 Originally, most varieties of doughnut holes were derivatives of their ring doughnut (yeast-based dough or cake batter) counterparts.However, doughnut holes can also be made by dropping a small ball of dough into hot oil from a specially shaped nozzle or cutter.This production method has allowed doughnut sellers to produce bite-sized versions of non-ring doughnuts, such as filled doughnuts, fritters and Dutchies.