Tuesday, January 20, 2009

eatingCulture/tastes: Donuts.

Opinions in eating.

Are donuts the new cupcake?

The above is a picture of a lemon-pistachio donut I made over the weekend, trying to follow a recipe from San Francisco based Dynamo Donuts in the Dec/Jan issue of Readymade Magazine (the recipe isn't online). It is, unfortunately, the only donut pretty enough to photograph, as the project was a bit of a flop-- they didn't rise correctly, I had the wrong size of circle-cutter, I burnt a few of them in the oil. Oof. They still tasted good, for the most part-- although a little too lemony for me.

The rise of the donut might be the result of a few trends colliding-- the wane of the cupcake, the recession calling for a treat with less frills, and 'breakfast' being the restaurant trend of the year (according to Bon Appetit, anyway). I certainly like the American-ness of the treat, though I have to admit, most donuts aren't very good-- way too sugary, no flavor. But the same is true of most cupcakes, unless they're well made. I imagine a well made donut with creative flavors could actually be pretty good. Can anyone recommend a good donut place?

On the subject of breakfast, be sure to check out my boyfriend's blog this week, as he attempts a new breakfast for every day of the week. I just completed Day 1, a stack of buttermilk pancakes with berry syrup. Yum.

4 comments:

Colleen said...

Hi there! a friend and i spent a few hours making these donuts this afternoon, and it was a bit of a mess for us as well. the dough didn't rise, so it was more like funnel cake batter. we were SO grateful to find your blog, and to know that it wasn't totally our fault... there must be something a big off in the recipe. our lemon pistachio funnel cakes weren't photo quality, but they were certainly worth eating!! I'm looking for donuts of this quality to start popping up in ohio. btw, yours looks fabulous compared to ours.

speedhakoo said...

a big breakfast (and all day long) favorite snack here in Madagascar is donuts made with rice flour, double yum...your post has now convinced me to run out and buy one. stop it!

Unknown said...

i want to eat that RIGHT NOW. and i am not a donut eater! those pistachios look divine...

Anonymous said...

That's a nice looking donut. Though you could put pistachios on anything and call it amazing.