Doughnuts or Donuts | CraftyBaking | Formerly Baking911 (2024)

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There are two primary divisions of doughnut (donut): yeast leavened or chemically leavened with baking powder. The ones made with baking powder are a type of quick-bread, easily and quickly made, and are more cakelike and denser than the yeasted variety. Those known as "old fashioned” doughnuts are usually cake doughnuts.

The dough is mixed and shaped, usually only recognized as a circular pastry with a hole in the middle, dropped into hot oil and fried, and glazed or dusted with sugar. They can also be baked. Some doughnuts are made without a hole in the center, more like a flattened sphere shape which is injected with flavored jam, pastry cream, or other sweet fillings. A small piece of dough, roughly the size of the middle piece of a ring doughnut can be cooked as a doughnut hole.