Frenchman named Joe LeBeau made his way up from New Orleans to Paducah, Kentucky. On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. Give a Gift. An actual Berliner would say, in proper German, "Ich bin Berliner. 5. A Berliner is a type of doughnut from Germany and Central Europe. Not surprisingly, Vernon Rudolph returned from military duty with thoughts of expanding his doughnut chain. They are also called Fastnachtskrapfen or Fasnachtskuechle or Kreppel or Berliner in Germany. The Ring King Jr., once America's most advanced automatic doughnut maker, had just been donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation. A doughnut without a filling in Yiddish is a donat. In 1485, the cookbook Kuchenmeisterei (Mastery of the Kitchen) was published in Nuremberg, Germany. They are sometimes made with chocolate, champagne, custard, mocha, or advocaat filling, or with no filling at all. Whether the anonymous author actually invented the idea or recounted a new practice, the concept of filling a doughnut with jam spread across the globe. For him and his colleagues, the old Ring King Jr., though it is now retired to storage, is as significant as a Colonial cast-iron cooking pot also in the Smithsonian collection, only more complex. Keep up-to-date on: © 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Magazine Total Time 2 hours 8 minutes. Much later, someone in Germany invented a metal pastry syringe with which to inject jelly into already fried doughnuts, making the treat much easier and neater, and in the twentieth century, machines were developed to inject doughnuts in mass production. Companies began turning out the doughnuts days or even weeks before Hanukkah, stretching both the amount of work and the period of enjoyment for eating them, although there are those who insist on waiting to eat one until after lighting the first candle. A further variation is the vetkoek, which is also dough deep fried in oil. Legend has it that US president John F. Kennedy made a whopping grammatical gaffe with his iconic declaration "Ich bin ein Berliner" 50 years ago on Wednesday, essentially telling his audience -- and the world -- "I am a jam doughnut". Thus technically John F. Kennedy’s famous declaration at the Berlin Wall, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” means “I am a jelly doughnut.” By the end of the century, jelly doughnuts were also called Bismarcken, after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. |. Cover them with the other half of the dough rounds, crimping the edges. Just how it got there will be always a riddle.". Polish immigrants brought ponchiks to Israel, along with the custom of eating them on Hanukkah. In South Africa, an Afrikaans variation known as the koeksister is popular. But in fact doughnuts didn't come into their own until World War I, when millions of homesick American doughboys met millions of doughnuts in the trenches of France. They borrowed ingredients (potatoes, sugar and milk) from a kindly grocer, stripped down to survive the heat of baking in July, and emerged with a fresh batch of Krispy Kremes, which they delivered in their 1936 Pontiac. Berliner Donuts. But the doughnut proper (if that's the right word) supposedly came to Manhattan (then still New Amsterdam) under the unappetizing Dutch name of olykoeks--"oily cakes.". "In 800 years, if America should lose the art of making doughnuts," he says, "we could help reconstruct how to do it." Follow him @dataylor1. . But my friends and I, doughnut-deprived college students in a small North Carolina town, thought nothing of a 20-mile journey to Charlotte at 1 A.M. for solace: coffee steaming on the counter, the usual night owl clientele, and fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Polish Jews fried these doughnuts in schmaltz or oil instead of lard and called them ponchiks. It's one of those food stuffs, like fried chicken, that's defined by—and often defines—a region. A Berliner is a type of doughnut from Germany and Central Europe.. Jelly. In an interview with the Boston Post at the turn of the century, Captain Gregory tried to quell such rumors with his recollection of the moment 50 years before: using the top of a round tin pepper box, he said, he cut into the middle of a doughnut "the first doughnut hole ever seen by mortal eyes. Soon sugar and, in turn, fruit preserves proliferated in Europe. The idea spread. ", By then, Adolph Levitt's machines were earning him a dreamy $25 million a year, mostly from wholesale deliveries to bakers around the country. While the history of doughnuts in America is relatively short, people have been making similar treats throughout the world for centuries. In certain areas of Poland, they became the favorite Hanukkah dessert. In fact, a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine bemoaned the unsaturated fat purveyed by the glazed doughnut. 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According to Leite's Culinaria, Bismarcks, known as "Bismarcken" in Germany where the nickname originated, were a favorite snack of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who was responsible for uniting Germany following a series of wars in the mid-1800s. By the early 1980s, the Ring King Jr. was obsolete; a fond memory for doughnut aficionados, it was replaced by newer and more elaborate equipment. They were served up by women volunteers who even brought them to the front lines to give soldiers a tasty touch of home. Adding the indefinite article “ein” implied that the speaker is a Berliner, which isn’t a citizen of Berlin at all but instead a jelly-filled doughnut popular in Germany and Central Europe. It is true that the humble doughnut does have a convoluted past that involves Dutch immigrants, Russian exiles, French bakers, Irving Berlin, Clark Gable and … Vote Now! And a word of caution, these berliners can initiate fights and even mini wars… so make a peace pact even before you start sharing these lovelies between any group! In any case, Mrs. Gregory put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through, and in a literal-minded way called them doughnuts. And, yes, in its democratic ethos, its optimism, and its assorted origins, it does seem rather quintessentially American. The machines grew more refined. Well, yes and no. Working with one donut at a time, insert tip about 1 ⁄ 2" deep into the side of donut, pipe 2-3 tbsp. Gregory’s descendent, F. E. Crockett, explained during a 1941 symposium on the origin of the doughnut that Hanson had merely asked his mother to remove the cakes’ soggy centers. Another variation, similar in name, is the Cape Malay koesister being soaked in a spiced syrup and coated in coconut. Best Donuts in Berlin, Germany: Find 275 Tripadvisor traveller reviews of THE BEST Donuts and search by price, location, and more. It goes back to the relatively doughnutless Civil War, when the cavalry derided foot soldiers as doughboys, perhaps because their globular brass buttons resembled flour dumplings or because soldiers used flour to polish their white belts.). By the end of the century, jelly doughnuts were also called Bismarcken, after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. A “cruller” is a fried pastry that traditionally looked like “small, braided torpedo.” It was considered a … Probably the hard times led him to sell his secret recipe (written out longhand on a slip of paper), and the name Krispy Kreme, to a local store owner named Ishmael Armstrong, who hired his nephew, Vernon Rudolph, and put him to work selling the treats door-to-door. Krispy Kreme stores, long best known in the South, are spreading North and West, and sales climbed 20 percent in 1997. 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