A softer nut

The earliest recorded mention of doughnuts comes from a book of recipes and domestic tips written in 1800 by the wife of Baron Thomas Dimsdale, who lived in Cowbridge House, Hertford. The recipe for “dow nuts” was given to the baroness by an acquaintance who transcribed for her the cooking instructions of a local delicacy, the Hertfordshire nut. The ingredients included sugar, eggs, nutmeg, butter and yeast. The dough was rolled out, cut into ‘nuts’, or round shapes, and deep-fried in lard before being covered in sugar and left by the fire to rise by the fire.