Congratulations to Rufina, the winner of the Vintage-Inspired Measuring Spoon Giveaway! You can check out her blog, Being Rufina, here.
A special thank you to EVERYONE who took the time to enter and share their nostalgic kitchen-centric utensils and memories. I was really inspired by your stories, and will be sharing a few of them (as well as one of my own) in upcoming posts. In the meantime, here is Rufina’s memory. Happy reading – and happy weekend!
As soon as I read the requirements, I ran to my kitchen. I started rummaging around in one of my utensil drawers, sure that I still had kept it, and I found not just one, but two! My grandmother’s doughnut cutters.
My father always says, “No one makes doughnuts the way my mother used to make them.” And he is right. I can almost smell them now. The sweet, cinnamon, sugary, rich scent of fresh frying homemade doughnuts. I used to watch as my grandmother made the dough, rolling it out on her large wooden pie board, and cutting them out with these very cutters. The “holes” were saved too, fried up. Nothing went to waste. And Lucky me, I also saved her recipe box, so I still have her handwritten recipe card for this family treat.
Typing this out exactly as written: (I have no idea who Peon was, but obviously someone who’s doughnut recipe my grandmother found good enough to copy!)
Peon’s Doughnuts
2 eggs, 3/4 c.W.Sugar, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. milk, 2 1/2 c. flour,3 level tsps. B.Powder
1 tablsp. Crisco, 1/2 tsp. salt
Beat eggs, sugar, Crisco-
Sift flour, B. Powder, nutmeg, salt
Mix alternatively with milk.
That’s it!! No other instructions. I will have to rely on memory to try and get the dough thickness right. I believe she fried them in Crisco. When I try to make these to surprise my father, I will have to wear one of her cherished aprons that I also kept.
I remember they always seemed to turn out perfectly, and then my grandmother would lay the fried doughnuts and doughnut “holes” out on paper towels, sprinkling with icing sugar, regular sugar or else leaving plain. It always amazed me how a flat disc cut out with these cutters would puff right up into a perfect doughnut, which was then served warm, soft and so delicious.
Simply the best childhood nostalgic memory, taste and smells. Thank you for bringing it back in full living color to me!!
