How it's made

What popular food item is produced by combining these ingredients?:

Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, palm oil, soybean oil, sugar, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, glucono delta lactone), nonfat milk, dextrose, defatted soy flour, rye flour, whey, buttermilk, egg yolk, eggs, mono and diglycerides, milk protein concentrate, salt, soy lecithin, modified corn starch, sodium diacetate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium propionate, dextrin, tapioca starch, guar gum, meltodextrin, natural and artificial flavor, butter, karaya gum, nutmeg oil, yellow 5, red 40, polysorbate 60, sugar, water, maltodextrin. propylene Glycol, sorbic acid, agar agar, natural and artificial flavors, heliotropine, hydrochloric acid.

Hydrochloric acid! What went through someone's head when they were preparing a list of ingredients to buy when they decided to make a fresh batch of...doughnuts. Yes! Doughnuts! Hydrochloric acid! Maybe the baker originally left out the ingredient from the shopping list, but as his assistant was walking away and looking over the ingredients, he stopped in his tracks, turned around and said "Bob, you forgot to add hydrochloric acid".

And what the heck is "agar agar"? Is it a double dose of "agar"? I understand why a muumuu isn't a just a muu (so as not to be confused with a moo of course), but what's agar agar's excuse? I had to look this up. As it turns out, agar agar is yet another delicious part of some of our favourite doughnuts. Specifically, it is "a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweed vegetation". I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly thinking fondly of that next doughnut I'll eat.

If you don't believe me, check out these links:

http://www.honeydewdonuts.com/products/nutrition/donuts/honey-dip-sticks

http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dairyfreeglossary/g/AgarAgar.htm

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