Is a doughnut always a dessert?
Ann Althouse highlights what is apparently a highly-debated question on the Web: “Is a doughnut a dessert?” The person Althouse quotes has answered this pressing (dare I say weighty?) question this way:
Zach’s position: a doughnut is always and inherently a dessert. My position: a doughnut eaten in the morning is breakfast; a doughnut eaten later in the day is a dessert
I teeter on the bring of being derailed from this issue by poignant memories of doughnuts past. But I will stay relentlessly on target and say: when eaten for breakfast, a doughnut is a dessert eaten for breakfast. Same for a pie of pie, or any other food that’s usually a dessert and is eaten as a meal.
A dessert eaten for breakfast.
I love dessert, although I’m always trying to stay away from it. Usually I succeed, but if it’s in the house it gets eaten. It doesn’t even usually stay around till morning and give me an opportunity to eat it for breakfast.
But I don’t gravitate towards eating sweets (the generic designation allows us to avoid the entire semantic issue) for breakfast, anyway. I’m not ready for them yet at that time of day.
While I was going through Air Force Officer Training School as a cadet they gave us about ten minutes to eat a meal as a way of adding tension. My roommate and I learned to eat dessert first.
Another first-world problem to keep me awake at night.
A worthy question for discussion prior to Michelle Obama’s arrival.
Need I provide additional information?
I feel the same way about sweets for breakfast, with one exception: on the morning after Thanksgiving, the only acceptable breakfast is leftover pie.
There exists more nutrtional merit in pie a better source of protein eg pumpkin/squash (vitamin A, egg)
Doughnuts are mostly dietary poor made with white flour, fried in overheated questionable oils, doused in sugar. Too
Bad they are so yummy! (Lol). There is a NE tradition of
Warm apple pie with your choice of topping (ice cream,
Whipped cream or cheddar cheese) served as breakfast.
At breakfast, it’s part of breakfast. After that, it’s a snack.
Like Mr. Frank, I am an AF OTS grad. My wife complains that I eat too fast. Gotta eat and GO!
You say you’re not ready for sweets at that time of the day.
I am not ready for the day at that time of the day.
How about a post about morning vs night people?
I say that morning people have the advantage.
(I am a night person who has tried to change to morning . . . no such luck.)
Francesca:
I am the same.
I may write a morning/night people post some time. I have tried and tried myself to change, or at least to improve, but no success so far.
A donut is not a dessert. It’s a donut. It exists in its own universe. It has its own rules. Imagine how you’d be laughed out of the room if you fed someone a steak dinner and offered them a donut for “dessert”.
Back in the day – I’m talking 50s and early 60s – a donut and a cup of coffee was called a “Fighter Pilot’s breakfast.” I indulged on many occasions when we had an early go. There were some accidents that occurred on early morning flights. Flight surgeon’s began looking at what the pilots had eaten for breakfast. Turns out it was donuts and coffee or maybe just coffee. Then they started doing tests on blood sugar levels after eating a donut and drinking coffee. Turned out that the “Fighter Pilot’s breakfast” produced a case of hypoglycemia (a large rise in blood sugar followed by a sudden drop) in many of those tested. The conclusion was that the sudden drop in blood sugar could have caused some pilot error accidents. They decided it was not a good idea to eat only doughnuts and coffee before a flight. That was the end of the “Fighter Pilot’s breakfast” for me.
As a boy, (1940s) I spent two summers in Provo, Utah. My brother and I discovered Spudnuts, a donut made from potato flour. The shop was two miles from where we were living. Whenever we could scrape together the requisite $0.40 for four Spudnuts we would walk to the store and buy those tasty treasures to be slowly devoured as we walked home. Spudnuts are still around, but not many bakeries make them:
http://spudnutsdonuts.com/
Are donuts dessert? According to our Navy flight surgeons, if you ate a donut it should always be accompanied by some protein and fiber. So, I guess that makes them dessert or maybe a side dish – if you follow the directives of the flight surgeons.
You have your four food groups:
1. Meats
2. Vegetables and Fruits
3. Nuts
4. Pastries.
In my universe, dessert is defined by position, not content. I could theoretically have a salad for dessert, i.e., at the end of my meal. I could have a donut for dessert, or for a snack, or for breakfast.
The is no such think as dessert at breakfast. Not doughnuts. Not pie. Not cake. It is all BREAKFAST NUTRITION!
Bill Cosby settled this years ago. To wit:
“The first one down was the four-year-old. The child looked lovely. Cute little
face, clean. Hair in little braids, little things, you know.
“Good morn’, Daddy.”
And I said,
“What do you want for breakfast!?”
The four-year-old has the ability to see through and find the wrong thing.
The child saw through my body what was behind me. She saw the chocolate cake. She said, “Can I have the chocolate cake?”
And I said,
“Chocolate cake, where?”
She said,
“Chocolate cake behind you.”
And I looked… and there was chocolate cake! The child wanted chocolate cake for breakfast!
How ridiculous!
And I said… and someone in my brain looked under chocolate cake and saw the ingredients: eggs!
Eggs are in chocolate cake!
And milk! Oh goody! And wheat! That’s nutrition!
“What do you want?”
“Can I have some chocolate cake?”
“Chocolate cake coming up.”
[imitates slicing sound]
Sliced it for her and served it.
“Now, you need something to drink with the chocolate cake, something breakfast… grapefruit juice!”
So I give the child a glass of grapefruit juice and chocolate
cake — nutrition. Eggs, milk, and wheat in the chocolate cake.
And… I didn’t have to cook. “
Mrs. Whatsit: “on the morning after Thanksgiving, the only acceptable breakfast is leftover pie.”
Yep, leftover pie would be good – if any were, in fact, leftover.
But, in my opinion, nothing beats mashed potato pancakes the day after Thanksgiving. Just take some of the leftover mashed potatoes, Yukon Gold are the best. Also, I always make extra so there will be leftovers – that’s how much I love mashed potato pancakes. Add some chopped scallions, some shredded cheese (Extra sharp cheddar works well), some milk if the mixture is too dry (but not always needed) and a beaten egg or two. Mix all together, form into patties sort of like hamburgers and pan fry in butter until golden brown on each side.
Yea, they are not leftover pie; but, still the best day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast. Hold the doughnuts – these things will make you weighty! Especially, if you drizzle them with a little bit of leftover brown gravy.
Once again, a landmark post that confirms for all of us that Neo is MUST reading. And her readers are sensible people (Apple pie for breakfast? Oh yes!) A doughnut is a doughnut is a doughnut. It is not in the Pantheon of foods. It has its own Pantheon. It stands alone. (“The cheese stands alone” in a children’s rhyme of long ago… But I digress.) The doughnut’s nutritional value is irrelevant. It does something for the soul. Particularly, early in the morning. A cold morning. With coffee of course. If necessary, when coffee has not yet calmed one’s nerves, it can remain hooked on a finger until half consumed. I have been in boring meetings where doughnuts — marshaled in ranks on a folding table — have lured me into the lobby for relief. I have gobbled several “minis” covered with powdered sugar, with a gulp of coffee, while taking a break from fighting a fire. I have enjoyed their compactness as a breakfast while driving somewhere in the early hours. This is a dough for which I am justifiably, certifiably nuts.
Yes, except when it’s breakfast…then it’s the main course!
Charles (1:12 am),
Potato pancakes from leftover mashed potatoes.
The best. Damn that’s good stuff.
Except that, my mashed always have butter added to them. And trying to fashion a pancake from them proves unsuccessful.
So, I’ve resolved to come over to your house on the day after Thanksgiving.
Mrs. Whatsit (2:12 pm),
Pie. The morning after. If any survived, it is all I want with my morning coffee. Cherry first. Any other candidate next.
Charles,
Afterthought.
What is the deal with “potato” in pancake and using “potatoes” to make them?
I know that if one keeps these in the cupboard long enough, they grow, “eyes”.
BUT——at what point do they develop the “toes”?
Should I call Dan Quayle?
According to my brother, who is fabulously more healthy and attractive than Michelle Obama even though many years older, the four food groups are:
Sugar
Salt
Grease
Preservatives
So you can plainly see that doughnuts qualify as one of the Creator’s perfect foods, and can properly be categorized as whatever kind of food you like. They are suitable for consumption anywhere and anytime. We owe no explanations to anybody for our breakfasts, lunches or dinners of doughnuts, and can accompany them with coffee, milkshakes or jet fuel with equal grace and style.
Happy to clear that up for everyone.