Doughnut dreams

What would you like? Regular glazed, chocolate, apple fritters, cream-filled or old-fashioned cake? In case you haven’t guessed yet, these are varieties of doughnuts listed on the board at Krispy Kreme doughnuts. For Americans, doughnuts are the ultimate sweet snack. These sinfully delicious versions of our familiar gulab jamuns are puffed-up circular snacks made of refined flour, fried and then glazed with sugar syrup. Yummy!

As part of the American experience, doughnuts were high on Aparna’s list of consumables. And today was the day. It was a well-deserved treat since she had been brave enough to swim in the Issaquah pool, not just the shallow one, but the big pool which is 12 feet deep on one end where she swam a few full laps. We had a tough time deciding which ones to buy so we fell for the assorted dozen for $10.99. We were smart (or stupid) to refuse the tempting price of $14.99 for two dozen doughnuts. I enjoyed an apple fritter and half a regular glazed with a cup of typical strong coffee. As I looked around the store, listening to the excited Spanish chatter of the lady at the counter with a group of customers on the occasion of Cinco de Mayo (5th of May), I noticed the machine that produces these decadent delectables.

Behind a plastic partition stood the impressive machinery that makes the flour/yeast secret ingredient combination dough into round doughnuts (with and without holes, the latter are used for the cream/custard/chocolate-filled ones). Stacks of identical circular balls of dough are then “proofed”, circulated in an oven to make them rise. After the pre-determined time interval, they are gently rolled into hot oil where they acquire the delicious golden color, flipped over to fry evenly and then subjected to warm sugar syrup which forms the even glaze on its surface. The doughnut is then progressively cooled until it is ready to be boxed.

A couple of random but related thoughts came to mind. The transparent design and informative layout of the store made me think about the industrial revolution and its impact on society. The invention of machinery to speed up and standardize the processes that were time and labor intensive has made a tremendous difference to the way we work. With devices that minimize effort and save precious time, we are free to do much more. So we eat high-calorie machine-made foods and then use the leftover time to work out.

The tall oven-like structure for “proofing” the doughnuts mentioned that the dough balls were treated to heat and humidity to make them rise. So true of our lives too – in order to rise, we must be subjected to conditions outside our comfort zones.

Back to doughnut basics - The regular glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut contributes 190 calories to your daily intake and God help you if you gorged on the other exotic varieties, you will be blessed with about 200-340 calories based on your selection and number consumed. Aparna was the only one who had exercised prior to the gluttony and I hope to make up by a corresponding calorie burn by walking in downtown Seattle tomorrow.