Catholic Recipe: Golden Flake Buttermilk Doughnuts II

Demetria Taylor shares her version of doughnuts for Halloween.

All Hallows' Eve or, more familiarly, Halloween, is no longer a fast day, but old-time customs as to food can be observed, and if you prefer, you can keep it a meatless day.

This is another occasion when pancakes are traditional, so why not use the recipe for St. Brigid's buttermilk pancakes (see recipe) and serve them with cottage cheese and honey? Or you might like to serve the traditional Colcannon (see recipe).

In some parts of England, Allhallows Eve is still known as Nut Crack Eve, when convivial folk sit around the hearth, supplied with crisp, juicy apples and nuts in the shell, good conversation, and perhaps a spate of song!

Mugs of chilled sweet apple cider and plump homemade doughnuts make good fireside eating too. There is a story to the effect that doughnuts area version of the soulcakes that were once given to beggars on this Eve. It is said that a wise woman felt that once the beggars had the soulcakes, they would eat them greedily and forget all about the prayers for the holy souls they were supposed to say in payment. So she made her cakes in the form of a circle, the symbol of eternal life, hoping thus to remind them of their duty!

DIRECTIONS

Add sugar slowly to eggs, beating constantly. Stir in buttermilk and melted butter or margarine. Mix and sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt; stir in wheat germ. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture. Chill dough until easy to handle. Roll out 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick on floured pastry board, rolling half the dough at a time. Cut with doughnut cutter. Fry in deep fat heated to 375°-380°, turning once after doughnuts have risen to surface and are golden brown on the underside. Drain on paper towel. Makes 30 to 36 doughnuts, depending on thickness.