How can Dunkin’ Donuts make it on the West Coast with old fashioned donuts that look like cake donuts?!
On a recent trip to New York, I was shocked, shocked I say to observe something strange on the doughnut tray at Dunkin’ Donuts.
It was an old fashioned donut that looked like this:
This is a Dunkin’ Donuts old fashioned doughnut. (Photo by pabear26 on Flickr)
Call me old fashioned, but I grew up with an old fashioned doughnut that calls for an eating experience more akin to a Snickers than a vanilla whatever. More specifically, that craggy, crunchy looking in-focus wonder of fried dough soaked with sugar syrup.
This.
A California glazed old fashioned doughnut at Colonial Donuts in Oakland, California, shot in all its glory by Laurel Kate Sittig.
Given that a PBS cooking blog features a recipe for craggy, crunchy-edged old fashioned donuts, I am not alone. It’s those crunchy edges you break off bit by bit that make the old fashioned such an incredible mastery of chemistry…that I wonder, could Dunkin’ get into the hearts and stomachs of people used to this style of old fashioned, with their smooth round old fashioneds?
My high hopes for Dunkin’ Donuts taking on the West Coast even led me to buy DNKN.
Despite the fact that I am also not sure how West Coasters would take to having milk (or cream) and sugar added to coffee by a staffer, rather than DIY, and drinking coffee from styrofoam cups, I still had high hopes for Dunkin’ Donuts.
Then again, maybe some chains are best kept regional!
If you have never had the craggy kind of old-fashioned doughnut, I highly recommend you seek it out.
For November 5, Doughnut Appreciation Day OR June 5, National Donut Day (because I guess we need 2 excuses), there are plenty of other options to enjoy. Just a few that have lured me this year…
- Blue Star in Portland
- Doughnuts by Dough in New York (below)
- Golden Gate Donuts in Oakland, CA on National Doughnut Day (not to be confused with the Appreciation Day). Amaaaaazing old school treats.
Where has your love of doughnuts taken you…and where do you stand on Dunkin’?
