Laura Ingalls Doughnuts

Doughnuts, from The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker (Harper Collins, 1989)

Recipe:
For 2 dozen doughnuts you will need:

2 pounds lard (or shortening)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
2¼ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour (we used whole wheat, which is healthy but has a grainy texture)
a shaker full of powdered sugar (or some yummy chocolate frosting!)

quart kettle (heavy pan)
quart bowl
rolling pin
candy thermometer

Melt the lard in kettle over low heat. Beat egg, baking soda, and salt into the sour cream in the bowl. Beat in 1 cup of flour until well mixed. Continue to work in flour, ¼ cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled. Roll the dough in a strip about 4 by 16 by ¼ inches. With a floured knife cut into inch strips about five eighth inch wide.

Heat the lard to 375 degrees F. Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will stretch as you do); bring ends together and pinch them. Drop twisted dough in hot fat. In 2 minutes the dough should be brown on both sides, crisp and cooked through. If browning takes more than 3 minutes, the fat is not hot enough; if browning takes less time, the fat is too hot.

Remove cooked doughnut to brown paper to drain and coat it with powdered sugar. Continue twisting and cooking the remaining dough strips. Serve the doughnuts immediately.