There’s more to the doughnut life than just chocolate and vanilla, and I don’t mean toppings (although one can have a lot of fun with nuts, sprinkles…even things like chips and breakfast cereals if you want to get crazy). No, I’m thinking more about icings. Back when I was making doughnuts in volume, one of […]
READ ONThey ban trans fats because they’re so dangerous, laws are needed to keep people from ingesting even a gram. But they bring absinthe back because hey, a little thujone never hurt anybody. Here’s to the public health!
READ ONA lot of people have asked me why I’m so skeptical about the dangers of trans fats when the science is so totally clear. One big reason is the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the biggest and most prominent of the anti-trans fat pressure groups. They’re the ones who’ve been running around […]
READ ONA very wise person once said that there’s no such thing as helpful hysteria. Case-in-point the madness surrounding trans fats these past few years, which has had some very odd consequences. For cow’s milk — any cow’s milk — contains trans fats, as I explained below. That means that organic butter contains trans fats, local […]
READ ONSo, trans fats. Invented by humans…unheard of in the natural world…a “biological novelty” (to quote our dietary bellyacher-in-chief, Michael Pollan). Is it true? No. The number one “fact” we hear about trans fats — that they’re entirely synthetic, lab-created compounds — is false. The arch conspirators in the global trans fat cabal are actually cows. […]
READ ONThis one is a no-brainer, save for one very important detail: never (really, never) use high quality chocolate to top a doughnut. Why not? Because truly good eating chocolate deserves to be eaten on its own. Combining high quality chocolate with a high quality doughnut ruins them both, as they compete for attention (kind of […]
READ ONNo, only partial hydrogenation does it. You’ve heard that term before, I’m sure. Why are liquid oils only partially hydrogenated? Because the more you hydrogenate fatty acids, the more hydrogen atoms you add to those hydrocarbon chains, the firmer the fat gets. Fully hydrogenated cottonseed oil, for example, is so uniform and crystallizes so well, […]
READ ONSo then what, in technical terms, is a trans fat — really? And in what way is it different from other, more common fats? To answer this question, we must return to that “E”-shaped triglyceride molecule I mentioned last week. As you’ll recall, triglycerides are “E”-shaped because they’re composed of a molecule of glycerol with […]
READ ONThis is my favorite way to enjoy a cake doughnut, without any fancy flavors, just a good honest scratch doughnut glazed with a thin coat of icing. As you might expect, it’s a very easy thing to do. Just combine: 8 ounces powdered sugar 2 tablespoon plus two teaspoons water or milk a few drop […]
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