Doughnuts!
A special guest, top 4 doughnuts, and new doughnut art
Hi, friends! This week you get a special newsletter featuring a guest essay by the brilliant, handsome, and funny Graham Bradley (who, of course, also happens to be my husband!). He’s here to talk about doughnuts. Do you love doughnuts? He sure does. Without further ado, I’ll let Graham take it away:
When our son, Arthur, was a newborn and I was extremely sleep-deprived, I just wanted to eat doughnuts. I’m not sure why—perhaps the sugar sounded good to my tired brain, or perhaps it felt like a sweet old-fashioned would balance out all the savory broths I had made for Maria and me to eat during those hallucinatory early days. The thing was, I couldn’t really eat any doughnuts because I was at home with Arthur and Maria and we weren’t about to cook anything, especially not doughnuts. So, I just developed a craving for them as I hiked around all the trails in the Berkeley hills at 11pm with little mister in the backpack. But eventually we ventured back out into the world, and it was doughnut time!
Graham’s Current Favorite “Normal” Doughnuts
Note: Really wild doughnuts aren’t a thing I’ve been into lately. I want the classics. That’s why this is a list of my favorite normal doughnuts.
1. Colonial Donuts—cake doughnut
My current favorite “normal” doughnut is the small cake doughnut from Colonial Donuts in Montclair. Maria introduced me to Colonial because it’s near where she grew up and I’m very into it, though I admit I’ve only ever tried the cake doughnut. It’s just the simplest doughnut, done right. It reminds me of two of my favorite doughnuts of all time, the farmers market apple cider doughnuts in New York and the cake doughnuts from Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. Anyone been to Wall Drug Store? Colonial also makes a version with blueberries that’s fantastic.
2. King Pin—old-fashioned doughnut
King Pin is the spot Maria and I used to go to when we were students at Cal. Maria would ask them “what’s hot?” They would look at her like she was crazy. Then she would proceed to order what I refer to as the healthiest doughnut on the menu: the poofy one with just a light dusting of sugar. I liked to get an old-fashioned doughnut from King Pin and that’s still my go-to order. They just do a really nice job with the classics.
3. Rainbow Donuts—lemon poppy seed doughnut
I am also a fan of Rainbow Donuts in Berkeley. I like the classic doughnuts at Rainbow, but they also have a lemon poppy seed one that is really good. That’s kind of as far out there as I go with doughnut toppings/varieties these days.
4. Hopkins Street Bakery—jelly-filled doughnut
Lastly, one day while I was sliding down slides at Hopkins Park with Arthur, Maria discovered that Hopkins Street Bakery makes a jelly-filled doughnut. I’m not usually a fan of these because there is just too much jelly and I’m a designer who does not like messes or surprises hidden inside of things waiting to bust out and cause messes. But this one is a little guy with a moderate amount of jelly so it’s workable. I like it!
If you have new places to try, let me know in the comments!
Thank you so much for reading Recipe of the Month! And big thanks to Graham for his doughnut insights. See you all next week!
xo,
Maria