Krispy Kreme and doughnuts in general

"one of those deep, childish pleasures you never grow out of."

Felicity Cloake

You might have thought that I had forgotten those photographs I took on that walk looking for food inspiring things - another one of those ideas that never go anywhere perhaps. But this is not so. I do mean to tackle them all. I've even found a couple more of late.

So let's begin with this Krispy Kreme packaging that I found at the side of the road, perhaps appropriately curled up next to the weedy oxalis. For I imagine we middle-class food snobs regard Krispy Kreme in much the same way as we do McDonald's - who since 2024 have been selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts in their stores, after a deal was struck with the now German owners of Krispy Kreme.

If you want the full and more recent history of Krispy Kreme - floated on the Nasdaq, taken off and sold to a private company - JAB Holdings - about more later - and put back on again, together with the various economic ups and downs of the company then I recommend Wikipedia. For now, however, just a little about its beginnings.

In 1933 a young - 18 years old - Vernon Rudolph began working for his uncle Ishmael Armstrong in his small store, where, amongst other things they sold doughnuts. It is believed that the recipe came from either a New Orleans chef with whom Vernon played a game of poker and won the recipe as his winnings or the other story- from Wikipedia is as follows:

"it is believed that Ishmael Armstrong was inspired by an Ohio River barge cook named Joseph LeBeouf who was famous for his light and fluffy doughnuts, which contained potatoes."

Similar but not quite the same. Wherever the recipe came from their doughnuts were a success until the Depression, when they struggled, and took the decision to move to Nashville in 1934 with much greater success.

However, Vernon, in 1937 set up his own first store with the name of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Winston-Salem in North Carolina. Initially he was a wholesaler, but passers-by would smell the doughnuts cooking and so he began serving them a few after hours - between midnight and 4am. They were so popular that eventually he is said to have knocked a hole in the wall and sold them directly to the public. In the 40s and 50s he designed increasingly effective machines for mixing and shaping the dough.

In the 60s - 90s the now increasing number of stores acquired their distinctive green, white and red look including the red Hot now Doughnuts sign which lit up when the doughnuts were fresh from the oven. Over time the number of stores - franchises - increased, with the first store to open overseas - in Sydney Australia - opening in 2003. Now they are almost everywhere. This is the home-page header of the Australian company, which features the current 'special' offering of Harry Potter themed doughnuts - just one in a long-line of 'special' promotions.

Rudolph himself died in 1973, but it continued on under various leaders, and went public in 2000. However there were problems - loss of revenue, some accounting scandals, and in 2016 it went private again, having been bought up by the German investment business JAB Holdings, based in Luxembourg, which owns various other food business including Prêt à Manger in the UK. They too have had their scandals when it was revealed that the original owners were Nazis and had used forced labour in their various factories during the war. All smoothed over eventually with apologies and donations to appropriate charities - well the current owners were, of course, not around in WW2. And in 2021 the company went public again.

So what are Krispy Kreme doughnuts like? Well I can't say personally, but the original version was just a simply glazed ring doughnut, and today the variety is practically endless.

So much for Krispy Kreme. Where do doughnuts come from? Well who knows really but it seems that the first recipe was written by Cato the Elder way back in around 160BC in his work De Agri Cultura (On Farming) - the oldest surviving work of latin prose. Although it is a treatise on farming it includes a few recipes - one of which is for Globi made by A Dollop of History - a simple mix of cheese and spelt flour, shaped into balls, fried and coated with honey and poppy seeds. And it seems the Italians, continue to this day to make cheese and flour doughnuts as in Justine Schofield's (SBS) Sfinci (Sicilian doughnuts) stuffed with coffee ricotta and Sylvia Colloca's Blueberry and lemon ricotta doughnuts

Most people will tell you that the Dutch are the originators of doughnuts with their 'olykoeks' the recipes for which they took with them to America in the 19th century. However, I suspect the reality is that since early times, all over the world, people have been frying balls of sweet dough of some kind and sprinkling them with or soaking them in something sweet.

"Whatever the origins, and whether it's churros, beignets, fritters or Krispy Kremes, everyone speaks the universal language of doughnut." Rebecca Hardy/The Guardian

Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts and the like have just made them into big business.

I have never been a huge, huge fan of doughnuts, and really the only ones I like are the very plain balls of fried dough sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon while still warm. Cold doughnuts are definitely not appealing. And I've never really been a fan of the jammy ones but in a small bit of coincidence Coles, in their current magazine have a recipe for Raspberry jam heart donuts and Felicity Cloake makes some Perfect jam doughnuts, based largely on Paul Hollywood's recipe. The Guardian also offers this vital piece of advice from Rebecca Hardy:

"Apparently too it is all in the proving - the time you allow the dough to rest and increase in size. Prove too long and the dough will fall apart in the fryer, underprove and the doughnut will turn out dense and chewy."

Then there are the gourmet versions: Vegan tangerine doughnuts from Ottolenghi who also presents Gooseberry and ricotta doughnuts with warm pine honey and fresh elderflower although this is from his restaurant ROVI - no recipe. And to end - a Michelin starred, but relatively simple doughnut from the St. John's Bakery in London.

YEARS GONE BY

September 11

2024 - A warm pumpkin scone for a winter afternoon

2023 - Flummery

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Breakfast salads

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Bara brith

2017 - Crème fraïche and its cousins

2016 - Caesar salad