By March 2025 and the third traditional foods workshop ran at the community center. This one I co-taught with Art and also with Madison, the teenager—who is now eighteen and heading to college in the fall but had been assisting at events for two years and knew the preparations well enough to lead a station. I gave her the fry bread station and she ran it completely, from mixing to cooking to explaining the process to each participant who rotated through.
She was good. Not just technically—she explained it with the particularity of someone who had learned it deeply, who understood the why of each step rather than just the what. At one point a participant asked her why you let the dough rest and she gave a three-sentence answer that was as clear as anything I could have said. I was standing near enough to hear and I let the answer land without adding to it.
Art pulled me aside at the end and said: you know what you just did, right? I said I gave her a station. He said you handed off the tradition. I said it was her station to have. He said not everyone knows when to hand it off. He said Danny knew when to hand off too.
I drove home thinking about that. The chain isn't just backwards into the past, into Danny and his teachers and theirs. It's also forward, into Madison and whatever she carries from here into whatever she builds next. The food is alive as long as someone is making it and teaching it. That's all it takes. That's what it takes.
Fry bread is always the one that stays with me after a workshop—the smell of it, the feel of the dough, the way every person who leans over that station gets a little quieter and more present. After watching Madison run that station with such clarity and confidence, I came home still turning Art’s words over in my mind, and the only thing I wanted to do was make something fried and warm and simple. These Mini Nutella Doughnuts aren’t fry bread, but they live in the same family—dough that rests, oil that crisps, something sweet at the center—and making them felt like a small, private continuation of what we’d done at the community center that day.
Mini Nutella Doughnuts
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 24 mini doughnuts
Ingredients
- 1 can (16.3 oz) refrigerated biscuit dough (8 biscuits)
- 1/2 cup Nutella or chocolate-hazelnut spread
- Vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 inches deep)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the dough. Separate the biscuit dough into individual biscuits. Flatten each biscuit into a round about 3 inches wide. Place a heaping teaspoon of Nutella in the center of each round.
- Seal and shape. Fold the dough up around the filling, pinching the edges firmly to seal. Gently roll each filled piece into a smooth ball. Set on a lightly floured surface and allow to rest for 5 minutes so the dough relaxes and the seal holds.
- Heat the oil. Pour vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed pot or deep skillet to a depth of about 2 inches. Heat over medium to 350°F. Use a thermometer if you have one—steady heat makes the difference between golden and greasy.
- Fry in batches. Working in batches of 4–5, lower the dough balls carefully into the hot oil. Fry for 2–3 minutes per side, turning once, until deep golden brown all over. Do not crowd the pot.
- Drain and cool briefly. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper-towel-lined plate for 1–2 minutes.
- Finish with sugar. Sift powdered sugar (and cinnamon if using) over the warm doughnuts. Serve immediately while the centers are still molten and the outsides are crisp.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 110 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 190mg