Glazed and Enthused: 13 of Toronto’s best doughnuts
Glazed and Enthused: 13 of Toronto’s best doughnuts
By Eric Vellend |
By Eric Vellend |
Fried dough is suddenly everywhere, infiltrating dessert cards and pastry cases and threatening to dethrone panna cotta as the sweet du jour. From rounds to holes, beignets to churros, here are a baker’s dozen of the city’s best By Eric Vellend
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- BYMARK’s Mexican-style churros are filled with dulce de leche and served with warm semi-sweet chocolate and pistachio pralines. $13.50. 66 Wellington St. W., 416-777-1144.
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- C5’s chocolate and vanilla holes, filled with milk and white chocolate (respectively), come with candied almonds and butterscotch and chocolate puddings. $12. 100 Queen’s Park Cres., 416-586-7928.
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- CRUSH WINE BAR’s trio features a Boston cream, a cinnamon hole and a sugar-dusted glazed. $4. 455 King St. W., 416‑977-1234.
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- DELUX’s cinnamon-dusted holes come with a café Cubano and ramekins of dulce de leche and chantilly cream. $6. 92 Ossington Ave., 416-537‑0134.
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- THE DRAKE’s pleasure bomb is filled with coconut custard, glazed with vanilla bean icing and rolled in toasted coconut. $2.50. 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042.
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- EPI BREADS uses raspberry jam in its classic jelly doughnuts. Available Friday and Saturday. $2.10. 1526 Bayview Ave., 416-488-1952.
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- GEORGE’s beignets have molten dark chocolate centres and are sided with marmalade and a passion fruit– lemon curd. $8. 111c Queen St. E., 416-863-6006.
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- HARBORD ROOM’s lime curd–filled doughnut comes with coconut tapioca, roasted pineapple and blueberry preserves. $9. 89 Harbord St., 416-962-8989.
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- HOOF CAFÉ enriches its fritter dough with bone marrow and fills each hole with rhubarb-vanilla jam. Served on weekends only. $5. 923 Dundas St. W., 416-792-7511.
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- NIAGARA STREET CAFÉ adds a hit of smoked paprika to its churros and serves them with dark chocolate and cardamom cream. $9. 169 Niagara St., 416-703-4222.
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- PANGAEA’s haute Timbits are filled with ricotta cream, rolled in citrus sugar and served with poached kumquats and an orange-cardamom milkshake. $10. 1221 Bay St., 416-920-2323.
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- THE STOCKYARDS’ New Orleans–style square beignets have dulce de leche centres. Sunday brunch only. $4. 699 St. Clair Ave. W., 416-658-9666.
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- THOBORS’ soft Parisian beignets are filled with homemade apple preserves. $3.50. 627 Mount Pleasant Rd., 416-544-1733.
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All those doughnuts put my city to shame.
I have only managed to find 2 places that make fresh doughnuts in Ottawa.
Rideau Bakery has a jam filled doughnut with powderd sugar on top (at the reasonable price of $2).
The second place is Golden Baguette bakery on Bank st.
They have a doughnut that seems to be made from an egg dough, and is sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, or else topped with real melted chocolate (instead of icing)-and that is a steal for $1.25!
Most people in this city they go to “tim’s” it seems.
When I go to Toronto I will sample the doughnuts listed here!
I’m a bit disappointed that the story completely misses out on the fantastic “paczki” Polish donuts which are available in all the little bakeries along Roncesvalles Avenue. They are light and fluffy and filled with either plum, rapberrry, or rose jam. They are absolutely delicious and go for about $.80 cents or so.
While I’m sure that everything listed is quite tasty, this list seems to be a bit of a stretch for the traditional doughnut. I agree with Margaret about the Polish donuts on Roncesvalles; they are delicious. My all-time favourites are made by San Remo Bakery on Royal York near Evans. Everyone I’ve introduced these to could not believe that a doughnut could taste this good. They have a lot of variety too.
13 reasons to say goodbye to my summer wardrobe. But I think the list is missing one: Bonjour Brioche’s Royale…delicious, and unbelievable when fresh.
What about Little Nicky’s Coffee at Queen & Peter?! They make mini donuts hot & fresh to order :)
I agree about Little Nickys Coffee…made right before your eyes; the most amazing indulgence; melt in your mouth!..and their espresso rocks too…..
I agree with the many posters that this is not a very “workaday” list of donut purveyors. Besides the excellent Roncesvalles paczki mentioned above (my vote is for Granowska’s as the pinnacle of this art), I must also highlight the churros from Pancho’s Bakery on Davenport.
While I wouldn’t call the churros “light on the stomach” they certainly have enough yeasty sugary goodness to be a guilty pleasure often worth repeating.
How very…Toronto.
It is in fashion to offer an haute-cuisine donut with exotic and indulgent ingredients, so every chic restauranteur has their take. Perhaps next year it will no longer be fashionable and the donuts will be gone.
I would love to find a place that makes classic donuts, well. A proper cruller, from cake batter, fried to crunchy perfection and glazed with care, say. Instead I have to choose between par-baked cardboard at Tim Hortons and pretentious gourmet masturbation.
While we’re at it, how about a decent Quebec-style poutine? I don’t need foie-gras and duck confit on it, nor do I want 73 varieties or vegetarian gluten-free gravy. Just a proper poutine with crisp fries, tasty sauce and fresh curd. Not ironic enough for hipsters, I guess.
Crush Wine Bar? Crush Wine Bar? When would any customer go to a wine bar for doughnuts? This article is pretentious.
Enough with the Dulce Leche already, I don’t need caramelized goat’s milk with my sacrosanct doughnuts.
It is truly a pity that the paczki’s were completely overlooked. You have to see a kitchen full of cooks go crazy over them to realize how good and down to earth they really are.
I also expected the Polish ‘pączki’ to be on this list; they definitely should be. On second thought, perhaps they are deserving of their own article!
Pączki (POHNCH-kee) are surprisingly fluffy and light, made on a brandy-kissed yeast dough and allowed to rise high, producing a more airy and delicate doughnut than the traditional cakey ones we’re used to.
The fillings are not overly sweet, and do not overwhelm the dough that enrobes them. Most popular is a dark, fruity plum butter – rumoured to aid digestion (LOL). It’s addictively good, and may be laced with a hint of brandy at some bakeries too – mmmm. Plum and raspberry are always available, but house specialty fillings are readily found: fruity preserves such as rosehip, apricot, strawberry, lemon, apple, or less traditional fillings, like poppy seed, cream, custard, or sweetened cheese.
You can of course just enjoy a plain unfilled one too.
The pączki come dusted with powdered or granulated sugar, or glazed
with a flat sugar icing which contains a whisper of lemon.
Pączki are available at all the wonderful European bakeries along Roncesvalles and in the Bloor West Village. Benna’s (135 Roncesvalles) bakes them daily and they sell for .85 each.
Of course, donut afficionados should make an effort to try pączki posthaste!
Recently, Roncesvalles Village has adopted a popular annual Polish tradition of celebrating Pączki Day – a Mardi Gras type celebration featuring donuts as the pre-Lenten indulgence. It starts on Fat Thursday (March 3rd in 2011), the week before Mardi Gras. In the past, there has even been a Pączki Day Parade on the Saturday before Lent along Roncesvalles.
Now doesn’t a donut that has its own parade deserve a spot on the list of Toronto’s best donuts?!
How can a list of Toronto’s best doughnuts not include Greek Loukoumades? The best in the city can be found at Athens Pastries
A feature on Toronto’s best “new” doughnuts that doesn’t include the spectacular “best in class” churros super chef Chris MacDonald has been serving at Cava (and for takeout at XOCAVA next door) since he opened and before that at his authentic Mexican spot below Avalon? Shame on you Toronto Life — in the days of Epicure or even James Chatto, you never would have credited copycats and latecomers to a trend while missing the chef who started the trend.
Missing: Bar L’espresso Mercurio handmade donut from the owner’s mom, who makes them by hand with Brioche dough.
Haute cuisine Egg McMuffins and doNUTS seem to have a loyal and enthuiastic following and I was wondering if these establishments offer day old product or do they donate these to their local food bank? Back in the dark ages I was rewarded with a glazed donut fresh from a hole in the wall on Queen West and Niagara area. Licking your fingers after consuming the donut was part of the treat.