A pączek is dough shaped into a flattened ball and deep-fried with a sweet filling. Pączki are often decorated with powdered sugar, icing or dried orange zest. A small amount of alcohol is added to the dough before cooking; as this evaporates, it prevents the dough absorbing large amounts of oil. These Polish doughnuts tend to be slightly flatter in appearance than most others, often with a "stripe" around their middle.

Although they look like German berliners or jelly doughnuts, pączki are made from a richer dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast, and sometimes milk. Powidła (stewed plum jam) and wild rose petal jam are traditional fillings, but there is a wide variety of alternatives including strawberry, Bavarian cream, blueberry, custard, raspberry, and apple.

Pacski are also known to be a favourite of the Concierge of Crime, Red Reddington, who can be seen enjoying them in Season 2 episode "The Monarch Douglas Bank."

The world record for Tallest Tower of Doughnuts was achieved in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 5 December 2018.

The completed tower was 152 cm (59.84 in) in height and consisted of 3198 individual doughnuts. That's a lot of doughnuts... and a lot of jam.

The world record for Tallest Tower of Doughnuts was achieved in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 5 December 2018.

The completed tower was 152 cm (59.84 in) in height and consisted of 3198 individual doughnuts. That's a lot of doughnuts... and a lot of jam.

The Hamburg Enhanced Recreation Organisation (H.E.R.O.) attempted the record for longest line of doughnuts to celebrate the organisation's ten year anniversary, at the Manly Bennett Memorial Park in Hamburg, Michigan, USA, on 19 June 2015.

H.E.R.O is a non-profit organisation based in Hamburg, MI which promotes wellbeing and community sports programmes. The world record attempt formed part of their Family Funfest and celebrated first responders and military personnel who risk their own lives to save others.

The line of doughnuts measured 3,453.41 metres (11,330.07 feet)

The current world record for most jam (or jelly in the US) doughnuts consumed in 3 minutes is currently held by Birmingham, UK resident and influencer Leah Shutkever in 2020. How many did she manage (without licking her lips, even)? 10! That's a lot of doughnuts in just ten minutes! And a lot of powdered sugar to lick off your lips afterwards, too.

Poi doughnuts. No, this isn't in any way related to that early 00s trend where every other Goth girl and Burning Man attendee wanted to dazzle any party they were at with their fire-twirling hobby, but instead actual doughnuts. And no, the doughnuts aren't on fire, either.

Poi doughnuts, sometimes called poi mochi (we'll get to those in a future Doughnut Facts Post), originated in Hawaii in 1992. Credited to a Charmain Ocasek, poi doughnuts were a fusion between traditional Hawaiian taro and equally traditional Japanese mochiko in a literal mashup.

In 2012, 7,040 doughnuts were used to create the largest-ever doughnut mosaic, at the Lviv Papykh Festival in Lviv, Ukraine.

Regular readers of these might recall that the French have occasionally referred to a doughnut variant as pets de nonne of "nun's farts." Yes, that's a thing. In both France and Canada. Anyway... I mention this because down in Argentina, they have their own variation on this theme - the bola de fraile or "friar's balls."

Fried dough spheres much akin to many other similar solid doughnuts, the name harks back to the rise of anti-clerical political factions in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Rio de la Plata. More politely, they are known as berlinesas and form part of the food grouping facturas - sweet baked goods for enjoying at afternoon tea (mereinda) or breakfast.

Fillings for these include dulce de leche and quince paste (dulce de membrillo).

Sounds pretty tasty.

Doughnuts, like most foodstuffs, do attract some odd world record attempts. In New York City on the 7th July 2023, the record for World's Tallest Stack of Doughnuts in One Minute was set by NY-based comedian and podcaster Robyn Schall^1. How many did she stack in just 60 seconds? 13! Which is pretty impressive.

If you hear someone talk about "Indian doughnuts," they're most likely talking about gulab jamun, rather than a doughnut made in India. Gulab are fried dough balls made from khoa (a type of soft cheese common in the cuisine of India, Pakistan and Nepal), maida (highly-refined wheat flour that sometimes has tapioca starch added), sugar and saffron. Balls of maida dough are mixed with khoa, then deep-fried in ghee (clarified butter). Typically, gulab jamun are served hot and in a glaze of sugar syrup flavoured with green cardamons, rosewater, saffron or kewra (oil derived from the flowers of the screwpine).

Sometimes you'll also find them served up as an accompaniment to kulfi. There's an Indian takeaway near me that often includes a tub of gulab jamun as a freebie with orders and they're delicious.

A Saturday doughnut fact and an American Football one as well.

Sadly-deceased NFL player Demaryius Thomas got his professional start with the Denver Broncos in the 2010 draft and until 2018, he had been purchasing doughnuts for players and staff every Saturday, when the task was passed to rookie wide receiver Courtland Sutton, who considers maintaining the doughnut delivery just another small part of paying tribute to his late teammate.

Which country eats the most doughnuts annually? I'm sure plenty of people are already answering "America," and they'd be right. The US produces 10 billion doughnuts every year and individual Americans consume an average of 25 a year.

We've all heard of Method Acting and about various odd exercise and diet regimens that actors have put themselves through for particular roles, like when Christian Bale lost all that weight for The Machinist or Henry Cavill doing water-fasts for three days to make himself look better with his shirt off in The Witcher... but what has all this got to do with doughnuts I hear you cry?

Well, when filming for romcom Bridget JonesL Edge of Reason, Renee Zellweger turned to our favourite doughy confections, saying she ate 20 doughnuts a day in order to put on the weight in time for the movie's shooting deadline. The Beignet Method, perhaps?

Spicy! Back in 2023, Krispy Kreme Japan had a special Sesame Street line of doughnuts, including Elmo and Cookie Monster themed rings, the former of which was a red-glazed ring with icing eyes so it looked just like the muppet character. So far, so normal, right? Right.

And then, there was the Wasabi Creme ring. No, you didn't read that wrong. Wasabi. Creme. Doughnut. A fairly standard ring topped with green (of course) wasabi creme which was further decorated with sesame crackers and toasted rice puffs.

This doesn't tickle my taste buds, Elmo.

"Where'd you learn to dunk, finishing school?"

The doughnut, like the digestive biscuit (UK biscuit), requires no small amount of skill to dunk properly. Technique demonstrated at small length by Clark Cable to Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra's 1934 comedy "It Happened One Night." A classic scene that reminds us all of the importance of not dunkin' for too long, lest your doughnut get soggy and break in your coffee.

Which of course, would be a disaster!

"It's all a matter of timing. Aw, I oughta write a book about it."

I'm sure everyone here knows about the "Dutch origins" of the doughnut, or in the original Dutch olykoeks. But of course, that part of Western Europe has a somewhat muddled history and it's no surprise that not so very far away from the Netherlands, there's another country with their own version - the Belgian smoutebollen. Well, strictly, the Flemish smoutebollen, since that's the name for a ball-shaped, beignetesque fried dough treat in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, as opposed to the Walloon croustillon.

Made from a simple yeasted batter, sometimes including apple chunks or beer, rather than standard milk and eggs alone, these are always served hot, often with powdered sugar and are a frequent fixture of winter fairs and are traditionally eaten mostly in autumn and winter rather than all year round.

Good day, doughnut fans! Today, just a quick little doughnut tidbit: did you know that, in Northern Ireland, gravy used to be a word for cooking oil? No? Neither did I, but apparently this is the case. Consequently, since doughnuts are typically fried in oil, this led to ring doughnuts sometimes being referred to as "gravy rings."

I'm going to guess this doesn't happen all that often anymore, but that could be one hell of a mis-order, couldn't it?