I’ve been thinking a lot about dough lately–kneading it, pressing it, watching it grow, baking it, and of course, frying it. Maybe I should actually amend the previous sentence to read: I’ve been thinking a lot about fried dough lately. There is nothing like a good doughnut, or a fritter, or a beignet. If my doughnut consumption was in direct proportion to all of my doughnut thinking, no doubt I would be an enormous, sugar-kissed young woman waddling towards you, her hands coated in chocolate glaze.

Perhaps it is the shape of the doughnut, that pleasing circular form, that begs for constant thought. It is the ideal form– symmetrical from all angles, but also a continuous surface. You can start at one point on the doughnut, travel a circuitous path, and end up right back where you started. That is if you did not munch your way through this path. And with the hole, the doughnut is a circle, wrapped within a circle. What could be better than that?

When one starts to contemplate various types of doughnuts, and various types of glazes, toppings, and fillings, the possibilities grow exponentially, making the mind reel. I will be waiting in an endless line at the post office, the type of line that seems to just exist, adding more and more patrons to the end while never really eliminating any patrons from the beginning. It is the sort of line that makes me want to shoot myself in the foot. My mind wanders to doughnuts as of late, and I begin to list the permutations. There are raised, and cake, those filled with creme and those filled with jelly, chocolate glazed, iced and sprinkled. I have never, in all of my doughnut eating years, run into a chocolate raised doughnut. Not a plain raised with chocolate glaze, but a chocolate raised doughnut. Why is that? And then the line that I am waiting in actually begins to move, and I am in a better mood because of my doughnut reverie.

But when it comes down to it, the simple, homemade raised doughnut comes closest to my ideal, and apparently to others too. I made a batch of these doughnuts and brought them with me to drinks with friends. And, I couldn’t have been more popular. Yes, a dirty martini and a glazed doughnut, I am told is the perfect combination. The doughnuts were delicious, light and yeasty, just barely glistening with oil. The glazes were simple yet flavorful, just hardening slightly to obtain that sugary shell.

As I watched my friends so pleased to have a taste a true Americana, I knew that I had made the perfect treat. I might have been the only one in that crowd of people that thinks about fried dough incessantly, but I was not alone in my love for a little bit of sugar and grease.

Glazed Doughnut

Recipe found here. This recipe makes a lot of doughnuts, so share them with friends, and you too will be very popular.

I used the listed recipe for vanilla glaze, but substituted vanilla paste, with real vanilla bean seeds for the vanilla extract. For the chocolate glaze I used this recipe:

Chocolate Glaze

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoon water

In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter until liquid. Slowly add in the sugar, stirring well after each addition. Add the water until desired consistency is reached. Glaze should be smooth and viscous.

Dip plain doughnuts into glaze, then allow to dry slightly on a wire rack before serving.