The doughnut's journey is centuries in the making—and sweeter than you might think
From the outrageous creations of Portland, Oregon’s Voodoo Doughnut to Dominique Ansel’s world-famous Cronut out of his New York City bakery, doughnuts have become one of the most photogenic (and shareable) foods of the past decade. Our social media feeds are filled with doughnut-board pics snapped at brunches and weddings, complete with rainbow-sprinkled stacks and over-the-top toppings. And why not? Doughnuts are too irresistible not to post—or to eat.
As food historian Michael Krondl, who quite literally wrote the book on doughnuts, puts it: “Doughnuts are the quintessential American sweet.” But today, as nutritionists debate the health costs of this deep-fried indulgence (a single doughnut can pack 10 to 20 grams of fat), it’s worth remembering that though doughnuts feel trendy, they’ve been around for centuries and have a long, complex, tasty history.
Who invented doughnuts? Where did they come from? Ahead, we talked to Krondl, author of The Donut: History, Recipes and Lore from Boston to Berlin, to learn the genius behind this tasty treat and everything else you’ve ever wanted to know about these doughy fried bits of heaven. Read on for all the delicious details.
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When and where was the first doughnut made?
Incredibly, doughnuts have been made since ancient times, according to Krondl. “Fried dough has been around ever since people first learned about the culinary potential of hot grease,” he writes in his book. Here’s how things progressed:
Ancient roots
Ancient Egyptians were frying dough in oil 3,000 years ago, while Greeks ate honey-soaked loukoumades, bite-sized dough balls that are still eaten today. Romans made cheesy honey fritters called globi.
Across religions, fried sweets became symbolic: Jews still fry dough for Hanukkah, Muslims break Ramadan fasts with zalabia and sfenj, and Hindus honor deities with ghee-fried confections.
Medieval times
By the Middle Ages, Europeans were turning Carnival into a doughnut party, with Venetians feasting on rich, fruit-studded frittelle di carnevale. Since Christians were supposed to abstain from meat products for the 40 days of Lent, they had to figure out something to do with the lard.
“It’s called Fat Tuesday because you use up all the fat, to fry stuff including lumps of dough,” Krondl says. But these early fried confections were special-occasion foods, not everyday fare like today’s doughnuts.
In other words, the modern doughnut isn’t an invention so much as a delicious continuation of humanity’s long love affair with hot oil and sugar.
British beginnings
The first treat explicitly called a dough nut appeared in 18th-century England. According to Krondl’s book, there is a recipe for something called dow nuts, or sweet, yeast-raised cakes, in a collection of recipes compiled by Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale around 1800.
The ingredients (including sugar, eggs, nutmeg, butter and yeast) were made into a dough, rolled out and cut into nuts (small cakes), then deep-fried in “hogs-lard” before being covered in sugar. Except for being a little eggier, the recipe is virtually identical in both proportions and technique to recipes published some two generations later in the United States.
When did doughnuts come to the U.S.?
These recipes crossed the Atlantic with settlers and took root in New England kitchens. Doughnuts “came with pretty much every significant immigrant group,” says Krondl. “They’re very much immigrants.” English, Dutch, German and French settlers all had some version of fried dough. What became the modern doughnut, as well as the name itself, he notes, is probably sort of a hybrid of the British and New England treat.
By the mid-19th century, according to Smithsonian Magazine, Elizabeth Gregory of Maine was flavoring fried dough with nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon rind—and even placing nuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through. Her son, Captain Hanson Gregory, later claimed to invent the ring shape, though legends differ as to whether he cut out the center with a pepper tin or skewered the dough on his ship’s wheel.
Krondl is skeptical that Gregory truly invented the doughnut hole. He points out in his book that cookbooks from the 1840s already included ring-shaped pastries, and torus-shaped (aka ring) goodies existed in many cultures worldwide. Still, he acknowledges the logic behind Gregory’s tale: Removing the center made cakes cook more evenly.
When did doughnuts become popular in the United States?
By the Civil War, doughnuts were so associated with New England that they were sometimes called Yankee cakes or Yankee doughnuts elsewhere in the country. “And as the Yankees eventually decide to give up on the rocky, stony soil of Vermont and New Hampshire and move west, you get them introduced into the Midwest,” Krondl says.
But it was World War I that turned doughnuts into a national sensation. Krondl explains that volunteers from the Salvation Army were trying to figure out some way of boosting morale in the trenches. The Sallies—as young women from the Salvation Army on the front lines were known—tried making apple pies for the troops, but logistics, like a lack of ovens and apples on the Western Front, got in the way. So the Sallies began frying simple cake doughnuts for American soldiers, and they were a huge hit.
“The worst doughnut when it’s freshly made is actually pretty good,” Krondl notes, which made them perfect trench comfort food. They became so popular that the army began to send special requisitions of the ingredients for the Sallies, so that they could make more of these doughnuts for the troops. “Doughnuts were central to winning the first World War,” he jokes.
In fact, ensuring a steady supply at the front was considered essential to the effort in both World Wars, he writes in his book. “To American GIs, the holey pastries were a kind of calling card from home, reminding them of what they were fighting for.” Soldiers returned home craving them, cementing the doughnut’s place in American life.
How did doughnuts become a breakfast staple?
By the 1920s, doughnuts had begun their rise as a quintessential American breakfast. In the era of “speeding locomotives, electric lights and virtually instant communication courtesy of the telegraph, increasingly, everyone was in a hurry,” Krondl writes. “Certainly a modern American had no time for a leisurely morning meal.”
Doughnuts fit perfectly into this new pace of life: Urban workers, pressed for time in the morning, embraced the sweet, portable treats alongside a cup of joe, turning an indulgent snack into a morning ritual “you could consume at a corner coffee shop before hopping on the streetcar or bus,” Krondl says.
Companies, most notably the Doughnut Corporation of America, automated production, shifting doughnuts from homemade treats to bakery staples and keeping prices low. The suburban building boom that resulted from the postwar GI bill further popularized the doughnut as a breakfast option.
“This is where Dunkin’ Donuts comes in,” Krondl says. Dunkin’ and other doughnut shops started opening up in the suburbs, and “people would drive up, often people going to work.” Then, he continues, “you get sort of the Homer Simpson phenomenon, where you get people working in factories, going to their jobs early in the morning. What’s open in the morning? You didn’t have McDonald’s open in those days.”
So the doughnut was kind of a fast-food option, though Krondl writes, “I’d argue that it was doughnuts, not burgers, that started the whole fast-food chain thing. (They certainly did it better; I’ll take a Krispy Kreme over a Big Mac any day.)”
What are some doughnuts in other countries?
“Every culture that figured out that fat and sugar taste good has cooked up some version of the doughnut,” says Krondl. Here are a dozen delicious examples:
- Balushahi (India): Flaky, ring-shaped fried dough soaked in syrup.
- Beignets (France): While French beignets may be filled, small or made from choux pastry, New Orleans developed its own version: yeast pillows generously dusted with powdered sugar, famously served at Café du Monde in New Orleans.
- Bomboloni (Italy): Soft yeast doughnuts filled with jam or custard.
- Churros (Spain): Extruded sticks of fried dough, often paired with chocolate.
- Krapfen (Austria, Germany): Jelly-filled doughnuts; when made for Carnival, they’re called Faschingskrapfen.
- Lokma (Turkey): Syrup-dipped fried dough balls; crisp outside, soft inside.
- Oliebollen (Netherlands): Raisin- or currant-studded fritters, sometimes with apple, traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve and dusted with powdered sugar.
- Paczki (Poland): Rich filled doughnuts, often with prune butter or even sweetened farmer cheese.
- Sfenj (Morocco): Ragged-edged fried rings, sold hot by street vendors.
- Sonhoes (Portugal): Light and airy fried dough balls often rolled in sugar.
- Sufganiyot (Israel): Jelly-filled doughnuts eaten at Hanukkah, part of the oil-fried food tradition.
- Zeppole (Italy): Airy fritters eaten during St. Joseph’s Day celebrations.
What are some recent doughnut trends?
The 21st century has seen doughnuts become pop-culture darlings. Shops like Portland’s Voodoo Doughnut pioneered quirky, colorful flavors, while Dominique Ansel’s 2013 Cronut (a croissant-doughnut hybrid) caused lines around the block. Social media has amplified the creativity: “doughnut walls” and rainbow-sprinkled towers at weddings, galaxy-glazed doughnuts and even doughnut ice cream sandwiches.
Krondl notes that he’s seeing an expansion of the original artisanal doughnut: What started as small boutique shops now seem to be going national, because, as he puts it, “there’s a lot of money to be made in a $4 doughnut.”
And with this expansion, he adds, comes more streamlined and “less adventurous flavors.” They’re getting less wacky, he says. “I mean, they still have the bacon on it, but it’s like a bacon maple doughnut—which doesn’t sound that weird.”
Doughnuts may be indulgent, but their history is rich. From ancient honey-soaked fritters to Instagram-famous creations, they’ve always been about more than just sugar and fat. They carry stories of immigrants, soldiers and innovators who shaped them into a beloved part of global food culture. As Krondl puts it: “If you want to talk about the history of American food, you just couldn’t think of a better thing than doughnuts.”
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Sources:
- Michael Krondl, culinary historian and author of The Donut: History, Recipes and Lore from Boston to Berlin and Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert; phone interview, Sept. 10, 2025
- The Donut: History, Recipes and Lore from Boston to Berlin by Michael Krondl
- Smithsonian Magazine: “The History of the Doughnut”
- St Albans Museums : “Hertfordshire: Home of the Doughnut?”
