Homemade apple cider doughnuts, spiced with cinnamon. Photo Megan Chromik, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The apple cider doughnut
What it took directly
- documentedThe apple cider doughnut took from the Doughnut Corporation of America's 1951 fall campaign, which launched a "sweet cider doughnut""Smith referred me to a New York Times story from Aug. 15, 1951, that announced the “sweet cider doughnut” would be introduced at that year’s Doughnut Corp. of America campaign" Albany Times Union (Sara Tracey, 2022), from a 1951 New York Times item supplied by Andrew Smith, who teaches food studies at the New School; Smithsonian Magazine (2009) quotes the same announcement
- documentedThe farm-stand cider doughnut took from Adolph Levitt's doughnut machine, first set up in the window of his Harlem bakery in 1921"After many failures, Levitt finally succeeded in 1921, setting up the machine in the window of his bakery in Harlem, N.Y." NPR (Deena Prichep, 2017), from the account of Levitt's granddaughter Sally Levitt Steinberg
- documentedLakeside Farms' cider doughnut (Ballston Lake, New York) took from Dick Pearce's Saturday mornings at the nearby Sugar Shack, learning to make doughnuts, which he brought home in the mid-1960s"Every Saturday morning, he’d go up there and learn how to make the doughnuts" Jeffrey Pearce, Dick Pearce's son, to the Albany Times Union (2022); the farm calls itself home of the original cider doughnut
What it learned to do
- documentedThe apple cider doughnut learned from cider's acidity, which gives the dough a tender crumb"When cider is used to make the dough, Richardson notes, the acidity helps yield a tender crumb." NPR (Deena Prichep, 2017), paraphrasing baker Julie Richardson
- documentedThe farm-stand cider doughnut learned from Adolph Levitt's Doughnut Corporation of America: his machine, a standard mix sold to other bakeries, and its marketing"He launched a chain of doughnut shops, developed a doughnut-making machine and a standardized a mix of ingredients to sell to other bakeries, and came up with National Donut Month and a host of other marketing gimmicks." Smithsonian Magazine (Amanda Fiegl, 2009), citing Paul R. Mullins's Glazed America
The tradition it sits in
- documentedThe farm-stand cider doughnut comes from the automobile, automation and advertising: Sunday drives out to farm stands near the cities"It's the collision of the automobile, automation and advertising" Michael Krondl, food writer and culinary historian, to NPR (2017)
- documentedThe apple cider doughnut comes from home kitchens at Halloween: a 1901 Buffalo Enquirer story calls cider doughnuts a popular treat"Mullins sent me a link to an earlier clipping from a 1901 story in the Buffalo Enquirer that states cider doughnuts were popular treats at home during Halloween." Albany Times Union (Sara Tracey, 2022), reporting a clipping found by Paul Mullins, anthropologist and author of Glazed America
- documentedThe cider in the doughnut comes from early America's cider, one of its main drinks before Prohibition, in apple country like New England and the Upper Midwest"one of the primary beverages, prior to Prohibition — especially in apple-growing areas like New England and the Upper Midwest." Michael Krondl, culinary historian, to NPR (2017)
- inferredLakeside Farms' "Original Cider Doughnut" (mid-1960s) comes from a longer line: cider doughnuts were already a home treat in 1901 and a commercial product in 1951"What I took from this is that cider doughnuts were likely homemade snacks until commercialization in the mid-20th century." inferred — the dates come from the same Times Union article that reports Lakeside's mid-1960s start; the paper itself calls its account a start, not a definitive history
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedThe doughnut comes from olie-koecken, the Dutch "oil cakes" thought to be its forerunner, which were made with local fruit"olie-koecken (translated to “oil cakes” and a Dutch yeasted fried dough thought to be the forerunner to doughnuts) were made with local fruits." Albany Times Union (Sara Tracey, 2022), reporting culinary historian Peter Rose, who focuses on Dutch colonial food; she found no specific Dutch link to cider doughnuts
- documentedThe doughnut comes from dough dropped into hot fat, which nearly every culture has its own version of"pretty much every culture has their own beloved take on batter or dough hitting hot fat" NPR (Deena Prichep, 2017)
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