It’s NATIONAL DONUT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is the description from the National Day Calendar website:
Each year on the first Friday in June, people participate in National Doughnut or Donut Day, celebrating the doughnut and honoring the Salvation Army Lassies. The Lassies were the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during WWI.
In 1917, the original “Salvation Army Doughnut” was first served by the ladies of the Salvation Army. It was during WWI that the Salvation Army Lassies went to the front lines of Europe. Home-cooked foods, provided by these brave volunteers, were a morale boost to the troops.
The doughnuts were often cooked in oil inside the metal helmets of American soldiers. American infantrymen were then commonly called “doughboys.” A more standard spelling of the word is “donut.”
In the USA, Dunkin’ Donuts is running the following celebration:
FREE Donuts Are Back!
National Donut Day is synonymous with free donuts at Dunkin’, and this year is no different. On June 7, head to any Dunkin’ location nationwide to enjoy a free classic donut of your choice with the purchase of any beverage while supplies last. It’s the perfect excuse to try a delicious drink from the new summer menu, like the Blueberry Donut Iced Coffee or the Vanilla Frosted Donut Iced Coffee Signature Latte.
https://news.dunkindonuts.com/blog/national-donut-day-2024
Below today’s video is the original recipe The Salvation Army used. Try it out this weekend! Then tell us how the donuts tasted!
(If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it.)
Ingredients:
5 C flour
2 Csugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1 ‘saltspoon’ salt (1/4 tsp.)
2 eggs
1 3/4 C milk
1 tub lard
Directions:
- Combine all ingredients (except for lard) to make dough.
- Thoroughly knead dough, roll smooth, and cut into rings that are less than 1/4 inch thick. (When finding items to cut out donut circles, be creative. Salvation Army Donut Girls used whatever they could find, from baking powder cans to coffee percolator tubes.)
- Drop the rings into the lard, making sure the fat is hot enough to brown the donuts gradually. Turn the donuts slowly several times.
- When browned, remove donuts and allow excess fat to drip off.
- Dust with powdered sugar. Let cool and enjoy.
Yield: 4 dozen donuts
(from https://salvationarmynorth.org/northern/original-salvation-army-donut-recipe–video)
Writing Conference Benefits
Thanks for the recipe, Steve, though I try to stay away from lard. There’s enough lard in my life already! Happy Friday!
Thank you, Steve. I serve on the Metropolitan Advisory Board of The Salvation Army in San Diego, CA. This day is always a wonderful tribute to the influence of Christ’s continued work in the world.
Karin F Donaldson
Awesome, I always wondered where “doughboy” came from for soldiers. Recipe almost identical to one I’ve used for years at Halloween as the trick-or-treat to all adults accompanying kids when we lived on military posts. We call them Fry Cakes.
Steve, we’ve already enjoyed free donuts from a local convenience store today, but I did not know the history of National Donut Day. Thanks for sharing this fun information!
Four years of college, working nights, frying donuts and every other greasy delights in a small town bakery. . I ate plenty of everything. Milk from the cooler. A collegian dream job. Slept through many a class and chapel.
Steve, in Viet Nam, the U.S.O. women we called “Donut Dollies,” because they generally served fresh donuts at the U.S.O. centers there. These volunteers did so many other tasks, and supported the troops just by being there with us in-country, it always seemed to me that the nickname trivialized them. But I never knew the origin, or how it morphed from Salvation Army to the U.S.O. Thanks for the post. I’ve shared it with all the donut-lovers in my family.
See you at WTP!