National Doughnut Day - June 7

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Today is National Doughnut Day - June 7. One theory is that doughnuts (oly koeks, oil cakes) were brought to early New York by Dutch Settlers in the early 1700s. The earliest mention was in 1809 by Washington Irving in "A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty" - "...balls of sweetened dough fried in hog's fat and called dough-nuts or oly koeks." Another theory is that the doughnut originated in 1800 in a book of recipes and domestic tips and was referred to as a "dow-nut". At the time they were still balls of dough and not the rings that we're used to today. By the mid 1800s the doughnut looked and tasted like today's doughnut. The reason for the change in shape was because the balls of dough often didn't cook properly and weren't done inside. Photo is from Pixabay.