Talk:Doughnut

Merger from Ciambella

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

To not merge; Ciambella and Doughnut being culturally distinct. Klbrain (talk) 11:01, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

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The ciambella is the Italian donut, although with (some) differences; since the ciambella page is very poor in information and without images, it would be excellent if a "Variations" section and an "Italy" sub-section were created, with this information written here.

"Ciambelle originated as naturally leavened bread dough cakes, toroidal in shape, fried in plenty of boiling oil. They are a derivation of Krapfen, an Austrian sweet without the classic central hole that characterises ciambelle. Krapfen contain a delicious filling, usually apricot or plum jam. From the Austrian sweet recipe, in addition to ciambelle, bomboloni are also derived, typical Carnival sweets available both fried and baked. Unlike Krapfen, these are filled with custard or chocolate cream." (https://www.dolcidee.it/magazine/curiosita/qual-e-la-differenza-tra-donuts-le-ciambelle). JacktheBrown (talk) 16:31, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

I'd rather see Ciambella improved. Valereee (talk) 17:10, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

In English, I know Ciambella as a type of cake similar to a Gugelhupf but Ciambelle refers specifically to a fried pastry similar to a donut.

They're two completely different things. The confusion comes from the usage of the Italian word in English, wouldn't it make more sense to link the donut article in the original page to indicate the different usages? 87.121.75.201 (talk) 21:40, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

If bombolone and Krapfen have their own pages, then so should ciambella. At most, consider merging those three articles. But they seem fine as they are. It'll just take some dedicated multilingual editors to get them in shape. Ornov Ganguly (talk) 15:56, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Ancient Rome

The article states that "an early version of a deep-fried dough ball originated in ancient Rome when people started frying dough and putting sugar or cinnamon on it."

This is not referenced, and suggests that sugar would have been commonly available in Ancient Rome. It does however appear that there is a recipe in Cato's De Agri Cultura, so I am inclined to reword this to something like:

"a recipe for a deep-fried dough ball was recorded by Cato the Elder in his de agri cultura, using cheese, honey and poppy seeds."

BH530481 (talk) 13:16, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Good historical addition. I have no conflict with this so long as you could help me find a good online translation of this, since it appears to be more your specialty. Ornov Ganguly TALK 17:17, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Thanks Ornov; the translation here seems to be reasonably accurate and clear: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cato/De_Agricultura/E*.html (#79) BH530481 (talk) 13:29, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

It has been done. Though the remainder of the section with Apicius was removed because it lacks relevance and the blog source wasn't reliable by our standards. If you have any other sources or knowledge, feel free to add it yourself. I didn't realise you were an autoconfirmed user. This was fun. Ornov Ganguly TALK 01:36, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

Lady's navel

It seems the same dish as the Turkish dish 79.17.172.126 (talk) 13:17, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 September 2024

I request that you let whoever reads this article know that “donut” is American English. It doesn’t say it in the article. So put that “donut” is American English in the Doughnut article. 2600:1700:14BE:E00:28D4:B0C6:6C40:985E (talk) 01:12, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: - FlightTime (open channel) 01:24, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 October 2024

I hereby request that you include that the "donut" spelling is American English, or people won't know that "donut" is rarely used outside the USA. 2600:1700:14BE:E00:B05B:18DD:BC6C:1E9E (talk) 23:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. There also already is a section in the article that appears to include the information you describe. FifthFive (talk) 03:43, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Removed Science Section

Removed Science Section. 1) was not specific to donuts ... could apply to all dough. 2) was added by Hat36, as a student assignment, in 2016 3) was recently suggested as way to much information and a maintenance tag was added by another editor. 4) did not conform to several WP guidelines, such as pertinent relevance to this particular article..

Captured here in case someone wants to revert some specific information, or move some text to the Dough article, although Dough rheology is way out there, having nothing specifically to do with dough.  • Bobsd •  (talk) 23:19, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

composition

Eggs function as emulsifiers, foaming agents, and tenderizers in the dough. The egg white proteins, mainly ovalbumin, "function as structure formers. Egg solids, chiefly the egg white solids combined with the moisture in the egg, are considered structure-forming materials that help significantly to produce proper volume, grain, and texture." The egg yolk contributes proteins, fats, and emulsifiers to the dough. Emulsifying agents are essential to doughnut formation because they prevent the fat molecules from separating from the water molecules in the dough. The main emulsifier in egg yolk is called lecithin, which is a phospholipid. "The fatty acids are attracted to fats and oils (lipids) in food, while the phosphate group is attracted to water. It is this ability to attract both lipids and water that allow phospholipids such as lecithin to act as emulsifiers." The proteins from both the egg yolk and the egg whites contribute to the structure of the dough through a process called coagulation. When heat is applied to the dough, the egg proteins will begin to unfold, or denature, and then form new bonds with one another, thus creating a gel-like network that can hold water and gas.

Shortening is responsible for providing tenderness and aerating the dough. In terms of its molecular structure, "a typical shortening that appears solid [at room temperature] contains 15–20% solids and, hence, 80–85% liquid oil ... this small amount of solids can be made to hold all of the liquid in a matrix of very small, stable, needlelike crystals (beta-prime crystals)." This crystalline structure is considered highly stable due to how tightly its molecules are packed. The sugar used in baking is essentially sucrose, and besides imparting sweetness in the doughnut, sugar also functions in the color and tenderness of the final product. Sucrose is a simple carbohydrate whose structure is made up of a glucose molecule bound to a fructose molecule. Milk is utilized in the making of doughnuts, but in large scale bakeries, one form of milk used is nonfat dry milk solids. These solids are obtained by removing most of the water from skim milk with heat, and this heat additionally denatures the whey proteins and increases the absorption properties of the remaining proteins. The ability of the casein and whey proteins to absorb excess water is essential to prolonging the doughnut's freshness. The major whey protein in the nonfat milk solids is known as beta-lactoglobulin, and a crucial feature of its structure is that there exists a single sulfhydryl group that is protected by the alpha helix, and when heating of the milk solids occurs, these groups participate in disulfide exchanges with other molecules. This interchange prevents the renaturation of the whey proteins. If the crosslinking of the sulfide groups does not occur, the whey proteins can rebond and weaken the gluten network.

Water is a necessary ingredient in the production of doughnuts because it activates the other ingredients, allowing them to perform their functions in building the doughnut's structure. For example, sugar and salt crystals must be dissolved in order for them to act in the dough, whereas larger molecules, such as the starches or proteins, must be hydrated in order for them to absorb moisture. Another important consideration of water is its degree of hardness, which measures the amount of impurities in the water source. Pure water consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, but water used in baking often is not pure. Baker's salt (NaCl) is usually used as an ingredient due to its high purity, whereas the salts in water are derived from varying minerals. As an ingredient, "salt is added to enhance the flavour of cakes and breads and to ‘toughen up’ the soft mixture of fat and sugar." If relatively soft water is being used, more salt should be added in order to strengthen the gluten network of the dough, but if not enough salt is added during the baking process, the flavor of the bread will not be appealing to consumers.

Health effects

Doughnuts are unhealthful, though some are less so than others. According to Prevention Magazine, doughnuts made from enriched flour provide some thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin, along with some fiber, but they are high in sugar and calories. Steps to improve the healthfulness of doughnuts include removing trans fats.

Dough rheology

An important property of the dough that affects the final product is the dough's rheology. This property measures the ability of the dough to flow. It can be represented by the power law equation: where is the tangentic stress, is the viscosity coefficient, is the shear rate, and is the flow index. Many factors affect dough rheology including the type and volume of ingredients and the force applied during mixing. Dough is usually described as a viscoelastic material, meaning that its rheology depends on both the viscosity and the elasticity. The viscosity coefficient and the flow index are unique to the type of dough being analyzed, while the tangential stress and the shear rate are measurements which depend on the type of force being applied to the dough.^{[citation needed]}  • Bobsd •  (talk) 23:19, 14 April 2025 (UTC)