Cream-filled, glazed or even topped with bacon, doughnuts are an irresistible confection beloved across the country in classic and new forms.
Slideshow: See where to find America's best doughnuts
Mark Klebeck, co-owner of Seattle’s Top Pot, believes that the interest in fresh, innovative doughnuts is not a fad. Appealing to passionate doughnut lovers, he and his brother, Top Pot partner Michael Klebeck, recently published "Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker."
“I think it’s a true comfort food,” Klebeck says. “It’s true to the roots of what people gravitate toward: fried dough.”
The Klebecks developed Top Pot’s following with fun standards (their “feather boa” doughnut is topped with pink icing and shredded coconut) and popular seasonal specialties; each spring brings a cherry-glazed vanilla cake doughnut.
According to Klebeck, the key to keeping doughnuts in the limelight is finding new ways to make them special. Some of the best shops in the country are doing just that. Portland, Ore.,’s cult favorite Voodoo Doughnut makes a voodoo doll-shaped signature filled with raspberry jam and jabbed with a pretzel stake.
In Chicago, The Doughnut Vault sells truly green pistachio-covered rings. A bacon-maple doughnut with smoky sautéed apples at Dynamo Donuts in San Francisco became so popular that it’s now available every day. “The more you can be innovative with the doughnut itself, the more people respond,” says Klebeck.
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