CHEAP EATS: Doughnuts are tasty, but overdosing is easy

By Katherine Benenati

Photo by Stephen B. Thornton

Morning delights from Daylight Donuts

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — Mmmm, doughnuts.

Dipped in chocolate, dusted with sugar, dredged in sprinkles, dunked in milk. Filled, glazed, iced.

With dozens of options, it’s hard not to want a dozen, or two.

While a doughnut may have made its way into my grocery cart over the years, the sweet, fried concoctions have mainly come my way by happenstance. Generous co-workers have helped me with many a doughnut fix.

I’ve seen the drive-through lines, heard the fuss about the latest doughnut chain, and frankly never caught on.

So when I struck out to taste the offerings at three local doughnut shops, I had a thing or two to learn. Namely, the early bird gets the bear claw, and one can have too much of a glazed thing.

Mark’s DoNut Shop, 4015 Camp Robinson Road, North Little Rock, (501) 753-2017. Open 5-11 a.m. Monday-Saturday.

Apparently not everyone was as clueless as we were on that early bird one. On our first visit to the doughnut shop in Levy we were greeted with a sold-out sign at 10:45 a.m.

On our second visit, we made sure to arrive by 9:30 a.m. and were greeted with a full parking lot and racks of largely empty trays. The woman behind the counter assured us that a new batch of glazed doughnuts would be out in five minutes. More varieties would follow.

We calmly took seats at one of the high wooden tables and watched the fat chef clock count down the minutes. I also studied the board: glazed, chocolate, covered, filled, coconut, 75 cents or $3.97 a half dozen, $6.76 a dozen; 99 cents each for cinnamon rolls, butterflies, apple turnovers, $5.94 a half dozen, $11.88 a dozen, holes 25 cents.

We settled for two filled, a Bavarian and an angel cream with chocolate icing. The first cream was a smooth custard, the second a bit too sweet for my taste, which, trust me, says a lot. The apple turnover had more generous chunks of apple than many a pastry and a hint of cinnamon. One of the glazed got devoured in the car. What can I say - it was still warm, soft and fresh.

Daylight Donuts, 301 Brookswood Suite 103, Sherwood, (501) 992-0085. Open 5-11 a.m. Tuesday-Friday, 6 a.m.-noon Saturday, 6-11 a.m. Sunday.

My husband swore off doughnuts in high school when he took a bakery job and discovered that many were either thrown out or perfect to throw at co-workers. The smell also got to him.

Some years later, the only doughnut he can stomach is the bear claw.

After our first disappointing trip to Mark’s, he decided he’d have one at Daylight, a shop closer to our home. (Not surprising - they have 900, according to their Web site.)

Arriving after 11 a.m., though, we were out of luck. We settled on a variety of filled (cream, jelly and chocolate), cake (chocolate), and glazed (maple, regular).

Glazed, chocolate and cake doughnuts are 65 cents or $6.50 a dozen, twists are 99 cents ($9.90 a dozen) and apple fritters are $1.09 each or $10.99 a dozen; holes are 15 cents ($1.30 a dozen), filled ones are 80 cents apiece ($7.90 a dozen).

They also have daily specials and a drive-through, which stacks up particularly from 6 to 9 a.m.

Without my usual tasting partner, I relied on co-workers to help sample the offerings, with the caveat that I could take a sliver first. The maple glazed won rave reviews, as did the chocolate cake doughnut, soft, moist and not too crumbly.

The cream filled doughnuts weren’t overly sweet, and as one co-worker who typically avoids such treats for fear of the dreaded sugar rush said “the simple sugar glaze on this one didn’t overpower with sweetness.”

Shipley Do-Nuts, 8611 Highway 107, Sherwood, (501) 834-5235. Open 5 a.m.-noon daily.

I heard about Shipley before I set foot in the Natural State, they have more than 220 locations, according to their Web site. I’ve seen plenty of their red-striped boxes (usually empty, sometimes in the sports department).

When I picked out a dozen the selection was waning, but far from paltry, considering it was only minutes until noon. Sadly, no bear claws.

The doughnuts were the cheapest of the three spots we visited: glazed 57 cents, iced 59 cents, filled 64 cents, rolls and cream cheese 85 cents, holes 12 cents. (Multiply those by 10 for the cost of a dozen.)

We got several fruit-filled, including lemon and apple, which was a bit too minced. The lemon wasn’t too sweet, but could’ve used a bit more filling.

A coconut doughnut (cakey but not a cake doughnut) did me in.

After a morning feast that consisted of Shipley and Daylight offerings - no matter how small the samples, multiple doughnuts are multiple doughnuts - my taste buds were shot and I was longing for a couch or a coffee, not the day of work that loomed.

I hauled off the massacred leftovers with a tummy ache and a disdain for sugar, which had coated about everything in sight.

The words of the photographer that had pilfered a maple glazed were never truer: “At some point, doughnuts are just an excuse to eat sugar.”

Weekend, Pages 36 on 11/12/2009

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