Celebrating Donuts

Today, Friday June 5, is National Doughnut Day. The day began more than 70 years ago—in 1938—with the help of the Salvation Army. But here at Baking Buyer, we like to celebrate donuts (we prefer to drop the ‘ugh’ from the spelling) more than once a year!

This past fall, editor John Unrein visited Mark Isreal, owner of the Doughnut Plant in New York City. John awarded Mark our top honor—2008 Retail Baker of the Year. Doughnut Plant features an eggless recipe, and the confections go for $1.75 to $2.73 apiece. And all glazes and fillings are made from scratch. Featured flavors include Vanilla Bean Glaze with Italian Plum Jelly; Pumpkin; and Peanut Butter and Jelly. John raved about the fillings (but, alas, donuts stale quickly, and I have yet to try one of the Doughnut Plant offerings). The story is featured in the November 2008 issue.

Also during November, I spoke with Mark Klebeck, co-founder of the now famous Top Pot Doughnuts in Seattle. Good news abounded as the recession deepened—turns out customers love their comfort food.

 Early this year, the Baking Buyer team was lucky enough to receive samples of new citrus-flavored donuts from Lamar’s. I tried the lemon flavor, which reminded me of a light, lemon cake. Lighter flavors have fewer calories, right?

 

Even our Small Town Baker Shiela has noticed the trend toward citrus and tropical flavors (especially pineapple). In March, she shared a recipe for Pina Colada Cake Donuts.

 

I hope you’ll take a minute to riffle through our past donut tales, which can be found at our online archives. And be sure to catch the June issue for even more donut goodness.

How did you celebrate your Doughnut Day, bakers?