Best donuts or best donuts on the Road

[southcove]

Boreael Birch, Pringles were about to engage in a small dust up over good donuts, so I figured before they hijacked that thread that I would start this one... so, either your favorite local donut and pastry shop or the best shop you have found on the road or at your destination. And your favorite treat or two. (Please no large chains like Dunkin Donuts.)

I am not a fancy donut guy, so I like an old fashioned or a glazed old fashioned, maybe even one with some chocolate icing on it. A good coffee roll or bearclaw can also be a treat from heaven but we can keep this to donuts.

A few good shops in CT, but one right off I-95 in Westbrook is Beach Donut and they make them good, simple and satisflying. Like any good treat shop, you have to know when to stop in for max freshness and variety.

So what is your favorite shop and what's your poison?



I'll let Coldfeet start a best bagels since he has ready access in the NYC boroughs to probably the best around.

 

[sweeper]

DD has neither good donuts or good coffee. I refuse to yield to anyone attempting to get in or out of a DD.

Rant off, actually we have the best donuts right here in Colrain, MA. Pinehill's Apple Cider donuts in either Sugar Coated or Plain, usually the plain are sold out long before the sugared.

edit: southcove we're 10 minutes off 91 on the rt2 west exit if you're ever headed north.

 

[Odyssey]

There's a Polish deli a few blocks away. Aside from all the deli meat, jars and cans of exotic Euro stuff, they've got killer donuts. Some kinda traditional prune filled things dusted with powdered icing sugar. I bought a couple as a surprise treat for my wife the other day. She phoned me to say she'd forgotten her lunch. I took her a really nice hot soup, and a plain brown paper bag with her surprise. She told me when she got home that her second donut was a disappointment, as the donut makers must've run out of prune filling just as they were making that one. Oh well, ya can't win 'em all. Actually their cherry Strudel is awesome too.
My family goes crazy for apple cider donuts from a local farm market/orchard. I find them too sweet, so I only have a couple. Out of protest.

 

[Boreal Birch]

IGA Food Cache in Delta Junction, Alaska has Sticky Buns that I really like. Good donuts and bearclaws too. After purchasing their bake goods, I like to drive into the Alaska Range Mountains to the salmon viewing rest stop just below the outlet of Summit Lake, brew up a pot of Yirgacheffe Coffee at one of the picnic tables. Alpine tundra, fresh baked goodies, mountains, fresh coffee and mountain air what could be better.
I do believe the best donuts are homemade, with love, by some one that grew up poor on a subsistence farm in the northern lake states, like my mother, grand mother, Isabelle Sutton, Isabelle Krueth, and Elizabeth Olson, to name a few off the top of my head.

 

[Pringles]

No dust up from me... I just don't want to be driving past a great donut. I agree about the homemade. They should have nutmeg, and be kind of crisp on the outside--just like Grandma made.

 

[Odyssey]

I'm glad someone remembers homemade with so much affection, and naming names puts the icing on the donut, so to speak, and speaking straight from the heart.
My Mom made donuts, tho' not very often. As if it wasn't enough already to do the Saturday cleaning and Sunday baking, weekday chores...keeping four growing boys fed and a hard working husband too. Very appropriate this donut thread falls on International Women's Day. My debt can never ever be paid in full, but gosh I'd sure love to try.
Barbara Lyttle's donuts were the plain variety, but at least one batch would be chocolate, with chocolate icing turning the impossibly decadent into the indescribably blissful. And long before our national chain of donut shops even thought about "Timbits", she was plunking donut holes into the deep hot oil to make us little snack nuggets of wonder. The theory was these little bites would keep us kids happy and busy while Mom got the donuts done. Thanks Mom. You're always close to my heart.
My Grandmother worked in a donut shop in Toronto for awhile. This was long after kids had grown up, and us grandkids were growing up like weeds. She would save the day old as a treat for my brothers and me. My parents grimaced at the enormous bags of once stale, now frozen, varieties of sad looking lumps of dough. I loved them, but my older brothers had learned to be fussy by then. They would pick through them for the choice ones. I suppose generations of women learned waste not want not; my Granny's affection was never wasted on me. Bless her. I no longer have a sweet tooth, and can pass on donuts without a second thought, but I still miss you Grandma Margaret.

 

[sweeper]

Every spring we'd drive up to my grandfathers to help him boil sap for a weekend. My grandmother always made donuts and we dipped them in Fancy Grade Maple Syrup and then try was the 'Leather Aprons'.

 

[jcavenagh]

Rise'n Roll...there are several in northern Indiana. Really good donuts

 

[DanOver]

In NW Indiana, Rise'nRoll = Amish Crack Insanely good donuts. I think they use angel's tears in the dough. And now they have a shop in Valpo just east of me....Dangerous
In Denver - Voodoo Donuts.....Next to the Marijuana dispensary on East Colfax...go figure. Anything they make is great, but the Cookies and Cream is my fave.
In Spokane - Closed now, but Donut Parade in the "Felony Flats" Their Maple Bacon and Maple Sausage donuts were a full meal.

 

[recped]

There's a Polish deli a few blocks away. Aside from all the deli meat, jars and cans of exotic Euro stuff, they've got killer donuts. Some kinda traditional prune filled things dusted with powdered icing sugar. I bought a couple as a surprise treat for my wife the other day. She phoned me to say she'd forgotten her lunch. I took her a really nice hot soup, and a plain brown paper bag with her surprise. She told me when she got home that her second donut was a disappointment, as the donut makers must've run out of prune filling just as they were making that one. Oh well, ya can't win 'em all. Actually their cherry Strudel is awesome too.
My family goes crazy for apple cider donuts from a local farm market/orchard. I find them too sweet, so I only have a couple. Out of protest.

Paczki mmmmmmmmmmm! The place near me sometimes has them with raspberry filling, personally I don't like the powdered sugar on them and they MUST be FRESH!!!!!!!!! VERY fresh for optimum enjoyment (I guess you could day the same about any donut).

 

[goonstroke]

I like the Abbot Village Bakery in Abbot, Maine, on the way to Moosehead Lake. Note that Abbot is Maine's #1 Town, according to a roadside sign. Presumably they mean in alphabetical order. Give them points for spirit.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Clarks Donuts near Oil City, PA. Good homemade donuts and the greatest cinnamon rolls ever. The maple iced are my favorite. 50+ years ago when I was in high school, one of my homeroom classmates worked in the shop early in the morning helping to make the donuts and sweet rolls. Occasionally he would bring enough sweet rolls for everybody in homeroom. Now that we live 2 1/2 hours away they are a rare treat. Hmmm, if I got up at 3AM I could be there in time for the 1st run (still warm) and be home in time to catch the 9AM opening on the local ski slopes.

 

[Boatman53]

Sag Harbor where I live is not much of a canoeing destination, but we do have some nice little places to go. It is a much better destination if you want to see famous people and spend a lot of money. About two years ago a small coffe and donut shop opened on Main Street and eventually we decided to give it a try. My wife had a plain coffee, (she added the milk herself) and a raspberry glazed donut. I had a small hot tea and a maple glazed donut. The bill was just under $15 bucks. Maybe I don't get out enough but I thought that was a bit steep. What do you think is $2.75 per donut reasonable? They were good, but we never went back.
Here is the TripAdvisor review. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaur...d_Donuts-Sag_Harbor_Long_Island_New_York.html

Jim

 

[Cookannapurna]

I live in RI, so its Allie's all the way. They have been on a number of national TV shows, but this is one thing that exceeds the hype. If you live in RI the secret is to sniff out the handful of spots that pick them up early in the AM, and resell them. There are only a handful, but the couple of extra bucks a dozen are worth not waiting in the line at Allies. The jellies are completely underrated, Im not usually a jelly donut guy, but they make all their own fillings.

 

[southcove]

IGA Food Cache in Delta Junction, Alaska has Sticky Buns that I really like. Good donuts and bearclaws too. After purchasing their bake goods, I like to drive into the Alaska Range Mountains to the salmon viewing rest stop just below the outlet of Summit Lake, brew up a pot of Yirgacheffe Coffee at one of the picnic tables. Alpine tundra, fresh baked goodies, mountains, fresh coffee and mountain air what could be better.
I do believe the best donuts are homemade, with love, by some one that grew up poor on a subsistence farm in the northern lake states, like my mother, grand mother, Isabelle Sutton, Isabelle Krueth, and Elizabeth Olson, to name a few off the top of my head.

Boreal, when my son was a bit younger, we were laying over at SRA Donnelly and we gifted the guest caretaker in that little cabin there, a bag of fresh groceries that we didn't need since two days later we'd be in Fairbanks. He returned the favor of fresh food and my wife's pasta dinner by taking me for a ride in the DNR truck up an old road that gave stupendous views of the Range and then down the road, where best to see the bison herd. He also shared a bag of fresh pastry that might have come from Delta Junction.

We had come up from Glennallen, Dry Creek (ugh) and BLM Paxson Lake to meet and camp with a guy who was going to do the Delta float.

Summit is a great area, so many different looks - stunning in each and every direction as you go through the pass - my son still remembers solid ice on the lake in late June. Where is the viewing area from the little 'rest area' and the glacier view on the east side that we have stopped at?

 

[Boreal Birch]

southcove.........
The salmon viewing platform is just North uphill from of the town of Paxon on the Richardson Highway just a few miles, at Milepost 194. If you are coming from the other way, it is just past the South end of Summit Lake on the West side of the road. The viewing platform is built out from the bank, high above a pool on the Gulkana River. On the upstream side of the pull off Fish Creek flows into the Gulkana, if your timing is correct you can see Sockeye (also known as Red) salmon heading up this little creek with their backs out of the water.
The Black Rapids Glacier viewing pull off is on the West side of the road at Milepost 225.4.

 

[Odyssey]

Last weekend I was at my son's, working in the basement. My wife and dil were enjoying a quiet afternoon, watching an old movie cuddled up on the couch with the new family dog. Afterwards we dipped our bread in homemade soup, piping hot and satisfying. Later on I joked about there not being any dessert. My dil's eyes lit up and she sparked "We can go for donuts!!" This came as a surprise, as she has always been known as a cupcake princess. Being a wedding planner and stager, she was all about the romantic frilly bits and extravagance (IMO). Actually, I'm pretty sure her middle names are Over. The. Top. Anyway, I couldn't believe my ears when she squeaked her excitement about donuts. Donuts? Aren't they, kinda plain and unfancy? More like a blue collar diner affection than white collar refined confection? My son rolled his eyes (behind her back) and reminded her the donut shop in question is way on the other side of the city. Too far to go on a late Sunday afternoon. And besides, her favourite(s) would likely be all sold out by now. And then she explained...a new small batch donut shop had opened up, selling high priced dough addiction. It seems people are willing to line up down the street for a donut. Wow. There are few things I've been willing to stand in line for. A Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich on The Main in Montreal. A chance to shake Gordie Howe's hand, and maybe bug him for an autograph. Getting choice seats only 3 rows back at a Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue concert in '75. But a donut? A freakin' donut? It looks like a donut franchise has stolen a princesses cupcake crown. She suggested that next time we'll plan ahead, and make sure we're well prepared with a fine selection of donuts for dessert. I'm sorry I made the joke. Apparently among the weird and wonderful flavours, there are things like Jalapeno glaze with spicy candied pecan, Tahini glaze with agave, mocha pudding filling with chocolate ganache icing...and at about $2.99 each they're going fast. I actually might have to give them a try. Who knows, it might be worth the wait in line for a craft donut?

 

[lowangle al]

These remind me of a lesson I learned as a kid from the old guy I worked with. Coincidently he was Polish and coincidently his knickname was Jellyroll. The lesson was to always start at the hole when eating a jelly donut.



I don't believe there is a worlds best donut but there is a gas station in Sterling Ak. right outside of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge that has great baked goods. I leave room in my food pack and top it off with banana bread, carrot cake or whatever looks good. And the rice crispy treats are so big you can count them as floatation.

 

[Pringles]

Odyssey, I want one of your mother's donuts and one of your daughter in law's choice cupcakes. My blood sugar just spiked, and I'm only thinking about them.

 

[Odyssey]

Ha, thanks Pringles, but I'm not sure I'll find the donut recipe. When she passed Mom's recipes went in different family directions. I have some, one brother has a few, another...well, you get the picture. I meant to compile a self-published cookbook of old family recipes, but haven't gotten round to it. I saw that idea a few years ago in a newspaper article. The fellow did a really nice job, and that same cupcake princess d-i-l knows all about that kinda thing. Maybe I can hold a box of donuts ransom for an hour of her tutorial time. Speaking of whom, we had a family games night last night. Pictionary. My wife was on the boys team, and I was on the girls team. Don't ask, I was afraid to ask myself. But I didn't argue either because those girls always win at that game. Until last night. I must be the weakest link. After a dinner of Thai green curry we had homemade dessert. No donuts. No cupcakes. It was all washed down with a nice homebrew of a fruity Sour beer. Our daughter's BF is a brewer, and works at a nearby craft brewer. He rigged up a small batch keg on his back porch, complete with C02 cylinder to blah blah blah... Yeah okay, just pour me one. Anyway, it was a pleasant evening, except the losers had to clean up. Which was another good excuse to talk and rub shoulders, reminisce and plan, laugh and get serious. "But seriously, for our St Paddy's games day dinner, who's gonna bring the donuts?" And I'm going back on the boys team.