Do It For the Doughnuts: Carpe Donut

Last weekend, I was walking down the street in Brooklyn looking for breakfast and stumble upon this food truck:

Hot Fresh Donuts? Sold! I had to stop even though I had family waiting for me at home. The food truck known as Carpe Donut.

Today, they were only selling their Apple Cider Donut. According to this sign and a little research, the Apple Cider Donut was rated by New York Magazine as one of 2013's Best Donuts. (see article here).

                                        

There was also a sign explaining what the donuts are made from: 

                                       

From there website, "You’ve never eaten a donut like this. We only use the finest ingredients including organic flour, local eggs, local apple cider and organic spices. We cook all our donuts in 100% pure soybean oil. No hydrogenation, no trans-fats, no shortening. Our donuts are all natural so if you are not going to eat them within a couple hours, you should refrigerate or freeze them. These babies are fresh and don’t have an indefinite “shelf life” like those other things that are passed off as donuts."

I decided to buy 6, which cost me $11 and I also got a FroDo, aka ice cream sandwich donut, which cost $4.50. They take credit cards for all us mile folks. The best part was the donuts came in a paper bag to suck up the grease.

My first taste was unexpectedly crunchy, but inside was light and fluffy. The donut was not overly sweet and you could definitely taste the hint of apple cider.

I had one a few hours later and it wasn't crunchy anymore. Rather it was just soft and fluffy. Still good, but I think the key is to eat them right out of the fryer.

Later in the day, I had my FroDo, an apple cider donut split in half and filled with organic vanilla Blue Marble Ice Cream. The FroDo is packaged in a small plastic container, which I liked. I was expecting to get it in plastic wrap, which I assumed would result in a mess. With container, its easy to transport, protects it from getting damaged and keeps it cold.

The FroDo looks like a mini bagel with cream cheese. The one I received was not assembled nicely.

To be honest, I did not like the FroDo. It had to much ice cream and not enough Donut. I was hoping that the donut would be fluffy, sweet and apple cider flavor would be present. What I got was a mushy donut with blah vanilla ice cream and not apple cider flavor. I'll give them an A for effort and creativity, but I think they need to go back to the drawing board.

The donuts were amazing. 2 thumbs up! The experience eating them remind me of being a little kid living in Connecticut. The annual tradition of going to the orchard/pumpkin patch, getting a pumpkin, a bag of apple cider donuts and unpasteurized hot apple cider. There are many times in the Fall that I long for the New England fall experience. This donut truck brought me right back there and left a major smile on my face!

Since this is a food truck, they move around. Follow them on twitter or facebook to track them down!

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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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