Mmmmm.....doughnuts!

Yesterday, I had the thought to try to make some doughnuts. I have been wanting to try my hand at it for the longest time.
I found this recipe in a cook-book that I found, called: The New England Cookbook by Eleanor Early.  Her book is written in the coolest way: she tells how the dishes were made, and then tells you how to make them today. She has many funny story's about when she was younger and learning how to cook, and the recipes that she gives are very authentic.

Now with this recipe, I have found that when she tells you to sift the flour, she means SIFT THE FLOUR!! In some other recipes that I have made, when it said to sift the flour, it meant to fluff it up and get all the lumps out; but not in this recipe. I realized that this recipe was probably passed down from generation to generation, and when it was written, they did not go to the grocery store and pick up a bag of flour. Some of you will probably be wondering, What on earth is she talking about? And I will explain. I always use flour that I grind myself, which means that the bran is still in it. Now when this recipe was written, they probably had the same kind of flour, home ground with all the bran. The flour you buy at the store, might have some of the bran in it (depending on what kind you buy), but it will NOT have as much as if you ground it yourself. So my point is: you need to make sure that you get at least most of the bran out of the flour before you make these doughnuts.

                                            ~Wonders or Doughnuts~
  3/4 cup butter (12 tbs. Melted)                           1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  3/4 cup sugar                                                      6 eggs, beaten
  1/2 tsp. salt                                                         1 tsp. baking soda
  1 tsp. lemon juice                                                2 tbs. boiling water
       (or vanilla extract)                                          5 cups flour (approximately)

1.  Mix butter together with the sugar, salt, lemon juice, nutmeg and eggs. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Add to egg mixture.
2.  Add sifter flour until dough is stiff enough to handle. Amount of flour will depend upon liquid content of eggs-- 4 to 5 cups is usually about right. Mix well. Chill in refrigerator at least 30 min.
3. Flour board well (with some more sifted flour). Pat out a little dough at a time to 1/4-inch thickness. Keep remainder in refrigerator. (It is easier to work with chilled dough) For Wonders, cut with floured knife into pieces about 2 by3 inches. Score with jagger wheel, lengthwise and crosswise. (this is where I had some trouble. I gad no idea what a jagger wheel was; so I just made the strips like she said, and scored them with a knife, criss-crossing to make little squares, but not going all the way through. When you fry them like this, you have to make sure to put them in, scored side up, and wait until the top puffs up before flipping them.)
For doughnuts, cut with a floured doughnut cuter. (I used the rim of a glass) NOTE: you can also twist two strips of dough together to make the cute little twists that you see in the picture above.
4. Fry 3 or 4 at a time in oil (I used peanut oil) heated to 360 to 370F.  Cook for 2 to 3 min., or until lightly brown. Dry them on paper-towels and then roll them in cinnamon and sugar. (make sure to roll them in the sugar mixture while still hot or it won't stick well.)  And enjoy! :)

P.S.
 This is not a regular doughnut. It is more like a cake doughnut. I will try to put a regular doughnut recipe on here sometime, if I ever get around to making some! :}