Morning, serious eaters. It's Friday, so we say treat yourself to a fried dough tire. Pastry chef and blogger Shuna Fish Lydon of the blog Eggbeaterrecently did at San Francisco's Dynamo Doughnuts, which just opened Tuesday. Lydon is a lover of all walks of doughnut life—"even if they were the wallflower kind or still wore high-waters in college."
Have you ever met fried dough you didn't like? Dynamo Doughnuts: 2760 24th Street, San Francisco CA 94110 (map); 415-920-1978
Want doughnuts topped with bacon or frosted and dipped in Cap'n Crunch? Then make your way to Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon. Anthony Bourdain visits the famed doughnut shop to to try their unconventional "non-conformist doughnuts" ("I kind of wish I was drunk before eating this," he says about the chocolate and peanut butter doughnut), and learn about their failed doughnut flavors, including Jägermeister and NyQuil. Watch the video, after the jump.
It's that time again—the time to celebrate the sweet, deep-fried joy brought upon by doughnuts.
In honor of today's National Doughnut Day, here are some of our favorite doughnut posts over the past year. We've got recommendations, a glossary, videos, recipes, and more dedicated to this blessed ring of wheat-based heaven. Unfortunately, we can't share real doughnuts with you, but you're best off buying a dozen (or more) fresh doughnuts at your local doughnut shop anyway.
The Serious Eats National Doughnut Honor Roll: We stuffed ourselves with doughnuts so you didn't have to. Here's a list of recommendations for doughnut shops around the country compiled by the Serious Eats office, John T. Edge, Jane and Michael Stern, and Jonathan Gold.
The Serious Eats Doughnut Glossary: Doughnuts come in all shapes are forms. Read our glossary to brush up on your doughnut terminology.
Paula Deen Is Trying to Kill Us, Part 4: Bacon, Doughnut, Egg Burger: Oh, that Paula Deen; is she ever not trying to kill us? Check out her recipe for the Lady's Brunch Burger, a bacon and egg-topped hamburger that uses doughnuts for buns.
Photo of the Day: Doughnut Sandwich: Doughnut burger not doing it for you? In a similar but less deathly vein, here's a cute doughnut sandwich filled with frosting.
Do you like running? And eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts? At the same time? Then make sure you enter this year's Iowa Sate University Doughnut Run taking place on April 13th. You won't actually stuff your face with doughnuts while on the run, but you will have the opportunity to eat donuts at the aid stations for the chance of shaving seconds off your final running time. (Eating doughnuts isn't required to run the race; then again, why else would you enter it?) Time will only be subtracted for doughnuts you keep in your stomach though; digested doughnuts upchucked before crossing the finish line don't count. [via neatorama]
North Carolina State University's Krispy Kreme Challenge is another doughnut-themed marathon with a different set of guidelines: run two miles, eat a dozen doughnuts, then run another two miles, all in under an hour. And try not to puke.This year's race is over, but you can always prepare for next year's!
I must thank Lori of Dessert Comes First for introducing me to doughnut muffins, or muffins that (kind of) taste like doughnuts. I'm also wondering why I've never heard of them or seen them before—does anyone sell doughnut muffins? Sure, I could follow this recipe, but then I'd probably eat them all. Thus is the hazard of baking. I'll just admire Lori's baking prowess for now.
Hannah Kaminsky of BitterSweet didn't intend to make doughnut sandwiches filled with maple frosting, but when her homemade baked doughnuts came out flat-topped, it was the only way to salvage the fat doughnut bottoms. Some of the best ideas come out of mistakes! [via tastespotting]
There's no lack of good food in Paris, but after prolonged gorging on all those buttery. flaky pastries and crusty baguettes you might just to crawl back into the sweet, deep-fried ring of a good ol' American-style doughnut. The answer to your Parisian doughnut woes may be found at Coffee Union, which currently offers 13 types of doughnuts. At €14.90 for a dozen doughnuts (or $1.80 per doughnut), those doughnuts ought to be pretty damn tasty, or you better have an intense doughnut craving. Coffee Union also sells sandwiches, bagels, smoothies, and cheesecake, and offers free wifi. [via Girl and the City]
Coffee Union
Address: 11 Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, 75003 Paris, France (map) Phone: 01 42 77 51 99 Website:coffeeunion.fr
I've had some great moments at Cafe du Monde, the legendary beignet stand in New Orleans. That said, most of those moments are rooted in nostalgia for the Big Easy, rather than for the stand's doughnuts and coffee. Occasionally you'll score some beignets fresh out of the deep fryer, where the confectioners' sugar melts into a gooey glaze, but sometimes they're just lukewarm and flat. Likewise the much-lauded chicory coffee, which is brewed in big commercial urns, tends to run bitter.
That being said, last week while dining at Powerhouse (215 N. Clinton St.), one of Chicago's newest restaurants, I found a set of doughnuts that I wish Cafe du Monde served. Tater tot–size fluffy sweet potato dough nuggets glazed in brown butter sauced with a creamy pool of cinnamon sabayon studded with arrop (candied glazed aged pumpkin bits) and toasted pepitos. While it's primarily a sweet dish, the saltiness of the toasted pumpkin seeds melds with the heady fragrance of cinnamon and the sweet sugar and satisfies every kind of taste receptor on your tongue. If you close your eyes, the pumpkin and sweet potato perfume from the dish transforms your banquette into a fall farmhouse hayride.
Posted by Ed Levine, September 14, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Today is National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day, and to honor college students' commitment to doughnut consumption, the Kansas State University student newspaper created a doughnut quiz. Go take theirs and see how you do. And if you don't know the answers to the K-State–specific questions, try your hand at our substitute questions below.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 6, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Speaking of food films, a couple cute food-related documentaries came across my desk recently, and I figured I'd pass word of them on to you.
Donut Day, produced by Amy Levine and Dhera Strauss, follows the staff of Sweetwater's Donut Mill over a 24-hour period. You're treated to a behind-the-scenes look at a beloved local doughnut shop as it bakes five- to six-thousand doughnuts a day for its customers, many of whom keep their own coffee mugs there, a testamanent to the shop's quirkiness and hominess. I especially liked seeing the doughnut-filler machine in action and learning the term "cosmetic icing"—a glazing applied to blemished yet still edible specimens. 52 minutes. Available on DVD for $15 (includes shipping), at donutdaydoc.com
Dishes, written, directed, and produced by Levine, is an earlier documentary that takes the viewer into the world of Fiesta Ware collectors. If you have one in your life—and who doesn't?—this doc will make you smile (knowingly), as it drags you along to a Fiesta Ware collectors' conference, a warehouse sale, and into the homes of individual Fiesta fiends. 46 minutes. Available on DVD for $20 (includes shipping), at fiestadocumentary.com
Editor's note: Jenni Ferrari-Adler is guest-blogging on Serious Eats this week about her vacation in East Hampton, New York. Follow along: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
After the movie, still feeling a little burned by our meal at Wei Fun, J. and I head to Sam's Restaurant. Sam's is one of the few places that's been in the town of East Hampton for as long as I've been coming out, circa 1985, which is exactly what it looks like, and, better yet, sounds like. We go 12-inch, half-pepperoni, half-eggplant, garlic, and green olives. The eggplant ends up being breaded and fried, as in eggplant Parmesan, making me the fool who tried to be healthy and skip pepperoni only to eat a hefty quantity of fried food.
At home we are freaked out in the particular way of urban dwellers alone in a country house after a tense movie. We are used to the noises of sirens, crazy people, fighting drunks, and airplanes, but not these night noises of frogs and bugs. It wasn't Bourne—whose set-up is so specific, far-fetched, and not remotely about a couple being murdered in a country house—as much as the ten-plus previews we sat through before the movie, each one more terrifying than the last. The scenarios included: your husband is jailed in a foreign country (Rendition); your son is killed, forcing you into a life of crime (Death Sentence); and the disappearance of your little girl (Gone Baby Gone). Despite the pizza interlude, our adrenaline is high. It kind of sounds like someone is walking in the yard, or on the roof, or creaking quietly along the halls of the house itself.
How does one determine the winner in a battle between doughnuts versus celery? Taste? Texture? Color? No way; those factors are too open ended. Comedy duo Smosh knows there are better ways to test the merits of food. Does it make a good pogo stick? Is it an effective oven mitt? Can it be used to rob a defenseless person? Find out who the champion is in the video, Food Battle 2007.
[Caution: This video may not be safe to watch if you're offended by idiocy. Otherwise, it's kind of awesome.]
At Serious Eats we take doughnuts, well, seriously. So seriously we are dedicating the site to fresh, hot, and delicious doughnut content all day today, National Doughnut Day. That means original doughnut video; a doughnut glossary; doughnut blog posts, quotes, and photos; a doughnut honor roll that will become your essential guide to doughnuts in the U.S.; doughnut recipes from perhaps the nation's greatest pastry chef, Nancy Silverton; and more. It's all doughnuts, all day here at Serious Eats. So take a bite. The only thing we can't supply is a glass of milk or a cup of coffee for dunking.
To: everydamnbody@seriouseats.com From: copydesk@seriouseats.com Subject: Style Notes: "doughnut" vs. "donut"
Dear Serious Eats Team,
The difference between "doughnut" and "donut" is UGH. And you're gonna hear a lot of "UGH" if I continue to catch you spelling it "donut" under my watch.
There's nothing particularly special about someone eating a doughnut in the office. But what if the doughnut is five times the size of a regular doughnut? Now that's special, in a mildly nauseating but somewhat commendable way. Congratulations to Josh for taking on Voodoo Doughnut's Tex-Ass doughnut and winning! ("Winning" meaning that the deliciousness and caloric density of the doughnut didn't kill him right away.)
I'm sure the programmers at the Food Network would've loved to have scheduled next Friday's Good Eats rerun for tonight, but Grill Week must be strictly observed. Still, if you think a week from now you might be jonesing for a half-hour on the food science of glazed, raised, and chocolate-bathed doughnuts, tune your personal recording device to the Food Net June 8 at 11 p.m., when Alton's 2004 opus, Circle of Life, is slated to air.
385 dph ("donuts per hour") is how fast the Belshaw Donut Robot 42 churns out donuts. Derrick bought one of these bad babies on eBay and documented the robotic donut making process for the rest of the world to behold.
This section is best described as the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, as long as 'D' stands for Doughnuts, like in 'Doughnut Day'. The doughnuts climb this ramp relentlessly, pulled along by the doughnut chains. Now, you could be the German defense forces preventing the doughnuts from making a beach head, but no matter how big your belly is, 6.5 donuts per minute are going to eventually overwhelm your defenses. The ones that come after the initial assault pile up in whatever doughnut collection device you have to collect them. I used my turkey roasting pan.
As part of National Doughnut Day, we hit the streets (er, the doughnut shop, really), stuck our microphone in people's faces, and found out what doughnuts meant to them.
Have you ever wished that you could hug a doughnut without the fear of smearing glaze/sugar/oil on yourself? I never did until I set my eyes on the adorable plush doughnut that craftsters have created in an attempt to encapsulate the visual essence of doughnut in an emblem of donut-ness that—albeit inedible—leave no sticky residue.
"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!" —McLandburgh Wilson
"You mean this stuff feeds on bad vibes!"
" Yeah, like a cop in donut factory." —From a scene in Ghostbusters II
"Mr. Scorpio says productivity is up 2%, and it's all because of my motivational techniques, like donuts and the possibility of more donuts to come." —Homer Simpson
"Anyhow, the hole in the doughnut is at least digestible." —H. L. Mencken
"When Krispy Kremes are hot, they are to other doughnuts what angels are to people." —Roy Blount, Jr.
"A bagel is a doughnut with the sin removed." —George Rosenbaum
We all love doughnuts, and why not. They’re sweet, they’re doughy, they’re fried, they’re cheap, and they are the ultimate good-bad food. That is, even when they’re bad, they’re still pretty good. And even when they’re not cheap, they are not expensive. The nation’s best and most expensive fancy-pants doughnuts, from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery (with locations in Napa Valley, California; Las Vegas; and New York City), are only $3.50. That, my friends, is an affordable indulgence.
In celebration of National Doughnut Day today, participating Krispy Kreme stores in the U.S. are offering customers a free doughnut of their choice. Find a Krispy Kreme near you.
What's been unexpectedly interesting to me in all the doughnut reading and tasting we've been doing in preparation for National Doughnut Day (June 1) has been all the attendant terminology. So when Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine suggested I compile a doughnut glossary, I jumped in. With all the geographical differences and regional nomenclature, the task was almost as difficult as picking a perfect dozen. But here is a doughnut glossary of sorts. Consider it a work in progress, to be amended with suggestions from readers of all regions.
doughnut: First things first, a doughnut is a sweet deep-fried piece of ring-shape dough or batter. Though technically not doughnuts, those that are flattened spheres injected with jam, jelly, or custard are known as filled doughnuts. After frying, doughnuts may be embellished with any number of toppings, including glazed icing, powdered or granulated sugar, sprinkles, sugar and cinnamon, etc. Note: The variant spelling of donut appeared in the 1920s, according to doughnut scholar John T. Edge in his book Donuts, when "the New York–based Doughnut Machine Corporation set its eyes upon foreign markets." To help foster proper pronunciation in different languages, the company introduced this spelling.
"I love makin' doughnuts. People love 'em, no matter what they say. Every culture fries dough for some purpose, sweet or savoury. This last weekend's donut gathering was a local affair. I invited everyone I knew who lived within 20 miles of my house. I opened cupboards and invited others to concoct sugars of their wildest imaginings." Shuna threw a doughnut party and so can you, with her pate a choux recipe.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 27, 2007 at 6:37 PM
Krispy Kreme introduced their newest doughnuts yesterday: they're glazed, caramel flavored... and made of whole wheat: "The company called the new doughnut an alternative for health-conscious consumers, with 180 calories. The original glazed has 200 calories, according to the company's Web site."
Seriously, a saving of just 20 calories? Sorry, but that's the same vein of ridiculous as people who order gallon-size Diet Cokes along with their buttered popcorn at the movie theater because they think it's going to help them lose weight. Have the real thing occasionally as a treat—you won't feel deprived, and perhaps even more important, you won't be fooling yourself about your nutrition.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 19, 2007 at 3:33 PM
Bea of La Tartine Gourmand has a beautiful recipe for buckwheat herb galettes and mixed salad and a story about a festival that sounds right up my alley: "Earlier this month, I was reminded, once more too late, that on February 2nd, we celebrated la chandeleur. I wonder how comes that I simply can forget since it happens every year. In France, this originally Catholic festivity calls for cooks to prepare crêpes and beignets (doughnuts). Indeed, on the day of la chandeleur, the customs is to eat crêpes !"
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 5, 2007 at 3:55 PM
If you enjoyed Roadfood Roundup: Doughnuts and have the means to deep-fry at home, you might want to try making Nordljus' Wafu Beignets—oh how I love the idea of twenty small freshly-made cream-filled sesame-coated doughnuts, made just for me. Keiko also makes them with azuki red bean paste inside or with raspberry jam filling and a cinnamon sugar coating for her boyfriend, so tweak the recipe as you will.
We asked our friends Jane and Michael Stern over at Roadfood.com to name some of their favorite doughnut spots. Grab your coffee—these doughnuts are hot!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, January 29, 2007 at 12:45 PM
If just thinking about a cinnamon roll makes your mouth water, perhaps you should consider buying yourself this lovely cinnamon roll necklace from Pancake Meow, purveyor of scented miniature dessert jewelry. (Her cupcake and donut necklaces are equally adorable but currently out of stock, as is the waffle necklace I've got on right now.)
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 18, 2006 at 5:50 PM
And it seems pretty big there, too, according to website Japan Probe:
A huge line of interested people quickly formed, obviously happy to get their hands on a free box of thickly-glazed doughnuts. The newscasters seemed to have bought into the hype by basically endorsing the new product by gorging down on them in the studio.
Morning, serious eaters. It's Friday, so we say treat yourself to a fried dough tire. Pastry chef and blogger Shuna Fish Lydon of the blog Eggbeater recently did at San Francisco's Dynamo Doughnuts, which just opened Tuesday. Lydon is a lover of all walks of doughnut life—"even if they were the wallflower kind or still wore high-waters in college." 
This is what happens when two dudes get married and (sorta) plan their reception: no worries about catering costs, seating arrangements, or DJs. 
It's that time again—the time to celebrate the sweet, deep-fried joy brought upon by doughnuts.
Do you like running? And eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts? At the same time? Then make sure you enter this year's 
I've had some great moments at Cafe du Monde, the legendary beignet stand in New Orleans. That said, most of those moments are rooted in nostalgia for the Big Easy, rather than for the stand's doughnuts and coffee. Occasionally you'll score some beignets fresh out of the deep fryer, where the confectioners' sugar melts into a gooey glaze, but sometimes they're just lukewarm and flat. Likewise the much-lauded chicory coffee, which is brewed in big commercial urns, tends to run bitter.
Speaking of food films, a couple cute food-related documentaries came across my desk recently, and I figured I'd pass word of them on to you.
After the movie, still feeling a little burned by our meal at Wei Fun, J. and I head to 
At Serious Eats we take doughnuts, well, seriously. So seriously we are dedicating the site to fresh, hot, and delicious doughnut content all day today, National Doughnut Day. That means 
If just thinking about a cinnamon roll makes your mouth water, perhaps you should consider buying yourself 
