Donuts are the red-headed stepchild to cupcakes in this country, especially cake donuts, and that’s a crying, unsprinkled shame. Everyone seems enamored of yeast donuts (Krispy Kreme anyone?) So when I found out that Donut Cooperative was opening in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, my donut-loving heart gave out a little squee. Locally sourced, organic ingredients? Double squee. I grabbed a friend and we hit the shop in the first week of opening. CAKE CAKE CAKE DONUTS AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE! Well, maybe just a few racks. Kind of sparse, actually, for ten o’clock in the morning. We ordered up a chocolate ganache cake donut, powdered sugar, and cinnamon sugar donuts.
THE GOOD: it was still warm. The texture of the donut was very nice. A tender crumb, and dense but not too heavy.
THE BAD:
- The outer shell of a cake donut should be slightly crispy (IMHO) but this shell was too thick, and too greasy. And in some cases, a little burnt (look how dark they are in the pictures above).
- No matter what flavor we tried, the donut itself had the same flavor, only the frosting changed. While a vanilla base is fine to showcase interesting frosting, would it be too much to ask to have a chocolate cake base once in a while?
THE UGLY: They almost refused to sell me a large order of donuts due to supply issues.
I wanted to give them a second chance after my initial visit. I wanted to give them some time to hit their stride, figure out their recipes, etc. So a few weeks later I stopped in to get a few dozen donuts for an event. I walked in and announced, “I’d like to give you money in exchange for two dozen donuts.” Expecting a hero’s welcome (I obviously don’t get out much), I thought they’d respond, “yes ma’am! What can I get you?” Instead the counterperson replied, “uh…I don’t think I can sell you that many. We need to have donuts for when people come in. If they come in and see empty racks…”
“Wait.” I said.
“Are you telling me you’re going to turn away a sure sale right now, just in case two dozen random people come and want donuts?” Luckily, before they could answer, someone with more business sense came over and said, “We’ll sell you the donuts.”
If you can’t keep enough donuts on the racks to supply your customers, don’t penalize the customers, improve your supply chain.
Since then I’ve heard that they have expanded to yeast donuts, but I’m unbehooved to go back. It’s too bad, I really really wanted to like them.
