Pepple's Donuts via Mojo - San Francisco, CA

Our East Coast correspondent B. Laks was in town on official BLOUGHNUT business.  My faithful readers know I will rarely exceed my $2 threshold for a single doughnut.  This time B. Laks lost a bet so since she was paying I directed the gang to Mojo for some of that Pepple's vegan cake goodness.  The barista told us it was a crumb doughnut and that was all the information she was giving.  We detected some maple and brown sugar on this mofo.  Either way it was a fine complement to the Americanos on our table in the sun on Divisadero.

See for yourself.  Meet me at the Donut Farm on San Pablo in Oakland one of these beautiful sunny mornings?  I hear they're making vegan fritters now.

HAPPY NATIONAL DOUGHNUT DAY - Dream Fluff Donuts - Berkeley, CA

Team Bloughnut joins in this national celebration of all things round and fried on the first Friday in June.  This day was first conceived by the Salvation Army 72 years ago to commemorate the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War 1.  For an early morning celebration we stopped by Dream Fluff Donuts on our way to breakfast at Mama's Royal Cafe for a sample pack: maple old fashioned, chocolate old fashioned (2), apple fritter (consumed in the Bloughnutmobile before we could get a picture), coconut cake, and crumb cake.

Dream Fluff knows what's up.  The fritter was aptly appley, massive, and the glaze not sickly-sweet.  The old fashioneds had the funky contours we have come to appreciate.  The cake doughnuts were moist, even after 5 hours in a paper bag in my backpack (though in all fairness maybe keeping doughnuts in a paper bag keeps them moist).  Our only concern is the maple glaze is very pale and sickly looking, noted on our maple OF and on the bars sitting in the store.  Overall we continue to give Dream Fluff high marks.

To acknowledge this important should-be public holiday we encourage YOU our faithful readers to in turn encourage your local shops to switch the incorrectly spelled "Donut" in their title to "Doughnut."  If you know us, you know how much "Krazy Glue" and "La-Z-Boy" and all the other stupidly misspelled, condensed, hyphenated, and otherwise annoyingly incorrect names really raise our hackles.

Happy National Doughnut Day, get out there and celebrate with some fried dough fireworks of your own.  Thanks to Bloughnut enthusiast Peter K. for the holiday heads up.

Harvey's Gourmet Mini Donuts at Maker Faire - San Mateo, CA

The Just Fine Design/Build team brought our newest chicken coop design and my two hens to Maker Faire this last weekend and luckily there was a mini doughnut maker on hand to keep us going. Seven dollars for a dozen mini doughnuts is a rip off if you ask this experienced deal-seeker, but as part of an enormous captive audience what were we gonna do? Buy a funnel cake? I don't think so.

Many choices of toppings---I chose maple of course and to be honest the rest of the toppings didn't really register. I should have taken a picture of the sign for you.  Any doughnut will taste better hot out of the fryer and these were no exception. The oil was soy: "0 Trans Fat 0 Cholesterol.."  They had a cool stainless steel dough squeezer/fryer/flipper combination.

Tiny bite-sized morsels of dough and maple goodness. I would have bought another dozen if only some lucky urban farmer would have thrown down $2000 for our chicken coop.

'Til next time--Happy Dough Lucky.

Happy Donuts - San Francisco, CA

As if hanging out with 7 week old Joseph Aloysius Gottbrath IV wasn't all the invitation I needed, Joseph Aloysius Gottbrath III offered to bring along some afternoon offerings from Happy Donuts and meet in the Panhandle. The wee man clearly wasn't interested in the maple raised stuff so early in his game, but you gotta plant the seed..

Maple raised, chocolate old fashioned, plain glazed old fashioned, chocolate buttermilk. All just pretty alright like only Happy Donuts can do. Nothing epic, just solid offerings from the Bay Area stalwart. Look at the style of that old-fashioned!

 Dear readers: Don't forget about Old Hat's estate sale going on this weekend on Portola.  And pick up a doughnut on the way.

Dream Fluff Donuts - Berkeley, CA

We found ourselves in the neighborhood of College & Ashby today, just when we had a hankering for some fried sugar.  The old lady walking out of Dream Fluff on my way in said "Best doughnuts around" and that was enough for me. 

Apple fritter and maple french, both excellent.  The apple fritter was sweet but not sickly-so and even had the hint of apples that most don't.  The maple french was eggy and delicate; its maple frosting seemed a bit canned though.  There's always room for improvement! 

With doughnuts if the consistency is on I can deal with a sub-par frosting.  Aside from fresh dough-doughs this place also serves up sandwiches and fried chicken.  I'm lovin' the old sign.

In our next posting Team Bloughnut tries out his own Whirley-Pop home coffee roaster.....with extremely mixed results.

Oakmont Bakery - Oakmont PA

YES: Silver trays
NO: Plastic plates + cutlery
YES: Paczki ("Push-key"), made for Lent every year, soft & doughy with fruit fillings! Blueberry, apple, prune(!), cherry...10 to choose from here.
NO: Gravity-defying custard (so gelatinous!). I'm no expert on custards, but I feel like when you hold it upside down it should fall?!
YES: Maple cinnamon roll with nuts (pecans?! amazing!), crispy and delicious.


YES: Ms. mardi-gras-bead-sporting baked goods slanger (I was there on Fat Tuesday)


YES: The bakery's slogan: "We Create Delicious Memories"
YES: Definitely check this place out when you are around Pittsburgh, worth every mile and the beautiful snowy drive through Verona along the Allegheny River.

Dunkin' Donuts - Penn Hills PA

Not happy about a 5am trip to the airport to bid adieu to my dear brother, but it was made bearable by the drive-thru at the local DD. Bland, sugary de-frosted maple- and chocolate-raised doughnuts courtesy of the Massachusetts-based behemoth. Mmmmm---delish.

Stoecklein's Bake Shop - Penn Hills PA

Maple Loaf! It was a frickin' cinnamon roll with maple frosting! Like comparing apples & oranges, yes, but it really gave my old Red's Maple Bar a run for the money.



Also got a vanilla coconut bar that was creamy and delicious. And a maple cake jobber that was nice and cripsy. Overall, I would say this doughnut shop is well worth the trip east if you find yourself in Pittsburgh.

Walton Donuts - Denver CO

We find ourselves in Denver on a business trip and treated our clients to a round of doughnuts from Walton. We got them to go and the nice lady unfortunately messed up our order: 2 glazed old-fashioneds instead of one glazed and a chocolate. Oh well. We also received a chocolate twist, maple raised, and a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (Rule #5 of Sales: Know Your Client).



They were all good. Does the high altitude help or hinder the yeast rising? The old-fashioneds were formed beautifully, something I can appreciate after creating so many out of wax these days. The maple raised wasn't epic but my dear readers know that anything maple has a lot to live up to. The chocolate twist became an afternoon snack after a hike in Boulder. Nice and fluffy.

On Monday, back to the Bay Area and familiar ground.

Colonial Donuts - Oakland CA

On this rainy Tuesday morning we visited Colonial Donuts near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Did you know there is a secret entrance from the Trader Joe's parking lot?! As usual, the crowd was mixed: old dudes getting their morning fix, slightly out-of-sorts folks, and young professionals on their way to work downtown. As predicted, the old-fashioneds were really well-formed (what's their secret?). I got a maple OF and a maple french. The OF was nice and crunchy but a little heavy for our liking. The glaze was a little crunchy but not terrible. The french was light and eggy, and HUGE! Just the way we like them.



The OF became a model for a bronze hood ornament I am making for my truck. I made about a half dozen molds out of wax at the Crucible Tuesday afternoon. I will refine them over the next couple weeks then pour the bronze!

Bob's Donuts - San Francisco CA

For our first posting we had to get do-do's from the Grand Daddy (at least of the Bay Area), Bob's Donuts on Polk Street. It was late, it was a Saturday, and Polk Street was feeling a little yuppie and loud so we got them in a bag to go: maple bar, maple old-fashioned, maple french, crumb cake, and chocolate old-fashioned. A little heavy on the maple, I know, but what can I say? My mom is from Pennsylvania.

The donuts didn't travel well back to the Panhandle, especially the maple bar which was placed upside-down in the bag (?!) Damn did they taste good though. The old-fashioneds were crunchy and not too heavy, just the way we like them. The french was properly sponged and had a nice slab of maple goodness on top. We saved the crumb for the morning coffee which was the right call.

Extra stars for our timing: after midnight, when all of our donuts had been pulled out of the fryer within the hour. Some were still warm upon ingestion. If you haven't been to Bob's yet you must. Now if we could only get them to serve better coffee.

You are in for a treat as our next posting will come from Monterey when we visit the king of donut shops, Red's Donuts on Alvarado Street. I will be in town for my Grandma's 100th birthday! (One of her many secrets to living a long healthy life is the glazed old-fashioned)