6 Shops Worth Their Dough (and Yours, Too)

Imagine taking a bite of a fresh-from-the-oven, melt-in your-mouth doughnut. It’s a decidedly delicious moment. You could even call it a hole-y experience. The deep-fried, circular treats are almost universally adored, somehow doubling as both an acceptable breakfast and dessert, no matter which spelling (donut or doughnut) you prefer. Once a pedestrian fare with few flavors, the oft-iced confection has undergone a foodie facelift in recent years with variations like maple bacon or raspberry mango, giving the glazed doughnuts of your childhood a run for their money. Here’s the dish on six of our favorite area shops rolling in dough — doughnut dough, that is.

So delicious you’ll hate the hole. That’s the promise at Beyond Glaze, a Utah doughnut franchise that started in Draper and now has five locations throughout the state. These gourmet doughnuts are made fresh with real fruit and no preservatives, and then decorated like wedding cakes with artful swirls of frosting and garnishes. Chocolate-dipped strawberry, grasshopper, s’mores, peanut butter swirl and maple bacon are a few of the more the 30 flavors sold. Locations in Draper, American Fork, Fort Union, Sugarhouse and Ogden, Utah.

A small-town bakeshop in Ririe, Idaho, Sweet Surrender is reputed to sell some of the best maple bars in the region. Owner Sheila Mathews still creates her doughnuts the old-fashioned way, making homemade dough daily and cutting out each doughnut by hand. Doughnut holes are the top seller at Sweet Surrender. 339 Main St., Ririe, Idaho, 208-538-7226

This grocery store bakery is known far and wide for its delicious doughnuts. They are made from recipes said to come from Walt Seiter, a German baker who originally ran the Heber City Bakery that was incorporated into Day’s Market bakery in 1980. The crullers, in particular, are known for their spot-on texture and custard taste — not too hard, not too egg-y, but just right. Locations in Heber and Provo, Utah.

One glance at the bright pink doughnut on Guru Donut’s sign and you know these aren’t your average balls of fried dough. The hipsterberry doughnut — dubbed Idaho’s doughnut by Zagat.com — is made with a blueberry, blackberry and lavender glaze. Other creations include the jalapeno-bacon doughnut topped with maple-bourbon glaze and the milkshake doughnut topped with crushed Butterfinger and salted caramel. “We try to stay away from just doing the obvious,” says Angel Moran, who founded Guru Donuts with her husband, Kevin. Guru Donuts are made from scratch with locally sourced ingredients, such as real vanilla beans and organic eggs and are preservative free. 204 N. Capitol Blvd., Boise, 208-571-7792

Combine a doughnut with a croissant and you get a cronut, a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth dessert concept originating at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. You can get a cronut at Oteo in Lindon, Utah, without taking a cross-country flight. The family owned Mexican fusion restaurant makes fresh-daily cronuts stuffed with seasonal delights like black fig with fresh Bavarian cream, in-season peaches or coconut custard. The dough is painstakingly prepared and carefully fried to preserve the delicate layers. It’s a labor of love for Mosi Oteo, a self-taught foodie “trained in eating.” “I’m very passionate about food and every aspect of it,” he says. Oteo sells around five dozen cronuts daily and even offers an order-ahead option on its website. 139 S. State St., Lindon.

Visitors and passersby in Manti, Utah, are remiss if they don’t stop by Miller’s Bakery to grab a bite of the shop’s wildly popular doughnuts — so tasty they may be worth a special trip to the small town. Online forums such as Yelp and Urbanspoon are filled with customer raves about the thick, soft and sticky doughnuts. Try the maple bars — reputed to be, in our designer Kevin Kiernan’s opinion “heaven.” 227 N. Main St., Manti, 435-835-4931
 

Originally posted in the Zions Community Magazine in May/June 2015.