Mardis Gras Doughnuts

These feather-light doughnuts are filled with various goodies (apricot preserves, prune butter, chocolate, cooked apples) and stenciled in vanilla-flavored confectioners’ sugar to identify the filling (an “M” for Marillen, or apricot, and so on). They are sometimes called “ribbon doughnuts,” because the perfectly made ones have a pale band around their equator (the doughnuts are purposely cooked in a shallow depth of oil so it doesn’t reach the center, leaving a belt that is cooked b