A doughnut or donut is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
Krispy Kreme, Inc. is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
A Danish pastry is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the viennoiserie tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers, where the recipe was partly changed and accommodated by the Danes to their liking, and has since developed into a Danish specialty. Like other viennoiserie pastries, such as croissants, it is a variant of puff pastry made of laminated yeast-leavened dough that creates a layered texture.
A muffin is an individually portioned baked product; however, the term can refer to one of two distinct items: a part-raised flatbread that is baked and then cooked on a griddle, or a quickbread that is chemically leavened and then baked in a mold. While quickbread "American" muffins are often sweetened, there are savory varieties made with ingredients such as corn and cheese, and less sweet varieties like traditional bran muffins. The flatbread "English" variety is of British or other European derivation, and dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in North America during the 19th century. Both types are common worldwide today.
Timbits is the name of a bite-sized fried-dough confection sold at the Canadian-based franchise Tim Hortons. Equivalent to the American "donut hole," they were introduced in April 1976.
A cruller is a deep-fried pastry like a doughnut popular in Europe and North America often made from a rectangle of dough with a cut made in the middle that allows it to be pulled over and through itself, producing twists in the sides of the pastry. The cruller has been described as resembling "a small, braided torpedo". Some other cruller styles are made of a denser dough somewhat like that of a cake doughnut formed in a small loaf or stick shape, but not always twisted. Crullers may be topped with powdered sugar or icing.
Sufganiyah is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The doughnut is deep-fried, injected with jam or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar. The doughnut recipe originated in Europe in the 16th century, and by the 19th century was known as a Berliner in Germany. Polish Jews, who called it a ponchik, fried the doughnut in schmaltz rather than lard due to kashrut laws. The ponchik was brought to Israel by Polish Jewish immigrants, where it was renamed the sufganiyah based on the Talmud's description of a "spongy dough".
Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Krispy Kreme UK is the United Kingdom subsidiary of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, an American company. The UK headquarters are in Camberley, Surrey.
National Donut Day or National Doughnut Day, celebrated in the United States and in some other countries, is on the first Friday of June of each year, succeeding the doughnut event created by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to honor those of their members who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. The holiday celebrates the doughnut. Many American doughnut stores offer free doughnuts on the occasion.
The Boston cream doughnut is a round, solid, yeast-risen doughnut with chocolate frosting and a custard filling, resulting in a doughnut reminiscent of a miniature Boston cream pie.
The Long John is a bar-shaped, yeast risen doughnut either coated entirely with glaze or top-coated with cake icing. They may be filled with custard or creme. The term Long John is used in the Midwestern U.S. and Canada, and has been used in Texas.
Potato doughnuts, sometimes called a Spudnut, are a type of doughnut, typically sweet, made with either mashed potatoes or potato starch instead of flour, the most common ingredient used for doughnut dough. Potato doughnuts tend to be lighter than all-flour doughnuts, and are prepared in a similar way as other doughnuts. A chain of Spudnut Shops was established across the United States in the 1930s before declining to a few dozen more recently. Fried ube dough is also eaten in East Asia, including the world's most expensive doughnut, the Golden Cristal Ube, which cost $100 each. Much like flour doughnuts, potato doughnuts are often eaten with coffee.
The dutchie is a Canadian doughnut popularized by the Tim Hortons chain. It is a square, yeast-lifted doughnut containing raisins that is coated with a sugary glaze. The dutchie was one of two original baked goods that had been available on Tim Hortons' doughnut menu since the chain's inception in 1964.
A tiger tail donut is a donut that is twisted with another ingredient so that it looks like the tail of a tiger. This other ingredient may vary; examples include chocolate; chocolate-flavoured dough; a combination of chocolate and cinnamon; and a combination of cinnamon, apples, and coconut. The tiger tail is the second most popular donut at The Donut Man in Glendora, California, United States, surpassed only by the shop's signature donut: the strawberry donut. In 2010, Dunkin' Donuts locations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sold tiger tails to celebrate the Year of the Tiger. Erin Allday of The Press Democrat called the tiger tail the "most unusual donut" at the Donut Hut in Santa Rosa, California.
The old-fashioned doughnut is a term used for a variety of cake doughnut prepared in the shape of a ring with a cracked surface and tapered edges around it. While many early cookbooks included recipes for "old-fashioned donuts" that were made with yeast, the distinctive cake doughnuts sold in doughnut shops are made with chemical leavener and may have crisper texture compared to other styles of cake doughnuts. The cracked surface is usualy glazed or coated with sugar.
Mochi donuts, also known as poi mochi, are a fusion pastry crossing traditional American doughnuts and Japanese mochi. The mochi donuts' "hybrid batter makes for a doughnut that is fluffy and moist, with a satisfying chew". An early iteration can be traced to Hawaii in the early 1990s, however, the mochi donut was popularized by Mister Donut's "Pon de Ring" iteration in the early 2000s. Mochi donuts are now most commonly shaped into eight small balls connected into a circular shape that is easy to pull apart and are made out of glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour.
