Reconsidering The Donut

If someone were to ask me what my favorite sweets are I'm not sure donuts would rank very high. Sure, there's cake and its more portable cousin the cupcake, pain au chocolate, ice cream, cookies in all their various forms, cobbler and its stupider cousin pie...but donuts? Unless it's fall and they're made with apple cider I can take them or leave them. However, I've recently realized that my issue isn't with donuts themselves. The problem is that I've been eating crappy ones. I blame the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts for this development. They have saturated the donut market here in New England with their bland, crumbly donuts for too long! We need to rise up and demand hot, fresh donuts, the donuts we deserve. Where did this new found interest in donuts come from, you ask? 

A buttermilk cake donut at 11 pm is always a good decision

Last month James and I visited my cousin in Martha's Vineyard and then headed up to Maine for a few days. We also happened to eat a fair amount of delicious donuts. Martha's Vineyard Gourmet Cafe & Bakery came up with the brilliant/evil idea to sell fresh donuts out the back from 7:30 pm to 12:58 pm for the after bar crowd.

A post-donut walk around Oak Bluffs aids digestion

Back Door Donuts offers a variety of cake and yeast donuts as well as apple fritters bigger than your head (seriously). And if that's not enough you can also get your gigantic apple fritter topped with ice cream for maximum caloric consumption. Luckily, we only stayed two nights, otherwise I would have been forced to continue eating hot, fresh, delicious donuts at 1 in the morning and we can't let THAT happen. 

Several days later we were in downtown Portland, Maine and walked by The Holy Donut, which purported to sell potato donuts. By this point there was absolutely no hesitation on my part: "Oh, that place sells donuts? LET'S GO THERE." At first I thought they meant potato flour donuts but once inside we realized that they were made from real Maine mashed potatoes. I had the chocolate sea salt and James had the chocolate coconut. They were crispy on the outside and cakey and moist on the inside with just the right amount of sweet.  

Over the next few days we mentioned this place to friends and family who lived in the area and each time the reactions were intense: "Oh my GOD. I love that place. What did you get?" The more we talked about the donuts, the more we wanted, well, more. On our way back to Connecticut we made sure to stop at their original location. We got a savory cheddar and bacon-stuffed donut, a maple donut, and another chocolate sea salt because why not. 

However good you imagine this was, I assure you it was even better

I should have followed my instincts and gotten two of the cheddar bacon donuts, but I was dissuaded by James, who does not share my penchant for gluttony and thought it would be "too much." Note to self: never listen to James.