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The Whole Shebang: Eating Our Way Through the Doughnut Plant's Menu

Posted by Carey Jones, August 6, 2009 at 1:15 PM

A friend visiting from out of town rang me up last week. "I'm going to the Doughnut Plant tomorrow morning," she told me, "but I'm kind of overwhelmed by the options. What's the best doughnut they have?"

It was a seemingly innocent question, one logically posed to a food writer.

But asked to name the very best doughnut, I came up short. What kind of serious eater was I, if I hadn't sampled everything on the menu? I'd breakfasted my way through crème brûlée doughnuts and tres leches doughnuts, Blackout cake and carrot cake. But the other doughnuts had thus far eluded me. Even after grudgingly turning to Internet research, I couldn't locate a single piece with a comprehensive doughnut gallery.

There was only one solution—to trek down to the Doughnut Plant and order everything on the menu.

All sixteen doughnuts, in pictures, after the jump.

My vote for the most visually appealing goes to the carrot cake doughnut, with a sprinkle of orange freckles and a cream cheese frosting core. Recommended for those unashamed to eat leftover birthday cake for breakfast.

Banana pecan, impossibly light as it looks, houses a sticky banana interior. I loved it; others found it off-putting.

The banana cake worked better, closer to a proper banana bread, without that fluffy-dense contrast.

A vanilla bean doughnut resembled like your typical glazed, with the extra depth of high-quality vanilla. Traditionalists will appreciate this one.

The lavender cake doughnut was appropriately floral, though like most flower-inspired treats, overpoweringly sweet. My tasting companion loved it, but she has the kind of sweet tooth that hankers for rose and violet creams by the boxful.

I preferred the lavender raised doughnut, lighter and less cloying.

I generally find jelly doughnuts too sticky-sweet to tolerate, but had no problem with the vanilla glazed doughnut with raspberry jam, whose tart filling was a welcome surprise.

Ditto the peanut butter and jelly doughnut—the glaze sweet and nutty, the filling properly fruity.

For dark chocolate fans, there's the Valrhona cake...

... and the Valrhona yeast doughnut. Of these, I found the dense, brownie-like cake doughnut the stronger.

But both paled in comparison to the downright fudgy Blackout Doughnut, with a cake-crumb coating.

Blueberry doughnuts fell back into the too-sweet camp, relying more heavily on sugar than the fruit's natural tartness.

Ditto the coconut cream, whose flaky, moist coconut got lost in the thick outer glaze.

But the tres leches! Evoking the Latin American cake made with evaporated milk, condensed milk, and cream, its oozing core was a welcome reminder that sweetness can show complexity and depth. Even the tender cake surrounding it surpassed that of other doughnuts.

And best of all, in this snacker's opinion, was the crème brûlée doughnut; though hardly bigger than a doughnut hole, its crackly sugar crust gave way to a silky vanilla custard, with only enough dough to lend structure. (And pass this off a breakfast treat.)

The verdict? Blackout, for the chocoholics; carrot cake, for the non-traditionalists; tres leches, for the sweet tooth sophisticate; and crème brûlée for any occasion. Almost across the board, the cake doughnuts were tastier than their yeast-risen counterparts (and this, from one who generally finds herself inclined towards the raised). Sure, they're a bit dense for an everyday morning meal. But in the world of doughnuts, there's no stopping halfway. Go big—or go for the cereal box.

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Tags: breakfast, Doughnut Plant, doughnuts, Lower East Side, Manhattan