Old Fashioned Donut Recipes Without Yeast

Grandma's old fashioned donut recipes make the best donuts imaginable. So fresh and so crispy! They taste so much better than the store-bought kind when they are homemade. Why not get the family together and make some donuts tonight?

Grandma's Old Fashioned Donut Recipes and More

Tray Full of Homemade Donuts Sprinkled with SugarEnjoy Serving Delicious Old Fashioned Donuts
(Source: ©jentara/Depositphotos.com)
Plate of Deep Fried DonutsDeep Fried Donuts
Homemade Buttermilk DonutsButtermilk Donuts
Homemade Potato DonutsCrispy Potato Donuts
Perfectly Cut DonutsHandy Donut Cutter
Aunt Em Serves Crullers in Wizard of OzOld Time Crullers
Homemade Funnel CakeHomemade Funnel Cake

Creamy Indulgences

Homemade Cream PuffsCream Puffs
Three Chocolate Eclairs Ready to ServeChocolate Eclairs

Tips for Donut Making

Grandma's Tip

You can always substitute your favorite oil for the lard, but using lard or fat does lend its old time flavor.

Success in making a good fried donut depends as much on the cooking as the mixing. In the first place, there should be boiling lard enough to free them from the bottom of the kettle, so that they swim on the top.

Also, the lard should never be so hot as to smoke or so cool as not to be at the boiling point; if it is, they soak grease and are spoiled.

If it is at the right heat, the donuts will in about ten minutes be of a delicate brown outside and nicely cooked inside.

Try the fat by dropping a bit of the dough in first; if it is right, the fat will boil up when it is dropped in. They should be turned over almost constantly, which causes them to rise and brown evenly.

Wooden skewers come in handy for turning donuts in the hot fat. Some cooks find them handier than tongs for the purpose.

When they are sufficiently cooked, raise them from the hot fat and drain them on a wire rack until every drop ceases dripping.

History of Donuts

Did you ever wonder where the first donuts originated? Well, believe it or not, the Bible records in Leviticus 7:12 that the priest offered with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, "cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried" — donuts?

Seriously folks, there are numerous theories and legends, but it's believed by many food historians that donuts first appeared in Germany and Holland as cooks dropped leftover bits of dough into boiling oil or fat, which they called olie koeken (oily cakes) or oliebollen (fat balls).

Some Dutch bakers shaped their oily cakes into fancy knots (dough-knots) and rolled them in sugar after frying.

European bakers also made small cakes called jumbles that often had a hole in the middle, and it's only natural that some would make their "dough-knots" with a hole in the middle too.

The hole is actually practical in that it permits the donuts to cook uniformly in the hot oil without having a semi-cooked, doughy center.

The old fashioned donut recipes originated after as people sought to duplicate the tasty treat in their own kitchens.

Stereograph of Y-Girls Making Doughnuts in Germany for American Soldiers in 1914-18Y-Girls Making Donuts at Montabaur on the Rhine, circa 1914-18 (Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. LC-DIG-stereo-1s04260)

Hundreds of young women volunteered to staff YMCA Canteens in Europe during World War I. The Canteens offered a safe place for American soldiers stationed in France and Germany to read, write letters home, and relax between battles.

The Canteen Girls, also known as Y-Girls, gave the young fighting men a reminder of home by serving them hot coffee and non-alcoholic beverages along with sandwiches and doughnuts.

In the European towns, women and girls would often be hired to fry doughnuts by the thousands as American soldiers became known as Doughboys because of their passionate demand for fried donuts.

Illustration of a Girl Looking Into an Antique Stereoscope

The old-time stereograph picture creates a 3D effect. View it by crossing your eyes slightly until the two images merge into one central 3D picture. It's a fun visual trick to try.

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