Happy National Doughnut Day!!! + Giveaway

Happy National Doughnut Day!!!  

As many of your know, I love Doughnuts. So, I have to celebrate National Doughnut Day. A little history of the holiday:

The first National Doughnut Day occurred in 1938 and was a fund raiser for The Salvation Army of Chicago. The goal of the day was to help the needy during the Great Depression, but to also, honor the women of the Salvation Army, who served doughnuts to soldiers heading off to World War One. Since 1938, the holiday has been held on the first Friday of each June.

Many national chains like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme are offering free doughnuts today. Always check with you local store to see if they are participating, but many are locally owned.

When I travel to new cities, I try to visit Doughnut Shops. To date, I have visited and reviewed the following shops:

Voodoo Doughnuts - Portland Oregon

Gourdough's - Austin, Texas

Astro Doughnuts &Fried Chicken - Washington, DC

Carpe Doughnut Truck - Brooklyn, NY

Shipley's Do-Nuts - Houston Airport

I hope 2014 brings more visits to tasty doughnut shops.

In honor of National Doughnut Day, I am giving away 3 $5 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts.

Go here to enter the giveaway.

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Happy National Doughnut Day

Happy National Doughnut Day!!! Who doesn't love doughnuts?

While researching this post, I learned a little about the history of this sweet & savory holiday. The first National Doughnut Day occurred in 1938 and was a fund raiser for The Salvation Army of Chicago. The goal of the day was to help the needy during the Great Depression, but to also, honor the women of the Salvation Army, who served doughnuts to soldiers heading off to World War One. Since 1938, the holiday has been held on the first Friday of each June.

Many national chains like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme are offering free doughnuts today. Always check with you local store to see if they are participating, but many are locally owned.

As you know, Do it for the Points loves Doughnuts. So much so, we are devoting a special section of our blog known from now on as Do it For the Doughnuts to exploring the different doughnuts of the United States.

To date, we have traveled and wrote about two shops (click on the links to read our reviews):

Voodoo Doughnuts - Portland Oregon

Gourdough's - Austin, Texas

Expect more visits to come in 2013 and beyond.

Do you have a favorite doughnut shop we should visit?

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Do If For The Doughnuts: Gordough's

On my trip to Austin, I had to find a place to get doughnuts. To find this doughnut place, I Googled, "Austin's Best Doughnuts." The place the popped up was Gordough's. A quick review at Yelp, revealed over 1,100+ reviews and a 4.5 star rating. With those type of stats, I knew this was the place to try.

Gordough's is a food truck. Yes, a Doughnut food truck. It is located on 1503 S 1st Street, in South Austin.

The truck is opened seven days a week closing somewhere between midnight and 3am. The truck fries up doughnuts on the spot and adds various toppings to it. The menu goes from traditional to crazy. Each doughnut costs somewhere between $4.50 and $6.00 each, kinda expensive.

  

 My sister decided to get a simple doughnut, Mama's Cake: Yellow Cake Batter with Fudge Icing

    - This was good. Very good. The fresh out of the fryer taste of the doughnut shined with this one.
       You got that crunch when you bit into this. Fork and Knife Required or 10+ napkins!

I decided to get six doughnuts.

My first choice was Son of Peach: Peach Filling, Cinnamon, Sugar, Cake Mix Topping

   - It was good but I could not tell it was peach. I thought it was honey, but overall good.

My second choice was Sara's Joy: Coconut filling with fresh coconut and chocolate icing

    - First, all of the "filing" is not pumped in the middle, but rather slopped on top of the doughnut. A 
      major letdown. Second, the chocolate was burnt and that ruined the taste. Third, it was messy and not
      in a good way. Major fail of a doughnut! 

My third choice was Heavenly Hash: Marshmallow with Chocolate Fudge Icing Topped with Fudge Brownie Candy.

   - The brownie candy was tasty. The rest of the doughnut was not. The chocolate was burnt
      and that ruined the doughnut, because that's all I tasted.. Also, the hot doughnut 
      underneath made it very messy.

My fourth choice was Baby Rattler: Fudge Icing & Fudge Oreos with a Gummy Rattlesnake

     
      - This was a fun one. Think the dirt dessert. Get the gummy snake, the oreos and the 
         chocolate icing and you were transported back to your childhood. One downside is the
         hot doughnut melted the gummy. But the size of the gummy snake was impressive.

The fifth doughnut was Flying Pig: Bacon with Maple Syrup Icing.

    - The bacon was crunch and salty which was a major plus. The maple icing did not cut the cake.
      Overall, this doughnut failed. It did not melt in your mouth like the one at Voodoo Doughnuts.

     

The final doughnut was Dirty Berry: Fudge Chocolate Icing with Grilled Strawberries

        - The strawberries were sweet and plentiful. However, they were not enough to 
           compensate for the burnt choc0late made worse by a hot doughnut.

I was disappointed by this place. Maybe I tried the wrong doughnuts, maybe it was a burnt chocolate or maybe they were rushing to get 6 doughnuts to me. I like that each doughnut is fried to order, but letting they cool a little before adding the toppings might help. Thinking about it, this maybe a drunk food place. They have a doughnut (Boss Hog) with BBQ and potato salad on it or another one with Canadian Bacon, Cream Cheese and Jalapeno Jelly. I would try those at 2am after drinking at the bars, but 5pm on a Sunday afternoon, I just wanted a fun tasty doughnut, which I got half the time. Batting .500 is not worth it at $4.50+ a doughnut.

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