Beiler's Doughnuts ★ 4.5
Beiler's Doughnuts in Philadelphia is the Pennsylvania Dutch Reading Terminal Market bakery since 1984, with hand-cut yeasted doughnuts for 3 dollars.
Try: Hand-cut yeasted doughnut
History
Pennsylvania Dutch doughnut traditions go back to the 18th century, when the Amish and Mennonite communities of Lancaster County developed dense, lard-fried yeast doughnuts. Beiler's Doughnuts, run by a Lancaster Amish family at Reading Terminal Market since 1989, sells the canonical Philadelphia version. Federal Donuts and Five Daughters Bakery have built modern Philadelphia doughnut shops but the Beiler's hand-cut, hand-glazed Amish original remains the city's reference.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 500g bread flour
- 10g instant dried yeast
- 80g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 240ml warm whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 60g unsalted butter softened
- 1L lard or vegetable shortening for frying (lard is canonical)
- For the maple glaze: 300g powdered sugar, 60ml pure maple syrup, 30ml whole milk, pinch of salt
- For the chocolate glaze: 200g semisweet chocolate chopped, 60ml heavy cream, 30g butter
- For the raspberry cream filling: 200ml heavy cream whipped, 100g raspberry jam
Method
- Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Add warm milk, eggs and soft butter. Knead 10 minutes to a smooth elastic dough.
- Cover and prove 1.5 hours until doubled.
- Roll the dough on a floured surface to 1.5cm thick.
- Cut 8cm rounds with a doughnut cutter, keeping the cut holes for separate frying. (Or cut full rounds for filled doughnuts.)
- Place on lined trays, cover loosely, and prove 30 to 45 minutes more until puffy.
- Heat the lard in a deep heavy pan to 175C.
- Fry the doughnuts in batches of 3, 90 seconds per side until deep golden. Lift to paper towels.
- For the maple glaze: whisk all ingredients to a smooth pourable glaze.
- For the chocolate glaze: warm cream and pour over chocolate; stir to smooth, whisk in butter.
- Dip the warm doughnuts in either glaze, return to a rack to set.
- For the filled raspberry version: fold the jam through the whipped cream. Use a piping bag with a long nozzle to inject 2 tablespoons into the side of each whole (unholed) doughnut. Dust with icing sugar.
Tip from the editors. Lard is the canonical frying medium for Amish doughnuts and gives a flavour vegetable oil cannot match. The Beiler's signature is a thin maple glaze.
Where to eat philly amish doughnuts
Philly Amish doughnuts in Philadelphia
Reading Terminal Market ★ 4.8
Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia is the 1893 enclosed public market under the old Reading Railroad train shed at 12th and Arch, with 80 vendors.
Isgro Pastries ★ 4.0
Isgro Pastries in Philadelphia is the 1904 Italian Market pastry counter on Christian Street, with cannoli filled to order and rainbow cookies the size.
Worth the queue: Cannoli
Termini Brothers Bakery ★ 4.6
Termini Brothers Bakery in Philadelphia is the 1921 South Philly Sicilian-American bakery at 8th and Tasker, with cannoli filled to order and a sugar-dust.
Worth the queue: Hand-filled cannoli
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