Crumbs

My eleventh grade English teacher was a woman named Doc Elliot, a self-professed Emily Dickinson fanatic. To commemorate Dickinson's birthday every December 10th, she covered the chalkboard with Dickinson's poems and brought in boxes of glazed doughnuts. Dickinson was not only one of the greatest American poets, Doc told us, but an outstanding baker who specialized in doughnuts. So we celebrated her birthday with both, reading and eating in nearly equal parts. I imagine (though I cannot recall with any certainty) that the following poem was up on the board:

God Gave a Loaf to Every Bird

God gave a loaf to every bird.

But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,--

My poignant luxury

To own it, touch it, prove the feat

That made the pellet mine,--

Too happy in my sparrow chance

For ampler coveting.

It might be famine all around,

I could not miss an ear,

Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how the rich may feel,--

An Indiaman,-- an Earl?

I deem that I with but a crumb,

Am sovereign of them all.

Though Dickinson is clearly not speaking literally of crumbs and loaves here (though one is never quite sure, as Dickinson enjoys the layering of the metaphoric and the material) I use this to consider a moment just this week, when a particular "crumb" made me ponder my own plenty.

My youngest, Gabriel, undertook doughnut making for his school science project, along with his dad. I am only now getting in on the action after sampling some plain old glazed doughnuts (not bad), Turkish doughnuts (lightly spicy and wonderful, but really, really oily) and the absolutely out-of-this world baking powder doughnuts. I thought about these doughnuts all the time when they were in the house and we decided to make them all over again because...well, I had a craving. It was a craving like I haven't had in years, and certainly not for doughnuts, which have long been out of favor with me, despite an obsession with Winchell's in my teenage years. Well, these baking powder doughnuts are divine, cakey, with a gorgeous crumb and the slightest hint of citrus, and may be the best I have ever eaten. Saturday morning my husband brought me a cup of hot, strong coffee and one of these doughnuts; I enjoyed my repast in bed, while reading poetry. I felt like royalty. I think Emily--and good old Doc Elliott--would approve.

The recipe is found on cooks.com but I will reproduce here, with some small changes.

Baking Powder Doughnuts

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar
3 T melted butter

2 T lemon juice

3 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose, unbleached)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp grated orange peel (no pith, please!)
2 egg whites, beaten until stiff


Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate, large bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. Add sugar gradually and continue beating until light in color. Conintue beating while adding lemon juice, orange peel and melted butter. Add the dry ingredients to the egg yolk mixture one cup at a time, until completely integrated. Stir in the milk. Fold in the egg whites.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth. Roll out to 1/4 " thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter; drop doughnuts into hot oil (350 degrees) deep enough so that doughnuts don't touch the bottom of the pan. Fry, turning once until entire doughnut is golden brown. Drain on towels briefly. Glaze these or sprinkle with sugar. Enjoy while warm (though they are great the next day).

Sugar on its own works well, but we made a glaze of sugar, water and vanilla. Powdered sugar works well for a glaze, but don't use a brand with cornstarch, as this can make a bitter glaze. I made my own by grinding sugar in the coffee grinder and then combining about 2 parts sugar to 1 part water and 1 tsp vanilla. We also made one batch of glaze with bourbon in place of the vanilla. All scrumptious.