Can these doughnuts be baked?

A few emails have come in about that, and the answer is yes. You can bake yeast doughnuts in a hot oven, but I’ll tell you now that a baked doughnut is not even close to the same experience as a fried doughnut. I strongly advise against it. The great misconception about frying is that it delivers massive amounts of fat to food. I’ll grant that bad frying — i.e. frying in old, worn-out oil and/or at a low temperature — can do that. Good frying, as I’ve written extensively before, is more akin to steaming, and only leaves a small amount of residual oil on the outside of the food. How much? For a typical doughnut, about a teaspoon, a calorie investment that’s well worth the flavor and texture returns. That’s my claim and I’m stickin’ to it.