More Than 10 Billion Donuts Are Made Every Year In The US

National Cream Filled Donut Day is held annually on September 14th to recognize one of our favorite foods.  Whether you enjoy a vanilla, chocolate or many of the other varieties, cream filled donuts offer many ways to satisfy your sweet tooth.

We can thank the Dutch for the recipe. It is believed that Dutch pilgrims brought their traditional “oily cakes” (olykoeks) to America. They were balls of dough, deep fried and embellished with raisins, nuts and apples. The oldest recipe we could find was in a historic 17th century Dutch cookbook called, De Verstandige Kock. Translated, that means “The Sensible Cook.” 

In 1803, a cookbook was published that contained donuts, and it didn’t take long for it to become the delicious treat we know today. The ring shape that we all know and love came into being when Hanson Gregory, working on a lime-trading ship, punched a hole in the traditionally dense donut (They were braided or simply a round small loaf at the time, leaving the center doughy and the exterior greasy) and fried it. The light flavor and fluffy texture of the cooked dough were exactly what he was looking for and afterward taught it to his mother.

Being a clever lass, Elizabeth Gregory made a delightfully savory donut with cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon rind, and then filled the center with a mixture of hazelnuts or walnuts to replace the missing dough. While the person who decided that crème would make a delightful filling isn’t recorded, we do know that it all started here with Elizabeth Gregory and her idea of filling donuts.

• In the U.S. alone, more than 10 billion donuts are made every year.
• The US doughnut industry is worth 3.6 billion dollars.
• Between their 27 locations, LaMar’s Donuts produces 344,700 donuts per week, which is 17.9 million donuts per year.
• A Ray’s Original Glazed Donut has only 220 calories, while a bagel and cream cheese averages 450 calories.
• Per capita, Canada has more donuts shops than any other country.
• Doughnuts vs. Donuts? “Doughnut” is actually proper, but “donut” is acceptable. If you look in older dictionaries, you’ll only find “doughnut.” However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now lists “donut” as a variant of “doughnut.”
• The largest doughnut ever made was an American-style jelly donut weighing 1.7 tons, which was 16 feet in diameter and 16 inches high in the center.
• The Guinness World record for doughnut eating is held by John Haight, who consumed 29 donuts in just over 6 minutes.
• In 1920, the first automatic doughnut machine was invented. Adolph Levitt had a bakery in New York City, in the 20’s. When he started selling sweet, fried doughnuts, he couldn’t keep up with the demand. People were constantly lined up and waiting to buy his delicious doughnuts.
• In some cultures, eating jelly doughnuts can bring you good luck. In Germany, people eat jelly doughnuts for good luck on New Year’s Eve. Some folks make a game of it and fill a few of the doughnuts with mustard instead of jelly. If a person bites into a mustard-filled doughnut, it’s predicted that they will suffer a year of bad luck.
• The average, glazed doughnut has about 12 grams of sugar.