Happy V-day

Krispy Kreme's Valentine's Day yeast-raised Doughnuts.

Holey Donuts! Holey S**t!

I have to admit, when Holey Donuts! first approached me about trying their groundbreaking low-fat, trans fat-free gourmet Donuts, I was a little skeptical. Over the years, Blognut's palette, and hopefully my arteries, have grown accustomed to the addictive satisfaction of nutrionally-useless partially-hydrogenated oil, and the idea of a so-called "healthy" Donut seemed completely oxymoronic. But healthy or not, Blognut can't refuse complimentary Donuts, and before I knew it, four dozen Holey Donuts! were bouncing around the back of a Fed-Ex truck bound for my apartment.

Holey Donuts! was founded just last year by a fellow called Frank in Bayridge, Brooklyn. Frank chose the name after biting into his new creation for the first time and proclaiming "Holy Shit! These are really good."The product has been featured on CBS This Morning, and in numerous print publications, and has garnered a respectable celebrity following including Kathy Griffen, Tori Spelling, Ali Landry (HBO's Entourage), Fergi from the Black Eyed Peas and Jason Giambi. But even more beneficial to Holey's growing popularity was their glowing endorsement from the Food Network's Rachael Ray, who in her monthly magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, was quoted as saying "Okay, full disclosure: I like Holey Donuts so much that I invested in the company. They're sinfully tasty and lower in fat and calories than regular doughnuts. You gotta try 'em to believe 'em!" Oddly, in an email interview, Frank later tells me she's not actually an investor – suspicious behavior Rachael.

Now this guy Frank has got to be some kind of a marketing genius. Because playing in the background of www.holeydonuts.net is the gentle croon of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, who you may remember as the 750 lb ukulele player whose medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" appeared in both Finding Forrester and Meet Joe Black. It's like a subliminal reminder from Holey Donuts! that if you eat too many of these:


Or these:

You'll end up looking like this:


I'm not even sure Donnie Deutsch could have thought of this.

But moving on, just how healthy are these Holey Donuts! you ask? Let's have a look at the specs:

All of HD!'s 23 varieties contain between 3 and 4 grams of fat, compared with around 20 grams present in most traditional Donuts (so it's like you can eat 6 Holeys at the cardiovascular price of 1). Plus Holey Donuts have calorie counts ranging from 160 to 275, roughly 25% lower than competitors. And most important of all, like I said earlier they're completely devoid of trans-fats. Oh, and I almost forgot their new line of Cinnamon Rolls, which are even more impressive in terms of caloric content and fat profile:

	Classic Cinnamon Bun	Holey Donuts!™ Cinnamon Bun
Serving Size	1 Roll	1 Roll
Calories	730	290
Total Fat	24 grams	4 grams
Carbohydrates	114 grams	59 grams
Fiber	2 grams	1 gram

It's almost like they're good for you.

Now before I start throwing around gustatory adjectives and commenting on how Holey Donuts! taste, let's first talk about the over-the-top way in which my Donuts arrive.

First, a Fed-Ex guy shows up at my door holding two packages. Given the size of the boxes, I thought maybe Mrs. Blognut had ordered us a new exercise bike. Turns out it's actually four dozen Holey Donuts cushioned by the company's extreme packaging technique. I tear open the boxes, only to find two more Styrofoam containers waiting inside marked "Perishable." And inside these, still more boxes, this time resting among several jagged chunks of dry ice giving the whole experience a "Weird Science" kind of feel. I open the third series of boxes and finally, Donuts.

Perishable.

Dry Ice.

Giant boxes.

There are two ways to prepare Holey Donuts! once they've arrived. You can either let them thaw for 1 to 2 hours – the preferred method – or for those of you seeking immediate Donut satisfaction, a 10-15 second zap in the microwave will do just fine (although in this case one must beware of overly-melted frosting and overly-sticky hands). Any extras can be frozen until you're ready to eat.

Donuts on Sticks.

HD! has four different variety boxes of Donuts available (of which I received two), plus the cinnamon rolls I mentioned earlier, plus a novelty item called "Donut on a Stick," which should really be called "Donut on a Spoon," because it's actually on a spoon. After having a few friends over to dine on my well-packaged delivery, we come to a consensus, agreeing that the secret to Holey Donuts is in the toppings and the filling. The yeast dough itself just tastes like Wonder Bread (the company avoids deep frying hence the lack of flavor). But the Holey Donuts! trick is cramming and covering this relatively bland base with as much decadence as possible. Which tells you just how bad trans-fats really are – the fact that a Donut covered in sugary frosting and rich chocolate is still 6 times healthier than say, a Krispy Kreme. Well, maybe "healthier" isn't the right word. More like .1666 times not as bad for you. How's that?

And now the Donuts:

Box #4.

Holey Donuts! box #4 contains four ringed varieties: Caramel Vanilla, Black and White, Strawberry Swirl and Marble Frosted. The caramel and chocolate toppings are impressive and completely un-artificial tasting. However, the same can’t be said for the swirl of bright red strawberry goo. While far more satisfying than I’d expected, the ringed varieties just don’t have enough flavor-distraction from the lackluster Wonder-dough. But what the ringed Donuts lack in flavor, is more than made up for by the filled varieties.

Box #1 contains Boston Crème Cookie Crumb, Coconut Creme Pie, Apple Caramel and Raspberry Crumb. The Boston Creme tastes every bit as rich and creamy as standard Pop-Donut issue, and the cookie crumbs on top taste like an oreo-ice cream cone hybird – really one of the more intersting Donuts I’ve tasted. The Apple Caramel has essentially the same topping as the ringed Caramel Vanilla, only this time an ample wad of apple pie filling provides a much-needed flavor boost. It kind of tastes like the filling you’d get at McDonald’s stuffed inside a turnover.

Apple filling.

While not as earth shattering as its calorie-packed cousin from the Doughnut Plant, thanks to more rich Boston Crème and loads of shaved coconut, the Coconut Crème Pie is by a landslide, Blognut’s favorite Holey Donut. The Raspberry Crumb is definitely bringing up the rear of Box #1. While the crumbs are a tasty, watered version of those found atop an Entennmen’s crumb cake, the raspberry filling has a slight artificial quality. Don’t get me wrong, I still ate all three, they’re just not quite as good as the rest.

The finest Holey Donut.

But probably the safest bet of all the Holey Donut! varieties boxes are the Cinnamon Rolls. Every bit as good a Cinnabon or a TJ’s Cinnamon, the swirled dough is smothered in sweet frosting and cinnamon goodness. A really impressive Holey Donut!. And lasty, the Donuts on Sticks are essentially triangular versions of the Coconut and Boston Cremes impaled with a plastic spoon. So no further flavor descriptions are necessary.

Rolls.

So I have to admit, this whole experience was really weird. From the moment the Fed-Ex guy dropped off two enormous boxes, to the giant hunks of dry ice on my floor, to my now-filled-with-frozen-Donuts freezer. But CEO Frank has been more than helpful in providing me with information for this piece, and his Donuts far exceeded my expectations for what a so-called “healthy” Donut could achieve. While obtaining a dozen Holey Donuts! may seem like a lot of effort, they really do make a great late-night snack.

While Holey Donuts! doesn’t plan on opening any retail stores anytime soon (at one point there was one on Nassau Street in Manhattan, which to my knowledge, has since closed), they’ve recently scored a contract with diet delivery service Zone Chefs, and plan to move into the supermarket sector in the coming year. So all of us here at Blognut (meaning me) would like to wish Holey Donuts! Frank a hearty “Good Luck” in his quest to health-ify the world’s finest food. But I have to ask, is there anyway you can stop using so much packaging material? If you keep this up, they’ll have to designate a special Holey Donuts! landfill out in Jersey somewhere to house all the non-biodegradable Styrofoam you go through!

Filled Holey Donuts!.

There's another donut man in town

If there's one thing more prevalent in and around Amherst, Massachusetts than Colleges and Universities, it's Donuts. This is primarily due to the fact that there's a Dunkin' Donuts just about every 5 feet in Massachusetts (the Donut Goliath started in Quincy, Mass in 1950 and has since enjoyed a state-wide Donut-Monopoly). But thankfully the state still manages to harbor one of the best independent Donut scenes in the country. And nowhere is the mom-and-pop Donut shop tastier than at Hadley, Mass's The Donut Man (however, keep in mind I've not yet visited Kane's).

On the way home from a recent weekend getaway to Brattleboro, Vermont in which I scored/stole a Tim Horton's Donut plate, Mrs. Blognut and I stop off in Amherst, Mass to browse the vinyl at Mystery Train Records – I land unscratched selections from the Stones, the Kinks and the Faces. On the way out of town, the keen-eyed Mrs. B scares the filling out of me with her high-decibel pastry-proclamation:

"DONUTS!!!"

There, resting quietly on the shoulder of Route 9 (Russell Street), sits The Donut Man.

The décor is nothing special – plain white walls, generic faux-Formica tables – and I'm 99% sure the place used to be a bank, given the drive-up window and ATM card slot beside the front door. But the fare more than makes up for the bland milieu:

Used to be a bank.


First Course: Apple Cider Glazed and Cherry Glazed.

The Apple Cider has everything I wish most Orchard-born apple cider Donuts would have – hearty cake dough with a complex, spicy, clove-y and apple-y flavor. Enveloping this satisfying core is a thin and not-too-sweet layer of glaze in perfect surface area to Donut-volume ratio. Save the oily-decadence that pops out of the fryer on Carter Mountain in Charlottesville, VA, this is the finest cider Donut Blognut has dined on.

Apple Cider Glazed.

The Cherry's composed of equally hearty dough, this time interspersed with bright red cherry patches. Given the neon coloration, I'm pleasantly surprised when the flavor is far from artificial - it actually tastes like cherries. Again, a perfectly-thin layer of sugary glaze coats the surface.

Cherry Glazed.

Second Course: Sugar-Coated Apple Cider and Glazed Cruller (expect an upcoming historical expose based upon the numerous regional variations and mispronunciations of this curled Donut).



Apple Cider Sugar-Coated.

The Cider Glazed is not enough. Before leaving I saunter to the counter and order the Donut Man's other cider variation, the Sugar-Coated Apple Cider Donut. As a consolation for showing enough appreciation to place two entirely separate Donut orders, the Donut Man throws in a complimentary Glazed Cruller.

Again, the Cider is tops – essentially the same verbiage applies that I used to describe the Cider Glazed, only this time with chunky, granulated sugar mingling on the surface. And for someone who detests crullers – primarily for the same reason I detest many egg-based dishes, that being that they're too eggy – this one is solid, and has enough of the sugary simplicity of a plain glazed that I'm able to down half before depositing the rest in my R2D2-shaped trashcan. Usually I chuck a cruller after only one bite. So I'd like to make it clear that my disposing of the Donut Man's cruller in no way reflects the quality of their Donuts. I just hate the egginess of crullers.

So with two courses of top-notch Donuts in me, I've decided that I love the Donut Man and must visit him again. Most likely I'll sell Mrs. Blognut on another trip to New England-proper with notions of maple syrup, cross country skiing and "getting away from it all," but we all (her included) know the real motivation behind our next visit.

The Donut Man
142 Russell Street
Hadley, MA

Donut Scores:

Apple Cider Glazed -

Cherry Glazed-

Apple Cider Sugar-Coated-

Glazed Cruller-

Stay tuned for a complete report on a guilt-free wonder out of Bayridge, Brooklyn called Holey Donuts.

Doughnut Plant on Court Street!

No longer must us Brooklynites bear the clamorous, piss-soaked ride on the F-train to fulfill our Sunday morning Doughnut Plant cravings. Thanks to Cobblestone Foods we can now land a freshly-made Mark Israel creation right here in Carroll Gardens.

Previously Tuller Premium Foods, CF was taken over and renamed by Jeremy Wachalter, former sous-chef at The Modern (the MOMA's restaurant). Wachalter has revamped the menu to include prepared gourmet foods, Gorilla Coffee, home-cured deli meats and the focus of this post, Doughnut Plant Doughnuts.

"Basically, we're all about providing customers with high quality foods at a reasonable price," says Cobblestone employee Jason. Then he tells me about some sitcom pilot he wrote years ago in San Francisco, the premise of which was he and his friend going into Doughnut shops late night and interviewing mostly-foreign bakers. So the guy definitely knows his Doughnuts. That said, the one item the shop can't discount are the Doughnuts ($3 a pop), as even getting them directly from the Plant runs pretty steep. But trust me, they're well worth it.

Now I know Doughnut Plant proprietor Mark Israel's reputation has been somewhat tarnished by his catty and completely juvenile performance on a recent episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay (a topic which has ignited much debate right here on the pages of Blognut). But his Doughnuts are so ridiculously good that I've tried to look past his sour behavior, and instead appreciate his craft. Today I go for a Coconut Cream and a Valrhona Chocolate.

The coconut is tops. I know I've spoken at length about the marvelous consistency of Doughnut Plant's yeast-raised dough, but I'll say it again – it's the best dough around. This cinnamon-tinged, airy substance compresses with each bite, slowly returning to its original shape over a period of minutes – like some sort of Serta Perfect Sleeper memory foam. It's the perfect vehicle for a thick and ski-mogul-y layer of sweet glaze crawling with shredded coconut. And while a ringed Doughnut, Mark manages once again to stuff his loop, this time with not-too-coconutty coconut cream. This filled-ring Doughnut phenomenon has been covered extensively in previous Doughnut Plant posts so I won't go in to it – but click here for more coverage of this marvelous feat of ingenuity.


While not as impressive as the coconut, the Valrhona Chocolate is a satisfying second course. It's made of the same complex yeast dough, only this time smothered on all sides with rich, dark Valrhona Chocolate. The only shortcoming is the lack of filling. Given Mark's tendency to push Doughnut boundaries, I thought for sure my first bite would reveal a molten gush of chocolate - instead, all dough. A white frosting "V" lays across the top advertising the French chocolate maker for whom the Doughnut is named. It's a must-try for anyone who likes loads of cacao, but hopefully Mark will come to his senses and stuff it with even more.

But more important than the Doughnuts themselves, is the fact that right now, at this very minute there's a tray of Doughnut Plant Doughnuts resting a mere two blocks from my apartment.

Cobblestone Foods
199 Court Street
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Doughnut Scores:

Coconut Cream -

Valrhona Chocolate-

Extra Extra!

In a breaking story out of Durham, North Carolina, scientists have developed a CAFFEINATED DONUT!

Molecular biologists Dr. Robert Bohannon has developed a way to mask the bitter taste of caffeine so that the uplifting compound can be added to pastry products without altering their flavor. Thus far he has marketed Buzz Donuts and Buzz Bagels (not sure how to make a superscript Trademarked symbol on Blogger, but both products should probably have one) each of which contians the caffeine equivalent of roughly two cups of coffee per pastry item. Bohannon has approached Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Starbucks in hopes of mass-marketing his invention and says it's just a matter of time before someone takes him up on it.

In Blognut's opinion, the whole thing seems like a strange and unappetizing idea. And considering the number of Donuts I eat in the average week, somewhat dangerous too.

For more on the story click here.