NYC’s Doughnut Plant – Where It All Began

Doughnut Plant – East Village, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, NY

In my mind, Doughnut Plant is a staple of New York living. Everyone goes on and on about the bagels but doughnuts are starting to enter the scene. 

We played tourists when my husband was stationed in Brooklyn New York in 2017 and after a very hot and very long walk across the Manhattan Bridge, we stopped in for some donuts at this little spot called Doughnut Plant. The place was coated in unique handprinted tiles and they had square donuts – something we had not yet encountered in our travels. I don’t even remember what donuts we got but I do remember they were tasty enough to warrant a second visit some weeks later when we brought some family members to town who also wished to play tourists.

First time at Doughnut Plant – 2017

The second visit brought us to downtown Brooklyn with endless construction and lots of closed sidewalks. We got some more donuts and enjoyed them on the bench out front. 

Thus, with these two visits to Doughnut Plant in the summer of 2017, brought about an idea: I should start a blog about donuts. As someone with particular dietary preferences as well as having a healthy appreciation for sweet pastries, I decided I would be doing society a favor by finding, tasting (eating many) and reviewing vegan/allergy-friendly donuts. Really, it was for science. For the greater good. How could I refuse? 

Summer of 2019 rolled around and I felt we needed another visit to Doughnut Plant. Now that I have been around the New England block of vegan donuts – I wanted to revisit their offerings and see if it was indeed all I remember. We decided to visit the East Village location. 

Donut Decor – I need these giant cushion pillows in my life!

I have made it my custom to try all the vegan offerings whenever I try a new place and this location had two vegan flavors available that morning: banana and classic chocolate. Thank goodness they didn’t have more because I would have eaten them all! Gluten-Free options included: Marcona Almond and Mocha. 

My husband is not as strict with his dietary needs and always goes for the peanut butter and jelly-filled and wasted no time devouring it – so fast, I barely got a photo before it was gone!

Donuts rarely last long enough for a photo around this guy.

As always, their donuts are delicious. Perfectly risen, strong but not overpowering flavors, and funky vibes at all their stores. I’ve been to them all and while their selection varies (perhaps by the day, season, or by store, I’m not sure), you can depend on solid New York doughnuts, vegan and GF options that are always good and honestly, I just think the fact that they are square makes them seem tastier.

Try them and tell me I’m wrong.

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 donutholes

xoxo

Meet The Donuteur

Hello, lovelies!

Welcome to my favorite distraction:
finding the best vegan donuts and telling you all about them!

I started this as a pet project to distract me from the endless term papers and research projects that grad school brings, and it has introduced me to some of the yummiest flavors in New England. This page began as a journey to find the best “allergy-friendly” donuts, but as I discovered my body does not like any animal products, it quickly transformed into vegan only. (I should note that many establishments that I write about do offer other allergy-friendly options, which I will make note of when describing the selection – however, I only try the vegan choices.)

What is a vegan donut, you may ask? These are specially crafted pastries that may appear to be normal donuts but have substituted all the animal products for plant-based alternatives without compromising any of the deliciousness.

Basics you may or may not need to know:

• Real Name: Anneliese
• Third Decade
• Vegan since 2016 (Vegetarian since 2008)
• Willing to travel for donuts
• Currently based in Bellingham, WA
• Doggo mom to a joyous black fluff (Rainier) and a white rescued poodle (Juniper).

Please send me your suggestions, and I’ll credit you in the discovery if I make it to your favorite donut shop!

Follow me on Instagram: @thedonuteur

Shine on!

xoxo The Donuteur

Boston’s BlackBird Donuts

I’ve lived in Boston now for almost 5 years and it took me that long to get to Blackbird Donuts. To be fair, vegan options are a recent addition to their menu I believe since when I first arrived, they were only doing classic donut recipes. But low and behold, they have them now and you had better believe I went to try them.

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If you check their offerings on their website, you will find a completely different list of flavors than what’s in store. Perhaps rotating by season or by locations, not sure how to know for sure what is going to be on offer. They offered more than one vegan option but sadly, the Vegan Berry Sprinkle was sold out when we arrive. Blackbird offers some serious variety, so I was a little bummed to only find fruit flavors but I’ll take what I can get. I got the Vegan Lemon Coconut.

$3 a donut is pretty normal in the city and they are large – you definitely get $3 worth of donut here. The texture was pretty average – a little too spongy for my personal taste, but the flavor was full and powerful. The lemon glaze was toned down by the coconut on top. It was a serious summer donut – perfect for a beach or a walk through campus.

I’d be interested to go back again to try a different vegan flavor since there seems to be a lot of potential with their flavors. As I mentioned, vegan flavors are still pretty new over there so hopefully with time, they will expand and their rotating flavors will have even more vegan options! Also, Blackbird does more than just donuts, they have cakes and pastries available to order online and pick up in-store. Didn’t see any vegan pastries online though…..at least not yet…

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Donut holes.

⊗o⊗o, The Donuteur

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Zagging for Ziggy’s Donuts

TBH I don’t know what zagging means.

I’ve lived in Salem, Ma going on four years and honestly, I wasn’t sure if Ziggy’s Donuts was ever open or if it was a memory of the past. Their Salem location is on the corner of Essex and Webb, and every time we drove/walked/biked by, it was closed. However, this past December, we got lucky and stumbled upon a time they had the open sign in the window! What luck!

Well, I’m just going to say from the start that Ziggy’s does not offer vegan donuts, gluten-free pastries, or any allergy-friendly, 2019 versions of the New England staple. It does, however, offer some good old fashion, homemade, sweet tooth inspired donuts, as well as some select pastries, chef’s choice.

Ziggy’s is a local staple, if only for the simple fact that they have been around since 1964. It has a family affair with the walls of the establishment covered with family history, memories, and local clippings from over the years. Honestly, it felt like I was in someone’s living room as opposed to a bakery. Messy, but loved. They offer whatever they feel like and apparently, whenever they feel like: their website has listed hours but those appear to be the potential options when they might be open if they feel like it.

So, what did we get?

As their donut offerings were the classics and not at all allergy friendly, we opted to try something that only they offer: homemade fig bars and they apple turn-over ball things. In the summers, they also offer a donut hamburger, which I can only speculate is bound to give you heart disease, and some other oddities. We felt safe in December with a cup of coffee and our two simple choices.

Both pastries had the homemade flavor to them, for which I commend Ziggy’s; so many pastries these days are shipped and frozen. Although nothing they offered was allergy friendly, their fig bar was spectacular. They have a shipment of fig brought in from New York and it’s getting harder and harder to get. When we were there at the end of December, the owner was commenting that that batch of fig bars may be their last. I hope that is not the case but haven’t been back to follow up.

I felt as though I needed to visit this spot since I’ve seen it so many times over the years and it piqued my curiosity. Technically shouldn’t make the blog since they believe in full butter, cream, and egg ingredients, heart health be damned. Yet, as I probably will not be back before we move from Salem, let this post be an omage to a donut shop still living in the past and hope that it keeps finding a way to make those yummy fig bars from Salem, MA.

My husband on the corner of Essex and Webb with our Ziggy’s pastries on a chilly December morning.

 

 

Union Square Donuts

The first time I saw Union Square Donuts was in Boston Public Market. They have a cute little shop that looks like a pop-up, and they just sell their donuts until sold out. The human manning the stand is usually hanging out on their phone, and you’re not gonna get much of a chit chat out of them, but they are there to sell some donuts. Some really good donuts.

I live in Salem, Massachusetts and for the sake of this blog, I packed up my dog, got in the car, and drove 45 minutes down to Somerville, MA (right outside Boston) to try some vegan donuts. (**Beware of construction and little parking in the area.) So I found myself in a little shop that has a very small town kind of feel: some folks lingering on the window seats, a church or fire station across the street, trees in the boulevard, benches outside, and cute local art on the walls of the donut shop.

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So how are the donuts?

Well, it was a mixed bag. Their website states “we wanted flavors that would cause excitement, get people talking, and push the boundaries of what’s expected.” I sincerely commend them for this mission and think some donuts places offer crazy flavors just to be instagrammable. Union Square is clearly trying to put out a quality product that is also unique. That being said, I tried all of their vegan offerings (four in total) and there’s one flavor that is carrying the weight of the team.

Ten guesses which one I thought was the best…

Belgian Chocolate

Blackberry Basil Lime

Coconut

Cinnamon Sugar

The Blackberry Basil Lime was INCREDIBLE. As I typed that, I said it in French for extra emphasis. I am not partial to fruity donuts but WOW, I applaud you Union Square. The icing/glaze was delicate and so flavorful and I wasn’t totally sure if it was tangy or sweet or both. So so good.

All their donuts are very doughy – kind of reminded me of the texture of a Costco croissant – not flaky or cakey, just doughy. The chocolate donut threw me for a loop at first because the glaze tasted like melted dark chocolate drizzled on – thick, rich, and heavy. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but not in a bad way – just different. Really flavorful.

The only downside: they are oily. Like grease stain on the pizza box. Like soaking through two napkins oily. They place a wax liner in the cardboard box and for good reason: I had the cinnamon sugar donut on my lap on a napkin while driving home and I have an oil stain on my jeans from that thing. So consume at your own risk.

Bottom line: Blackberry Basil Lime – 5/5 donutholes! All the others, in general, 3/5. 

Would recommend giving them a try if you’re in the area or in the Public Market. I’ll be making another trip for that Blackberry Basil Lime realllllllllly soon.

Shine on, lovelies.

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Rocket Donuts are Out of this World

The Pacific Northwest is known for a lot of things, namely the rain, Boeing, and the ever-present Starbucks. Yet in the past decade or so, it has established itself as microbrewery heaven with strong ties to the great outdoors. If you go for a visit, you’ll see more dogs than average, more Subaru outbacks, and more than one Sasquatch sticker.

Bellingham, WA is about 30 minutes south of the Canadian border, an hour-ish north of Seattle, and lives up to the newer Washington persona: plenty of outdoor living, lots of microbreweries, and lots of health-conscious food. That being said, I was eager to try some local delicacies on my recent trip home.

Enter: Rocket Donuts.

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This gem of a science fiction throwback is straight from your comic book dreams. Complete with space monster decor, an enormous rocket, and black-and-white sci-fi films playing in a loop. They opened the first of two shops in downtown Bellingham back in 2006, and the enormous outdoor stainless steel rocket at the Holly Street (original) location is now a local staple. Their second location opened in Fairhaven, the small boutique town next door.

Rocket offers the expected array of coffee bar options to pair with your donut or ice cream choice and give you a variety of donuts, including their monster donut (11 inches across!!) and Gluten-Free, Vegan and Keto donuts. As expected, the classics are present: the raised maple (and bacon) bars, chocolate with sprinkles, apple fritters, etc. However, I honestly didn’t pay too much attention to the case because I was amazed that they offered six vegan offerings: blueberry, maple, chocolate with/without sprinkles, vanilla with sprinkles, and raspberry (it might have been strawberry now that I type that out…) with sprinkles. For a small donut shop, I was amazed that they even offered one, so six was well beyond my expectations.

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I only could justify eating three donuts that morning and tried the maple, chocolate with sprinkles, and blueberry.

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Ignore the piece that is haphazardly mushed back on to the bite. What we do for the photo (smh).

So how are the vegan donuts?

Well, the donuts are smaller than the other standard, non-allergy-friendly offerings. However, for a vegan donut, the price was right: $1.95 each after tax. That is pretty reasonable, considering the premiums that are usually charged for premium donuts. The chocolate was good, for sure, but the icing left a little bit of a waxy feeling on my tongue. But it has been a hot minute since I’ve had a maple bar, and that vegan maple donut was SO TASTY. When (not if) I go back, the maple will be a reorder for sure! It was the perfect amount of sweetness, but I could actually taste the donut. And the blueberry –> who doesn’t love a solid blueberry donut with a cup of coffee? Perfect for a rainy morning. My husband wasn’t there to weigh in, but that would have been his favorite, hands down: not too sweet, not too cakey, just good.

Bottom line: 4 out of 5 donutholes. 

So, if you find yourself in Bellingham, Washington, I would recommend making a stop at Rocket Donuts, if not only for the vegan, gluten-free, or Keto donuts, than for their sci-fi memorabilia and the cheery ambiance worth sticking around for a donut and cup of coffee.

Stay weird my friends!

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Donut Shop of Prague

It has become a bit of an obsession of mine to find vegan donut shops when I travel. I haven’t found many, but to be fair, I haven’t been searching long.  My husband and I recently visited Donut Shop while in Prague this past August and tried four of their vegan donut selections. It was a tough choice – they offered 6 vegan options at our visit (including donut wholes! YUM). The shop is very cute and on trend with their plethora of potted plants, neon sign, and stickers with every purchase.

On trend and curated ambiance

There was a cathedral across the street with bells chiming, and the street had been blocked to vehicles, so pedestrians were milling about. All in all, very ambient.

We tried four of their offerings (see photo below- hover for flavors), noticing that they were all pretty similar. Maybe I have been spoiled with our New England fare, but I felt these donuts just didn’t live up to my expectations. Not to say they weren’t good (believe me, if you are a vegan traveling – this is the place to stop for some treats!), but they were a bit chewy, and the flavors were all the same, just in different combinations. With a good cup of coffee and a dear friend close by, these would be perfect to share. I wish I had tried some of the donut holes, but alas, there is always next time.

 

Clockwise from top left: Avocado & Banana, Jam, Black Currant Glaze, Sugar Raised

However, after walking about 25 minutes from downtown, a vegan donut will hit the spot, chewy or not.

Happy donuting, lovelies!

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Holy Donuts!

Okay but that’s actually what they are called. Probably because when you try them, you exclaim, “Holy Donuts! These are amazing!” blah blah blah. Well, these are old friends so welcome to the blog Holy Donut!

This is a local spot that became so popular that in just about three years it now has three locations in Maine. Holy Donut started out with the intention of making delicious locally produced donuts and while they put out over 2 million donuts a year, they are still locally sourced and hand cut. 

The thing that makes these special is no secret. In fact, they are quite famous for it – local Maine potatoes. The donuts come out extra moist and heavy. These are not your traditional cake donuts. They are the best of that traditional treat but, if I dare say, better.

If you make the trip (and you should), the Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt is the fan favorite and of course I’m always so excited to see their rotating menu of vegan offerings.

Check out the current list of flavors –> https://theholydonut.com/flavors/

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(I don’t have any pictures of JUST the donuts since I usually eat it before I’m even out of the store! But here is a photo of my puppy drooling over the Vegan Pomegranate Donut!)

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I know from experience that there is usually a line and that they can sell out of popular flavors so get there early!

Happy Donuting! ❤

Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram: @thedonuteur

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I’m alive and loving Vegan Cherry Toasted Coconut Donuts

My Dear Donut Lovers,

I apologize for my absence. Grad finals were due and they were kicking my butt so I had to take a short hiatus from the blogging world and even (gasp!) from the donut world. And just when I was ready to be back, my puppy decided to eat a raw pizza dough that required an emergency vet visit. My pup is more important than blogging- but she is okay so now I am back at it.

Now onto the donut info –>I had the pleasure of living one year in the North End of Boston. When I first moved out here from the West Coast, I was appalled at the size of apartments and the stink of summer in the North End. But I found a gem right next door: Boston Common Coffee. Unfortunately, the North End location is no longer open (probably something to due with the rent – it’s killer) but there are several locations around town that still have that easy vibe of a coffee spot they are known for with great snacks too!

(Pro tip: they have discounted breakfast treats in the afternoon – 50% off usually)

I stopped in on a rainy day recently and discovered this gem: Donut Thursdays. AND THEY OFFER A VEGAN OPTION.

Obviously, I had to try it.

For not being a donut shop, they produce a heck of a donut and I was impressed with the tart cherry flavor and the coconut crumble topping. The donut consistency was a bit spongey for me but such are vegan donuts and all in all I really enjoyed it.

If you find yourself in the city, and stumble into a Boston Common Coffee, and it happens to be a Thursday – get one. You won’t regret it.

❤

I’ll be back soon with some more local spots and even a new recipe! Stay tuned!

Happy Donuting!

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Decadent Chocolate Vegan Donut Recipe!

Oh, my fellow humans, hold onto your hats.

I may have found the donut recipe – this, of course, is subject to change as soon as I try a new recipe this weekend. I am not a huge chocolate-glazed fan but these… These are thick, moist, and sinful. 

Donuts are all the rage right now (thank the stars) and thankfully there are a lot of recipes floating around. The easiest way I have found to get a good one is of course trial and error. 

This has led to some pretty nasty gooey concoctions and some amazing treats like the ones I am about to share.

I’d like to also note that this has also led to a few extra days a week at the gym 😉

So please enjoy and let me know if you have any recipes to share or comments to make this better!! Happy Baking!

❤

Decadent Chocolate Ganache Vegan Donut

Ingredients:

(Makes 6-8 donuts depending on pan size)

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk of choice ( I used unsweetened almond)
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• Ganache:
  • 1/4 cup milk of choice
  • 1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and oil donut pan. (I prefer using coconut oil).
2. Sift all dry ingredients into a medium bowl and combine.
3. In a separate bowl, combine apple sauce, vanilla, milk and oil.
4. Add wet to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Bake for 12-15min or until the donut pulls away from the edge of the pan slightly. (Donuts should be spring back when touched)
6. Let donuts cool 5 min and transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Cool completely before glazing.
8. Heat milk on the stove until just before boiling and pour over chocolate chips.
9. Mix until smooth.
10. Dip cooled donuts in ganache and enjoy!!

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Add some extra magic with some star sprinkles!

Will work out for donuts. Because I eat too many….

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