#donut review

[germ-t-ripper]

Germ T Ripper's quick donut critique #134 w/ LouNixon

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Black Label Bakery: Raspberry Cheesecake Doughnuts

A difficult day calls for doughnuts, I think. After a stressful morning of driving woes, I was treated to these doughnuts. I was going to go for the 'ol reliable white iced with sprinkles. A familiar comfort for a frazzled soul.

But for you, I got adventurous.

Where from?

This doughnut was picked up at the local co-op. It is a green co-op, if that makes a difference. It came in a snazzy black box and promised a premium experience. Packaged in two, rather than four, I do expect them to be pretty premium!

Initial Thoughts

The packaging was classier than you'd expect for a doughnut; expectations are high. The latticed pink on the white is pretty. I do expect the icing to taste like cheesecake. I'm being picky here, but the hot pink and grey chunky sprinkles are discordant with the delicate icing work. But that's just me.

The Bread

The dough is soft and brioche like. It has a good firm bite, while still being melt in the mouth smooth. Just what we like. There is slight evidence of underproofing with the caverns on one side. But I don't think it detracts from texture. On its own, I do think the dough is a bit tasteless. Far from premium, this dough is your standard mass manufactured dough. No complexity here. But, I think this isn't the worst thing in this case. I'll get to that in a second!

The Filling

This is a Doughnut Daily first! Today's doughnut was filled with raspberry jam and, what they describe as, curd. I don't tend to expect ring doughnuts to have a filling, so this was fun. Firstly, I am very impressed that there is jam consistently around the whole ring. The quantity of filling was perfect. It didn't ooze unpleasantly onto my lip, a sensation that I personally find unpleasant and strangely reminiscent of a challenge at a school assembly whereby you had to eat a sugared jam doughnut without licking your lips. What the message of this particular challenge was is lost on me. But in any case, this wasn't that. The jam was on the sweeter side and only gently tart, more store bought than homemade – which is to be expected. The curd could have gone missing entirely had I not sought it out. I think that it was there to represent the cheesecake element. It has the soft sourness of cheesecake. I can see their vision with it. And the texture was there. But this doughnut was a textural experience! If I hadn't stopped to search for it, I'd have missed it.

The Topping

Back to your regularly schedule headers with this one. I'm going to start on the topping with the sprinkles. The sprinkles on this weren't your standard strand sprinkles. Maybe they hoped the rough and chunky sprinkles would look more sophisticated? Grown-up? I start with the sprinkles they single-handedly tick a raspberry cheesecake box that was otherwise missed. These sprinkles were probably some combination of sugar and citric acid. They had a peppy little tang to them. They made up, I think, for what the jam lacked. They are the main contributor, however, to the textural experience (overload) that I describe above. Underneath, the white and pink icing did its best to live up to my high expectations. The flavour reminded me of the yogurt from those yogurt-covered dry fruit. Slightly sour, slightly sweet, creamy texture.

Final Verdict

These are some really yummy doughnuts. I had high hopes and was prepared for disappointment. But actually, for a shop-bought factory produced doughnuts, these fulfilled what they were offering well. Do you have any doughnut suggestions, questions or ideas? Reply to this post! And you can support by sending a gift card to your favourite doughnut shop using this email: doughnutdaily.blog [at] gmail [dot] com (UK based only at this point, thank you!)

[doughnutdaily]

Lidl Chocolate Doughnut

We're back again so soon after the last review. This doughnut was bought as a fun treat to top off a nice day, which makes a first for this review blog! I had just enjoyed my first Nando's in about five years with some friends we were visiting. It is their favourite restaurant and we love that for them.

Where from?

This doughnut was picked up from the Lidl bakery in the UK. Lidl is renowned for its bakery. They have a seeded loaf that I would probably kill for. But we're here to talk about doughnuts. Full disclosure: I did not eat this doughnut on the day of purchase. This doughnut was eaten for breakfast the following day because I was offered a pastel de nata and it would have been criminal to say no.

Initial Thoughts

It is sometimes difficult to parse my initial thoughts. I was a bit food drunk when I bought this doughnut and would have been in awe of very little. But I distinctly remember just being a bit chuffed that there was a doughnut left for me. It looks unassuming and yummy. Forgive my photo which was taken after travel in my handbag. The cracked topping shouldn't colour your opinion.

The Bread

Now let me tell you. I bit into this doughnut and had to take a minute to recover. The bread so so perfectly smooth and soft. It was like biting into brioche, though not as buttery. You can see in the photo that the dough is slightly underproofed. But not so much as to impact the flavour and texture of the bite.

The Topping

The topping had just enough sweetness and chocolateyness for its presence to be made. It did taste like the doughnut had been dipped in perfectly tempered chocolate, rather than some approximation of chocolate flavoured sauce. It had just enough of a snap to it before it melted in your mouth. It wasn't chocolate with a doughnut (as you might see with loaded doughnuts), but the perfect balance of doughnut with chocolate.

Final Verdict

These are the best doughnuts I've reviewed on this blog so far. If you're near a Lidl right now, go in and get one! They are completely delicious.

Do you have any doughnut suggestions, questions or ideas? Reply to this post! And you can support by sending a gift card to your favourite doughnut shop using this email: doughnutdaily.blog [at] gmail [dot] com (UK based only at this point, thank you!)

[germ-t-ripper]

Germ T Ripper's quick donut critique #122 w/ Eric Dillinger

[doughnutdaily]

The Aldi Doughnut

Welcome to the first ever not-daily Daily Doughnuts review. I'm sure you're all here because you love doughnuts and want to know exactly where to get the best ones. After a tough day, I took myself off to the second closest shop to treat myself to doughnuts. Thankfully, these were much better than the doughnuts from the closest shop.

Where from?

This doughnut come from Aldi in the UK. I was lucky to find it. The baked goods section was deplete of doughnuts. This pack was among the bread having been discarded in exchange for a tortilla. The doughnut gods smiled upon me today.

Initial thoughts

These doughnuts are shiny. They have a distinctly plastic look to them which doesn't fill me with the greatest confidence. If you told me these were polymer clay earrings that fell into the gaze of a enlargenator, I would believe you.

The Bread

Let's not beat around the bush here. Doughnuts are bread. And these doughnuts have some excellent bread. They have a nice bite to them. A little chewy but not an effort to chew. They're soft and buttery. The cross section shows a perfect crumb, dense and fluffy. It is just the right amount of sweet to be flavourful but remain light. I could eat all four.

The topping

Topping can make or break a doughnut. The bold, rich colour of these doughnuts very quickly revealed itself as being all for show. It is bland and mostly flavourless. I like the smooth texture; I think it compliments the fluffy bread very well. But nothing to write home about. The sprinkles are the same icing so add nothing to the overall experience beyond aesthetics. Overall, while the topping has very little to give, it does well not to detract from the deliciousness of the doughnut.

Final Verdict

These doughnuts are light and inoffensive. They'd be a great addition to any bring-and-share party. They look the part and certainly won't upset anybody, even if they don't change lives. 7/10

Thanks for coming along this journey with me. Do you have any doughnut suggestions, questions or ideas? Reply to this post! And you can support by sending a gift card to your favourite doughnut shop using this email: doughnutdaily.blog [at] gmail [dot] com (UK based only at this point, thank you!)

[germ-t-ripper]

Germ T Ripper’s quick donut critique #106 w/ Swoogle

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Germ T Ripper’s quick donut critique guest edition featuring Erik Hilger of TAKE THE REINS!

[germ-t-ripper]

Germ T Ripper’s quick donut critique #104