page_title: Doughnut
section_title: United States and Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Doughnut / Regional variations / North America / United States and Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Entenmann's powdered, glazed and chocolate dougnuts in variety pack.
context_page_description: A doughnut or donut is a type of fried dough confection or dessert food. The doughnut is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors.
  Doughnuts are usually deep fried from a flour dough, and typically either ring-shaped or a number of shapes without a hole, and often filled, but can also be ball-shaped. Other types of batters can also be used, and various toppings and flavorings are used for different types, such as sugar, chocolate, or maple glazing. Doughnuts may also include water, leavening, eggs, milk, sugar, oil, shortening, and natural or artificial flavors.
  The two most common types are the ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, which is injected with fruit preserves, cream, custard, or other sweet fillings. Alternatively, small pieces of dough are sometimes cooked as doughnut holes. Once fried, doughnuts may be glazed with a sugar icing, spread with icing or chocolate on top, or topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon, sprinkles or fruit. Other shapes include rings, balls, flattened spheres, twists, and other forms.
context_section_description: Frosted, glazed, powdered, Boston cream, coconut, sour cream, cinnamon, chocolate, and jelly are some of the varieties eaten in the United States and Canada. Sweetening, filling, and fancy toppings are now so common that plain doughnuts are now commonly labeled and sold as "old fashioned". There are also potato doughnuts (sometimes referred to as spudnuts). 
  Doughnuts are ubiquitous in the United States and can be found in most grocery stores, as well as in specialty doughnut shops.
  A popular doughnut in Hawaii is the malasada. Malasadas were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by early Portuguese settlers, and are a variation on Portugal's filhós. They are small eggy balls of yeast dough deep-fried and coated in sugar.
  Immigrants have brought various doughnut varieties to the United States. To celebrate Fat Tuesday in eastern Pennsylvania, churches sell a potato starch doughnut called a Fastnacht (or Fasnacht). The treats are so popular there that Fat Tuesday is often called Fastnacht Day. The Polish doughnut, the pączki, is popular in U.S. cities with large Polish communities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit.
  In regions of the country where apples are widely grown, especially the Northeast and Midwest states, cider doughnuts are a harvest season specialty, especially at orchards open to tourists, where they can be served fresh. Cider doughnuts are a cake doughnut with apple cider in the batter. The use of cider affects both the texture and flavor, resulting in a denser, moister product. They are often coated with either granulated or powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.
  In Southern Louisiana, a popular variety of the doughnut is the beignet, a fried, square doughnut served traditionally with powdered sugar. Perhaps the most famous purveyor of beignets is New Orleans restaurant Cafe Du Monde.
  In Quebec, homemade doughnuts called beignes de Noël are traditional Christmas desserts.
caption: Powdered, glazed and chocolate doughnuts from a variety pack sold at supermarkets
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