Doughnuts have a disputed history. One theory is that they were introduced into North America by Dutch settlers, who are responsible for popularizing other desserts, including cookies, cream pie, and cobbler.
Another story credits the invention of the doughnut hole to a Danish sea captain named Hanson Gregory. During a particularly violent storm, Gregory needed both hands free to man the wheel of his ship, and impaled a fried cake upon the wheel, creating the signature hole. The center of fried cakes were notorious for being undercooked, so the innovation stuck. By cooking fried cakes with the center hole, the surface area increased, and the doughnut cooked faster.
In the United States alone, there are claimed to be over 10 billion donuts made every year.
According to the Guinness Book of world records, the record for donut eating is held by John Haight, who consumed 52 ounces of donuts (29 actual donuts) in just over six minutes in 1981.
The largest donut ever made was an American-style jelly donut weighing 1.7 tons (3739 lbs), which was 4.9 m (16 feet) in diameter and 40.6cm (16inches) high in the centre. It was made in Utica, New York, USA on January 21, 1993.
More than 168 million pounds of chocolate have been used for Entenmann's rich frosted chocolate dipped donuts, enough to fill all of the Great Lakes.
National Doughnut Day is June 23rd.
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