Kinds of Doughnuts and Great Tips for Dessert

Doughnuts are sweet pastries that are made by deep frying round pieces of batter or dough.  Doughnuts are often served as breakfast but they also make great snacks and desserts. There are two basic types of doughnuts – ring doughnuts or the ones with the holes and filled doughnuts, which have sweet fillings such as jam, jelly, custard or cream. There are also doughnut holes, originally made from the dough taken out of the center of a ring doughnut.

Yeast-based dough is used for making raised doughnuts. Cake doughnuts use a special cake batter. Yeast doughnuts can be traced back to the method of making doughnuts from leftover scraps when baking. They are light and fluffy with a distinct flavor of yeast. Yeast doughnuts can be baked instead of deep-fried. The heavier cake doughnuts are obviously denser and their texture resembles that of a cake.

After ring doughnuts are fried, they are usually topped with an icing, glazed or powdered with sugar or cinnamon. Jelly doughnuts may also be glazed as well as filled with jam or custard. There are also doughnuts that come in other shapes aside from the traditional round shape including twisted doughnuts, bear claws, rectangular and others.

Doughnuts are quite easy to make at home and it will be fun to have your kids help in making them. You can make doughnuts at home with basic ingredients and without any special baking equipment. Although, large bakeries that produce doughnuts commercially use pre-packed doughnut mixes and more complicated machines.

Doughnuts are one if not the most popular fried dessert in the United States. Even the trendiest restaurants are serving doughnuts for dessert such as Hearth in New York, which offers hot and crisp sugar and apple cider glazed doughnuts topped with maple whipped cream. But you do not have to go to a fancy restaurant for superb doughnut desserts. Try the following ideas:

Add some spice to old-fashioned donuts by adding nutmeg and a bit of cinnamon. Make extra-special honey-dipped doughnuts by dipping them in warm honey then in coconut flakes. Add some twist to good old chocolate doughnuts by mixing in some mashed potatoes and milk. For a dessert that resembles those served in fine restaurants, top a warm doughnut with a scoop of ice cream and add bananas tossed in caramel sauce on top then sprinkle with nuts. Whether you want your doughnuts with coffee or tea, any of these doughnuts make exquisite dessert.

Puddings: Europe’s Surprisingly Magical Treat

Enticing and deliciously sweet, puddings are the household dessert in every European home. With just one look at it, one can expect a tempting treat for the sweet tooth but more surprises are actually in store once you put it into your mouth and taste the hidden treats inside. Born in one of the kitchens in Europe, puddings also have traditional preparation beliefs that could give the awaited surprise in your life.

Majority of the countries in Europe actually used the word pudding to refer to a dessert. The word pudding evolved from the French word boudin through the Latin word botellus, which means small sausage that are used in the original or first puddings during the medieval era.

Puddings are usually defined as any of the various mixes of soft sweet desserts or meat, sausage as mentioned earlier, thickened with flour or any binder encasing or hiding the mixes of indulging ingredients that were baked, steamed, or boiled. In fact, culinary experts class the dessert as those served with meat and those served with fruits. Dessert writers, on the other hand, say that puddings were originally boiled in a bag or cloth then was later steamed where a cloth covered buttered bowl is used and lastly a baked and chilled pudding came in with the procedures.

Culinary innovations were later made in preparing puddings such as the use of instant mixes of sugar or milk and eggs or other thickening agents that resulted to custard or mousse-like smooth and creamy dessert, which is more popular for the Americans. Traditional puddings, on the other hand, are also topped with whipped cream and fresh fruits as another innovation.

Puddings also have an amusing and enchanting practice on how it is originally served. The Christmas holiday plum pudding, for instance, is traditionally served with tiny silver charms either topped or baked in the pudding. The charms could be a silver coin, which is believed to attract wealth or a silver miniature anchor for safe harbor. A wishbone is also used to bring good luck in the family. Another tradition in preparing the pudding is for every household member to simultaneously stir the pudding batter using the wooden spoon and later make a wish.

Europe is known for its dream-like royalties, which are often related to enchanting fairy tales of our childhood. Puddings are just another magical treat of the continent for the rest of the world.