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    Home » Recipes » Plain Culture

    Gallery of Amish Doughnuts

    Published: Feb 18, 2014 · Updated: Feb 2, 2021 by Kevin Williams | 12 Comments

    Few foods scream "comfort" more than doughnuts. A warm, round, glazed slathered disk of fried dough.  Yum, oh, yum. And Amish cooks are uniquely qualified to churn out these confections.  Doughnuts really are just yeast, flour, sugar and a few other basic ingredients fried into a sweet treat and then topped with any number of decadent flavors.  Of course there are filled doughnuts, iced doughnuts, yeast doughnuts, cake doughnuts, maple doughnuts, and on and on.  I once saw an Amish woman making heart-shaped glazed doughnuts to celebrate Valentine's Day. Cute touch. But nothing matches what I saw at Keim Family Market, an Amish-owned bakery in Adams County.  They christened this doughnut "The Big Daddy", which is an on-steroids version of their popular regular glazed doughnut.  Look at the above photo, the doughnut is the same length as a butter knife and takes up a dinner plate.  I should have measured the doughnut's depth, it has to be close to 4 inches thick.

    BEHIND THE BIG DADDY

    So how did this legendary doughnut get its start?

    Owner Dan Miller explains that a customer had a nephew that was a huge fan of Keim's regular glazed doughnut.  He'd sit down and consume six in a single sitting.  As the nephew's birthday approached the customer persuaded Dan to try to make a "mega-doughnut" that could double as a cake.  Dan was a little reluctant to try at first.

    "It might be a total flop," he warned her.

    "That's okay, I'll still buy it," she reassured Dan.  So he got to work and made a couple huge doughnuts for the elated customer.

    "And before she went out the door we could have sold 5 more, people saw those and wanted some for themselves.  After that, it just took off," Dan recalls.

    "One couple ordered 36 of them, I'm not sure what they were going to do with that many," Dan mused.

    Since then there have been custom-ordered variations.  Double-stacked doughnuts with "Happy Birthday" iced on top.

    "They've been a big hit," Dan says.

    Here are some other Amish-made doughnuts that I have been smitten with over the years...from top to bottom:  assorted doughnuts from the Rise N Roll Bakery in northern Indiana;  maple-dipped doughnuts from the Conewango Valley of New York, and Clara Yoder's doughnuts from Adams County, Ohio.   And if you want to make your own, check out this earlier post for Emma Raber's "Light as a Feather Doughnuts."

    « Amish Country Lodging: Murphin Ridge Inn
    Homemade Pizza Dough »

    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Doug Lovitt

      February 18, 2014 at 6:37 pm

      Janette,
      What kind of upbringing did you have that taught you it was ok to be so rude?
      God have pitty on you.

      Reply
    2. Eva Drummond

      February 19, 2014 at 9:06 am

      I just don't know what to say but keep up the great work you do! We love that you enjoy what you do! Some people are just ignorant, don't pay attention to ignorance!

      Reply
    3. Patricia T

      February 19, 2014 at 9:45 am

      I only recently discovered your site, but I'm pretty sure you don't post pictures of your wife, Rachel. So, janette knows you and is "having fun" or is completely clueless. By the way...you may not look like you did, when you were in your 20s, but how many of us do? Thanks for a great site! I check it daily.

      Reply
    4. Kentucky Lady 717

      February 19, 2014 at 3:46 pm

      STICK AND STONE WILL BREAK MY BONES, BUT WORDS WILL NEVER HURT ME 🙂 KEEP EATING THOSE DONUTS KEVIN, AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, EAT ONE OR TWO FOR ME.....WHO CARES IF WE'RE FAT 🙂 JUST SOME JEALOUS PEOPLE.....WHO WISH THEY HAD ONE OF THESE DELICIOUS DONUTS 🙂

      Reply
    5. Carol Morris

      February 19, 2014 at 9:15 pm

      My husband says he never met a doughnut he didn't like, And he's not fat!!

      Reply
    6. MissBetty

      February 19, 2014 at 10:09 pm

      Everyone can enjoy a donut - -the problem lies in how many you have. I am diabetic and I can make a 1/2 a donut last 2-3 days. I do the same with candy on occasion. I do not feel denied nor angry that I cannot have more. My blood sugar does not raise nor do I gain weight. But for a normal person one of anything is not going to hurt.

      Reply
    7. Nancy A.

      February 20, 2014 at 5:35 am

      Those doughnuts look very yummy, especially the glazed ones! My husband loves doughnuts and isn't big at all! Enjoy yourself, life is short. By the way, you look great and I enjoy your articles so much!!

      Reply
    8. Miss Chris

      February 23, 2014 at 3:10 am

      I grew upon a farm in Pa. We made always made these on the first day of deer hunting season when grandpa and his cronies would come to hunt in the forest on our back acres. He always left with a bag of warm yeast donuts after he had had his fill while sitting with his coffee. Grandma asked that we fill him up before giving him the bag to bring home. We turned these out several times a year.

      Reply
    9. Margo

      January 15, 2021 at 1:26 pm

      Wow! Nasty. comment and certainly NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!

      Reply
      • Kevin Williams

        January 15, 2021 at 11:17 pm

        Thanks, Margo, I forgot about that long-ago commenting exchange, I just went in and deleted it.

        Reply
    10. Carol A Blackwell

      June 05, 2021 at 10:58 am

      I click on recipe for the corn relish and get donuts. That snake skin must have scared you.

      Reply
      • Kevin Williams

        June 05, 2021 at 11:17 am

        Sorry for the glitch, I fixed it now if you want to retry!

        Reply

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    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

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