This flavor of donut is available at a few California shops. It is my all time favorite flavor of donut. It is cake-style, extremely similar to a buttermilk bar style in terms of texture: tender center, very crusty/crispy outside. However it is more flavorful, more moist generally, and it has spicycake-like notes to it.
So what’s my question?
Most importantly: do recipes exist for this that I can get my hands on? I’ve googled, no luck, BUT it seems it might be a problem with the naming of it, which is my second question:
Does anyone know why that is the name, since it does not noticeably taste of honey or of wheat? The color of the inside is darker, but there is nothing about the taste that suggests that it is made with whole-wheat flour.
I think the name is very misleading, and that is why these doughnuts are very hard to find: “honeywheat” doens’t really sound very appealing to the masses - but if they tasted them they would discover a serious treat. I’d campaign for a name-change but I don’t think there’s an Office of Donut Naming…
Anyway, anything you know about the mysteries of the honeywheat donut would be welcome.
“Wheat” doesn’t necessarily mean “whole wheat”. Almost all donuts are wheat donuts. And a lot of time, the brownish bread you buy at the grocery store that’s labeled “wheat bread” is just white bread with a bit of dye added. They can get away with this because they’re not actually lying: It is in fact made from wheat flour.
As for the name appealing to the masses, it does make them sound healthier.
If you are in LA already, why would you want to make them yourself? Have you ever made donuts? It’s a frightful mess, coating every surface in your home with a fine film of polymerized oil that is a bitch to clean off, and you end up with a gallon of donut-flavored oil that you can’t really use for anything else.
Drop: ultra-fresh, made exactly the way I prefer. Donut fabulousness decreases with every minute that passes after they come out of the hot fat.
AND… they are VERY hard to find. Even the shops that do offer them do so on a sporadic basis, and the shops anywhere near me do bad versions.
Vow: by “moist” I mean the moisture in the batter itself, in the center of the donut that isn’t touched by the fry oil. This moisture can be from milk, water, egg, fat, etc… it’s like any cake product in that respect.
The “honeywheat” moniker dates back at least to the late 70’s, which was my first introduction to them, and I kinda doubt anyone was trying to make them sound healthy. But even if they were, it was a bad idea because people don’t think healthy when they think donuts!
I found my answers, kinda sorta, and I’ll have to check them out, but the pictures look exactly right for these buttermilk, with the split, craggy well-browned crust. I figure a little experimentation will yield the path to the elusive “honeywheat” version - in fact that recipe already calls for cinnamon and nutmeg, so it’s probably not far off.
I can’t argue with that. I thought the other krazy thing Krispy Kreme did was destroy the brand by selling donuts in regular stores. Cold donuts that may have reached room temperature as much as several days before. You could have bought Little Debbie donuts and they would have been as tasty.
Used to shop at a shop attached to a bagel bakery. Warm they were ambrosia, but as soon as they hit room temperature they were as inedible as the ones they sold frozen at supermarkets.
Yeah, aside from the fact that the KK recipe is especially light, it’s really only the fact that they are offered hot that sets them apart from any other good glazed donut. The fact that donuts are prepared in the middle of the night is so sad…
Did a trial run of the recipe I posted and learned a few things. The most interesting, to me, was how the cragginess occurs: splits when the dough hits the fat and rises.
Mine were not nearly as crispy as I would like, though, and as I’ve had. I seem to recall hearing at some point that the age/use level of frying oil can have a very large impact on the end product, I’ll have to research that.
I think the dough should also be wetter… I seem to recall making buttermilk donuts in school with dough that was closer to batter and it resulted in a crispier crust. Anyone know anything about these finer points of frying?
The lingering “moisture” in a cake or donut or muffin is typically from the fat in the batter. It makes a tender crumb. You can get this tenderness from applesauce or other fruit puree, but the longevity of the leftovers can play a factor in how you adapt the recipe. Applesauce or fruit puree products should be refrigerated.
When people were trying to get away from cakes and cookies, the muffin market exploded. Then the muffins got bigger and bigger, and folks were bamboozled into thinking one of those mongo muffins was a single serving, and oh-so-healthy! Those things are loaded with fat to give them the “moisture” and you’d be appalled at how many calories are in those things!
~VOW
For the record i have nailed the donut experience that i was looking for…turned out to be simply upping the spices and moisture in the buttermilk recipe then using a piping bag to create lots of easily crisped edges, then fry in a mix of solid and liquid fats. Comes out perfect.
