Sunday, December 1, 2013

Do It For The Donuts: Shipley's Do-Nuts

On my mileage run to Omaha, I had a long layover in Houston's Airport (IAH). While I was wandering the terminal, I came across a Shipley's Do-Nuts' stand. Yes, a donut stand in the airport.


Shipley's Do-Nuts has a storied history:

"It was 1936, the end of the Great Depression, when Lawrence Shipley, Sr. created a gourmet recipe for Do-Nuts.  So delicious were the Do-Nuts that they have withstood the test of time.  Cut by hand and served hot throughout the day, the Do-Nuts were 5 cents a dozen and were only sold wholesale. The product was so successful that it started to sell on the retail market in the mid 1940s. With Lawrence Sr. away on donut routes, his wife Lillie would stay behind and make the culinary delights with Lawrence Jr. at her knee.
People would come from miles around to sample the nectar of the sumptuous hot glazed Do-Nuts. Serving them hot was a goal of the elder Shipley.  Lawrence Shipley, Sr. once said, “When they bite into that hot do-nut, it will bring them back every time.”
Over the years, the Shipley family has grown to more than 190 stores around the nation in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas, 86 of which are in the Houston area."

The Shipley's stand in the terminal was short on doughnuts. Typically, they have around 60+ types of doughnuts.



I choose 6 Do-Nuts and a crawler. They come in a nice compact box.





The first doughnut I choose was a coconut one:


Very simple doughnut, but very tasty. This is a yeast doughnut frosted with vanilla icing topped with sweetened shredded coconut.

The second one was Devil Food:




This reminded me of Ding-Dong. The devil food is from the filled family. A chocolate yeast doughnut filled with vanilla cream, almost like Fluff, and covered in glaze. The glazing of the doughnut brought elevated this doughnut to new levels.

The third one was the typical sprinkle.



In fairness of disclosures, I love sprinkles. When I worked at a doughnut shop, I would eat handful of sprinkles. Yes, gross, but I liked them more than the doughnuts at the time.

This doughnut is a yeast doughnut frosted with strawberry icing with sprinkles on top. I did not like this doughnut. It failed on so many levels. First, the strawberry icing was to sweet. Second, there weren't enough sprinkles on it. Third and finally, it looked like it had been beat up.

The fourth was similar to the third, strawberry frosted:


Didn't like this doughnut either. Same reason as before.

The fifth doughnut was another filled one:



Number 5 was filled with apple filling and again had the glaze. That glaze is what made this doughnut memorable. This was one of my favorite. One night I dreamed about this doughnut.

The final doughnut was another yeast frosted:



This doughnut was frosted with chocolate icing and cover in walnuts. I am happy that I choose this one, because the chocolate icing was sweet, but not to sweet. Also, look about of walnuts on this doughnut. Tons! I wish the sprinkle doughnut was covered liked this walnut doughnut.

On top of six doughnuts, I decided to get a crawler as well. Don't know why I did this, since 6 doughnuts should be enough.




Unlike other crawlers, this one was an actual all connected. Many crawlers are two long pieces of dough tied together rather than one piece. Again, the glaze on the doughnut was so so so tasty. I know I have used the term elevated many times to describe the glaze, but that's what made the crawler amazing. When you bit into the crawler, there was a crunch. Not a stale crunch, but a sweet glaze crunch. Its been a long time since I have experienced this sweet crunch.

Overall, I was happy to visit the Shipley's counter at IAH terminal. It was a nice break for a long layover, but the doughnuts were amazing. Another major positive of Shipley's Do-Nuts was the price. The price per doughnut was around $.75. This is a crazy low price.

I look forward to visiting a non-airport Shipley's in the near future.
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