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    Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story
    Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story
    Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story
    Ebook336 pages1 hour

    Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story

    By Michael Solomonov, Steven Cook, Tom Henneman and

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    About this ebook

    A zany chronicle of the rise of America’s hottest donut mini empire—with recipes—by the authors of Zahav, the James Beard 2016 Book of the Year.

    “We knew absolutely nothing about making donuts.” So begins this quirky story of how two James Beard Award–winners hatched a harebrained idea that resulted in a mini empire and turned Philadelphia into a donut destination. Federal Donuts is at once an ode to an American passion and a collection of recipes for the cult-favorite hits.

    With a wad of cash in hand and a dream, Solomonov and Cook meet a Craigslist stranger in a parking lot and buy a used “donut robot.” It would do all the rest, right? Regrets, partially raw donuts, and long lines ensue, but soon the partners work out the kinks and develop an exquisite dough delicately spiced with Middle Eastern aromatics. Strawberry lavender, guava poppy, pomegranate Nutella, and salted tehina are just a few of the imaginative flavors featured in this book. Also included are all the tips needed for making foolproof donuts at home. There is even a bonus recipe for the other specialty of “Fednuts”: shatteringly crisp Korean-style fried chicken.

    “I would recommend the book, not only for the recipes, but for the whimsical artwork and the impressive list of Cook and Solomonov’s favorite doughnut shops from California to Nashville.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 26, 2017
    ISBN9780544968592
    Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story
    Author

    Michael Solomonov

    Michael Solomonov is the multiple James Beard Foundation Award–winning chef behind Zahav, which won the 2019 James Beard Outstanding Restaurant award and was named an “essential” restaurant by Eater. He is the coauthor of four cookbooks: the James Beard Award–winning Zahav, Federal Donuts, Israeli Soul, and the forthcoming Zahav Home. He and business partner Steven Cook are the co-owners of the nationally beloved, trailblazing Philadelphia hospitality group, CookNSolo, responsible for hit restaurants celebrating the vibrant cuisine of Israeli: Dizengoff, Federal Donuts, Goldie, K’Far Café, Laser Wolf, Lilah, and Zahav.

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      Book preview

      Federal Donuts - Michael Solomonov

      Copyright © 2017 by Mike Solomonov, Steven Cook, Tom Henneman, Bob Logue, and Felicia D’Ambrosio

      Interior photography © 2017 by Michael Persico

      All rights reserved.

      For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

      www.hmhco.com

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Solomonov, Michael, author. | Cook, Steven (Restaurateur), author.

      Title: Federal Donuts / Mike Solomonov, Steven Cook.

      Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2017] | Includes index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2017029835 (print) | LCCN 2017015571 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544968592 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544969049 (paper over board)

      Subjects: LCSH: Federal Doughnuts (Restaurant) | Doughnuts. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

      Classification: LCC TX770.D67 (print) | LCC TX770.D67 S65 2017 (ebook) | DDC 641.86/53—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029835

      v1.0917

      ISBN 978-0-544-96904-9 (hardcover); 978-0-544-96859-2 (ebook)

      FedNuts Kids from left: Leo Henneman, Leo Cook, Danny Cook, Eva Cook, and David Solomonov

      As you ramble through Life, Brother, Whatever be your goal, Keep your eye upon the doughnut, And not upon the hole.

      –The Optimist’s Creed*

      *Sally Levitt Steinberg tells us in The Donut Book (Storey Publishing, 2004) that her grandfather, Adolph Levitt, who invented the donut machine in the 1920s, found the Optimist’s Creed in a dime-store frame and adopted it.

      what’s inside . . .

      introduction

      1 Accidental Entrepreneurs: The FedNuts Origin Story

      On the Slippery Slope

      We Knew Nothing About Making Donuts

      We Meet the Donut Robot

      Developing the Recipe

      Nah, We’ll Be Fine

      Opening Daze 10.16.11

      Day Two: Not Much Better

      And Then It Got Cold

      The Second Store

      Fabric of Philly

      2 i am a Donut Robot

      3 Making Donuts at Home

      Wherein We Ask You to Fry Things

      What About That Frying Oil?

      Meet Matthew Fein

      Donut Dough in 12 Steps

      Rolling the Dough

      Cutting the Donuts

      Frying the Donuts

      Our Master Donut Recipe

      4 hot fresh sugar mixes

      Vanilla Spice

      Cinnamon Brown Sugar

      Strawberry Lavender

      5 glazed donut fancies

      Three Steps to Glazing Perfection

      Basic Milk Glaze

      Glazing 101: It’s All in the Wrist

      Black & White: Milk Glaze; Dark Chocolate Glaze

      Salted Tehina Glaze

      Grapefruit Brûlée: Grapefruit Glaze

      Strawberry Shortcake: Vanilla Cream Glaze; Strawberry Glaze

      Blueberry Mascarpone: Mascarpone Glaze; Blueberry Drizzle

      Pomegranate Nutella: Pomegranate Glaze; Nutella Drizzle

      S’mores: Marshmallow Glaze; Graham Cracker Crumbs; Dark Chocolate Drizzle

      Chocolate Peanut Butter: Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze; Peanut Butter Drizzle

      Chocolate Éclair: Chocolate Cake Batter; Éclair Crumbs

      Lemon Meringue with Lemon Glaze

      Cookies and Cream

      French Toast Glaze with Crunch and Maple Drizzle: French Toast Glaze; French Toast Crunch; Maple Drizzle

      Milk and Coffee

      Donut You Want a FedNuts Wedding?

      6 fan art in the age of federal donuts

      7 Why Don’t You Make More Chicken?

      On Intentional Scarcity

      Cutting and Curing Tips

      All About the Batter

      Frying: So Nice We Do It Twice

      Master Fried Chicken Recipe

      Spice Blends for Twice-Fried Chicken

      Za’atar Spice Blend

      Coconut Curry Spice Blend

      Buttermilk Ranch Spice Blend

      Ballpark Barbecue Spice Blend

      Glazes for Twice-Fried Chicken

      Chili Garlic Glaze

      Soy Garlic Glaze

      Honey Ginger Glaze

      Fried Chicken Sandwich; Spicy Rooster Sauce

      8 Donuts That Are Better Than Ours

      Brown’s (Ocean City, NJ)

      Dynamo Donut+Coffee (San Francisco, CA)

      Doughnut Vault (Chicago, IL)

      McMillan’s Bakery (Haddon Township, NJ)

      Underwest Donuts (New York, NY)

      Stan’s Donuts (Westwood Village, CA)

      Glam Doll Donuts (Minneapolis, MN)

      Curiosity Doughnuts (Stockton, NJ)

      Five Daughters Bakery (Nashville, TN)

      Blue Star Donuts (Portland, OR)

      9 It’s a Funny Business

      Doubling Down on Crazy: The Rooster Soup Story

      So What Else Is New?

      Holier Than Thou: Donuts vs. Bagels

      Top Twenty Rejected Donut Flavors

      Hate Mail & Nasty Reviews

      The FedNuts Workout

      acknowledgments

      image credits

      index

      Welcome!

      We’re the federal donuts partners.

      (left to right)

      mike solomonov

      James Beard Award– winning chef of Zahav and cofounder of CookNSolo Restaurants. Responsible for all ideas involving chicken suits.

      steven cook

      Former banker and chef, and cofounder of CookNSolo Restaurants (Zahav, Abe Fisher, Dizengoff). Currently looking for his next career (if you hear of anything).

      tom henneman

      Narrowly escaped a career in commercial real estate, grew a beard, and reemerged as FedNuts’ managing partner.

      bobby logue

      Owner of Bodhi coffee shops. Convinced four others that a nasty, greasy pizza parlor could be the start of an empire. Bob built the original store with his own hands.

      felicia d’ambrosio

      Youngest and coolest FedNuts partner. responsible for hashtags, f-bombs, hand signals, dance moves, and social media.

      introduction

      Mmm, doughnuts. Is there anything they can’t do? -Homer Simpson

      WE GET ASKED ALL THE TIME WHY CHICKEN AND DONUTS? IT’S A FAIR QUESTION. PERHAPS IT’S THE QUESTION. AND IT’S OFTEN DELIVERED IN A TONE SUGGESTING WE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN IN OUR RIGHT MINDS.

      Perhaps we meant to do chicken and waffles, but got disoriented—like how Columbus thought he had reached Asia, or Neil Armstrong thought he’d landed on the moon. But there’s a more fundamental question: Why donuts at all?

      Thinking of donuts instantly puts me back in high school football practice on Saturdays. If we’d won our game the night before, the practice would be short and joyful, a far cry from summer two-a-days. The coaches worked hard to be stern and serious as we heroically recounted our bumps and bruises. Soon released into the crisp Michigan autumn, with thirty-six hours to kill before the next practice, we would pile into a friend’s beat-up AMC Eagle station wagon and head straight for the Franklin Cider Mill, leaving with grease-stained paper bags of hot cider donuts. We’d spend the rest of the afternoon watching college football on TV. Those were our salad days, and donuts were the salad.

      Virtually every culture has a dessert of sweetened fried dough— proof of the donut’s universal appeal. But donuts occupy a special place in America—we eat about 10 billion of them a year—and the donut shop is a particularly American institution. Perhaps it has something to do with the ingenuity that surrounded the rise of the donut in this country. In 1920, Adolph Levitt, an immigrant fleeing czarist Russia, developed the first automatic donut machine, churning out eighty dozen identical donuts an hour for Broadway theater crowds. This encouraged fledgling chains like Krispy Kreme and Open Kettle (later called Dunkin’ Donuts) to spread the gospel of automatic donut machines (and their donut progeny).

      Famed tourist attraction in La Puente, CA.

      And in both World Wars, volunteer Donut Dolls went overseas to boost morale, giving donuts to American troops. For a time, Ellis Island immigrants

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