ELEPHANT TRACKS

1 1/2 cup milk 1 cup oleo 1/4 cup sugar 2 pkgs dry yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water 2 eggs, beaten 1 tsp salt 5 to 5 1/2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 2 tsp cinnamon Scald milk; add oleo and the 1/4 cup sugar. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water. Add to milk mixture along with eggs. Add salt and flour. Stir well with spoon to make soft dough. Let rise once. Roll dough into rectangles 1/2-inch thick. Spread with oleo and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture made with remaining ingredients. Roll up as for cinnamon rolls and cut into 3/4 inch slices. Dredge slices in cinnamon mixture and roll out until thin. Place on greased baking sheet and bake 12 minutes at 400 degrees. Ice while warm with a thin glaze, if desired.

file photo for reference

FLUFFY RAISED DOUGHNUTS

1 cup milk 1 pkg dry yeast 1/2 cup lukewarm water 1 tsp sugar 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup sugar 1 egg, well beaten 1 tsp salt 3 1/2 cups flour Scald one cup milk and cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in bowl in lukewarm water and 1 tsp sugar. When foamy, add to cooled milk. Stir in shortening, 1/4 cup sugar, egg, and salt. Beat in flour. On floured board, knead until smooth. Place in a greased bowl, let rise to doubled. Punch down and let rise until doubled again. Roll dough 1/2" thick and cut with a doughnut cutter. Cover and let rise until light and fluffy. Fry in deep hot fat. Glaze with a water and sugar mixture.

file photo for reference

CAKE DONUTS

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour milk
1 tsp soda
1/2 cup sweet milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp melted lard or shortening
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
flour

Mix sugar and eggs together. Add sour milk and soda mixed in milk. Add sweet milk and melted lard. And vanilla and flour with salt and baking powder mixed into the flour. Use enough flour to make a dough stiff enough to roll and cut donuts with a donut cutter. Makes 30.

Note: Sour milk is buttermilk; sweet milk is regular milk

file photo

MS AGATHA'S CREAM PUFFS

This is an old Hoosier recipe.

Puffs:
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs

Filling:
1 cup milk
4 tbsp flour
6 tbsp sugar
1 egg
few grains salt
1/4 tsp vanilla or other flavoring of your choice

To make the puffs: Combine the shortening and boiling water and continue to boil until the shortening melts. Add the flour and beat until mixture is smooth and thick and leaves the side of the pan. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. The mixture should be a thick, heavy dough. Arrange on an oiled cookie sheet or shallow baking pan small rounds of dough, at least 3-inches apart.

Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 40 minutes or until the cream puffs are puffed up and brown all over. Cut just enough to fill with the cream filling.

To make the filling: In a saucepan combine the milk and sugar. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Add the salt, then stir in the egg. Cook the mixture over low heat until thickened. Remove from heat, add the vanilla or other flavoring; stir to blend. Use to fill the puffs.

file photo for reference 

OLD FASHION NUTMEG DOUGHNUTS

This recipe is from an old Iowa church cookbook.

2 cups sweet milk*

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp butter or lard, melted
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups flour, more if needed

Sift the flour, adding all of the "dry" ingredients. Make a nest of the flour mixture in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until stiff. Adding more flour if needed. Roll dough out on well floured surface and cut. Drop into hot grease, enough so the doughnuts float. Fry until golden brown. Drain well.

*Sweet milk is whole milk NOT sweetened condensed milk!

clipart for fun

SALVATION ARMY FAMOUS DOUGHBOY DOUGHNUT RECIPE

During WWI the Salvation Army served coffee and doughnuts to the soldiers. Following is their recipe for 4 dozen doughnuts.

5 C flour
2 C sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1 ‘saltspoon’ salt
2 eggs
1 3/4 C milk
1 Tub lard

Combine all ingredients (except for lard) to make dough.

Thoroughly knead dough, roll smooth, and cut into rings that are less than 1/4 inch thick. (When finding items to cut out doughnut circles, be creative! Salvation Army doughnut girls used whatever they could find, from baking powder cans to coffee percolator tubes.)

Drop the rings into the lard, making sure the fat is hot enough to brown the doughnuts gradually. Turn the doughnuts slowly several times.

When browned, remove doughnuts and allow excess fat to drip off.

Dust with powdered sugar. Let cool and enjoy.

This is a Salvation Army photo.

BAKED APPLE DOUGHNUT FRITTERS

This recipe is from one of the local ladies when I was a youngster and I have hit the 70 mark!

1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup grated apples
1/2 cup oleo, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and 1/2 cup sugar. Cut in shortening until mixture is fine. Mix together the egg, milk, and apple. Add mixture, all at once, to the dry ingredients and mix together quickly. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Remove fritters from the pans immediately and roll in melted oleo then roll in the sugar cinnamon mixture. Delicious served warm.

Note: File Photo

RAISED DOUGHNUTS

This is another recipe from my Marshall Township PTA cookbook. I do not recognize the name. Do any of my fellow Hilltoppers out there know who this is?

Click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading.

DOUGHNUTS

This is another doughnut recipe from my 1955 Marshall Township PTA cookbook.

Click on recipe to enlarge.

YEAST DOUGHNUTS

This is another recipe from my 1955 Marshall Township PTA cookbook.

Click on picture to enlarge.

HAPPY HINTS

This is from the back of a package of Godchaux sugar my late mother cut out many years ago. The first is how to sugar doughnuts and the second is an orange mixture to put over pancakes. You can click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading.

BUTTERMILK DOUGHNUTS

This is another recipe from my 1955 Marshall Township PTA cookbook. This recipe is from Ellen Smith, one of my classmates.

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. nutmeg or 1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp. soda
4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt

Mix as usual. Chill dough and knead lightly and roll out on floured board. Fry in hot fat. Dust with powdered sugar.

1953 HOMEMADE DOUGHNUTS

My mother loved all the homemaker magazines she got in the mail monthly and I enjoyed them, too.  She saved many of the recipes from these magazines, sometime the magazine itself.  After her death, while going through her things, I was excited to find many of these old treasures.  This recipe was from 1953.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening, melted
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sugar
oil for deep frying
cinnamon sugar and/or sifted powdered sugar

In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg; set aside.  In another bowl combine milk and melted shortening.  In a large mixing bowl combine the eggs and sugar; beat with electric mixer until thick, about 5 minutes.  Add milk mixture; stir with wooden spoon to combine.  Add flour mixture and stir with wooden spoon until smooth.  Cover dough; chill 2 hours (dough will remain slightly sticky).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut dough with a floured 2 1/2-inch round cutter.  Use a 1 1/4-inch cutter to cut the hole for the doughnut.  If you have it, you can just use a doughnut cutter.

Fry 2 or 3 doughnuts at a time in deep hot oil (375 degrees) for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes or until brown, turning halfway through with a slotted spoon.  Drain on paper towels.  Repeat with remaining doughnuts and doughnut holes.

Shake warm doughnuts in a bag with cinnamon sugar and/or powdered sugar.  Serve warm.

To make cinnamon sugar, stir 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon together.

Yield: approximately 15 doughnuts + holes

Note: This is a Better Homes and Gardens recipe.

MASHED POTATO CAKE DOUGHNUTS

2 large or 3 small potatoes
1 cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
8 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tbsp shortening, melted
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Peel potatoes, cut into quarters, place in a saucepan and cover with water.  Boil until the potatoes are tender; mash very fine.  Add the sugar, egg, milk, and shortening.  Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the potato mixture.  Add the vanilla.  Add more flour if needed until dough is stiff enough to roll out.  Roll out and cut with a doughnut cutter.  This should make about 24 large doughnuts.  Fry in hot oil in a deep fryer or a deep cast iron skillet.  Turn once during cooking.  Cook until lightly browned and floats toward the top.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

RAISED DOUGHNUTS

1 cup scalded milk
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp shortening
1 tsp salt
1 pkg dry yeast
2 tbsp lukewarm water
approx 5 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp nutmeg
powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl mix the sugar, milk, shortening, and salt and cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and stir into the milk mixture. Add two cups of the flour and mix well. Set in a warm place to rise until light.

Add the eggs, nutmeg, and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Knead until elastic. Lightly flour a board for rolling out and roll out dough to 1/2-inch thick. Cut with a doughnut cutter. Cover and let set until doubled in bulk.

Heat fat in a deep fryer or deep pan and cook until puffy and brown. Turn and brown on the other side. Remove from the fat and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with the powdered sugar while still warm.

Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen doughnuts.

Note: File Photo