Drooling for Doughnuts – Doughnut Plant

When I first arrived in New York City, I headed straight for one place: Doughnut Plant. Having heard sooooo many amazing things about the doughnuts, I made Doughnut Plant the top place I had to visit in NYC. That says a lot about this place since I don’t even like doughnuts that much.

The scaffolding blocked the sign. 😦

Since I was closest to the 8th Ave and 23rd St location (the second location), I headed there. Once you enter Doughnut Plant, you’re transported into a world centered around doughnuts. There was doughnut art lining the walls, doughnut tiles engraved into the tables, and a giant tv screen displaying and flashing through all of the doughnuts offered. Talk about doughnut overload or doughnut lovers’ heaven.

They even have doughnut shaped chairs!

Since my brother raved on and on about the tres leche doughnut, I bought that right away. I had also heard about the Peanut Butter and Jelly glazed doughnut, which is a square doughnut covered with peanut butter glaze and filled with raspberry jelly. Both were good, not too sweet, which I appreciated. However, the tres leche was a bit better. Like many have said, Doughnut Plant’s cake doughnuts are better than their yeast doughnuts.

All of the doughnuts… yum!

Not knowing the next time I’d be back in NYC, I paid Doughnut Plant one last visit on my last day. For some reason that day, a regular old Monday morning, they had sold out of most of their doughnuts by 10am. So I only had the choice of the carrot cake and blackout doughnuts. I had wanted to try their creme brulee doughnut, which I’ve heard is amazing, but due to unforseen circumsatnces, I tried the carrot cake doughnut instead. It was actually very good. Not too sweet, which surprised me a bit. The frosting wasn’t as flavorful as I had hoped and I wanted a bit more filling in the doughnut. But overall, it was delicious.

I highly recommend Doughnut Plant if you’re ever in NYC, even if you’re not the biggest doughnut fan. You probably can’t find a shop with such a wide variety of flavors. This should definitely be one of the top places you visit, if not the very first. 🙂

Banana Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Glaze

A few months ago, I went to Michael’s and was handed a 50% coupon. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money, so I decided to buy a doughnut pan. It was one of the best purchases I’ve made! Since then, I’ve been baking doughnuts non-stop.

I’ve never really been a big doughnut fan, but for some reason, after I bought my doughnut pan, I was hooked on making them! I even have a board on Pinterest dedicated to just doughnut recipes. One of my favorite recipes is this banana doughnut with peanut butter glaze from Shutterbean.

 

They’re basically a cross between a doughnut and banana bread. The doughnuts were incredibly moist, but it’s the peanut butter glaze that you’ll rave about. Feeling a bit lazy, I didn’t brown the butter. I’m sure if you did that, the frosting would taste even better! Since my doughnut pan only bakes six doughnuts at a time and I was a bit too impatient to wait to use the pan again, I used the rest of the batter to make muffins. So if you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can just turn this recipe into muffins! Also, you might notice from the photo that three are in the shape of Mickey Mouse. When my family went to Disneyland for Christmas, I just had to buy a silicone Mickey Mouse shaped muffin pan. They’re so cute!

The combination of the banana doughnuts and the peanut butter glaze is amazing! It’s just like eating a peanut butter banana sandwich, but a little less messy since bananas aren’t flying out whenever you take a bite. Also, these doughnuts are super easy to make and they come out so beautifully! If you’ve got a doughnut pan at home and want to do a little something different for breakfast, I definitely recommend trying out this recipe. The only thing you’ll probably regret is that you didn’t bake these doughnuts earlier, just like me!