Doughnut Quest: Search for holy grail of doughnuts

Don't be afraid to take chances, grasp for that brass ring, step outside of your comfort zone and experience the "other". For the fortunate among us, a mentor may present themselves and help us to take those first shaky steps into the unfamiliar and exciting unknown. If this happens, take their help joyfully and let the adventure begin.

An adventure was presented to me recently, and I know a good opportunity when it arises. My friend, Larry, was going to have a visitor, Matt, up from Louisiana immediately after the Christmas holidays. Matt wanted to experience the greatest doughnut, the pinnacle of doughnut-hood that our area had to offer. Matt concocted a great quest, whereupon Larry, Matt and my husband would travel the realm, searching with serious intent for the ultimate doughnut. To keep things simple and fair, they would search only for the lowly glazed doughnut; no fillings, no flavored glazes, just the original doughnut in its purest form. On this quest, they experience many barriers, but they trod each one down in turn.

I, alas, could not go on the journey, as I had to work. But when the men generously said that not only would they procure the doughnuts, but they would wait for me to do the Great Tasting, I carpe diem-ed the heck out of that.

The menfolk had a plan and a list of places to visit. They would only buy doughnuts from the source, the wellspring of whence the doughnuts sprang. All this means is no buying from second-hand places, such as gas stations. Straight from the store! Right away, the plan was partially foiled, because this was the Tuesday after Christmas, and a couple of the key places were closed. But never fear, this quest galloped forth anyway, riding roughshod over all obstacles in its way.

When my work was done and I could journey to the gathering place, the men had wrangled together five donuts cooked in three counties. Matt was serious about his doughnut tasting, and wanted a sample of the best. Because of the straight from the source rule, these guys did some driving. From the north came Hoeckele's; from the south, Houchin's; and from the motherland, Krispy Kreme, Donut Palace and Dunkin' Donuts.

We derived a grading system that had four categories: appearance, taste, texture, and glaze. We assigned five points in each category, tasted in silence so as not to influence each other, and assigned numbers while taking notes. This was all very scientific and very, very serious.

I never honestly thought there was much difference between the different brands of glazed doughnuts, but when you see them side by side and taste them one after the other, the variation was startling. For all four of us, Krispy Kreme took the award for appearance. Perfectly round, perfectly golden and with a glaze that covered like a second skin, none of us could deny that this was a lovely piece of food. Taste was a highly contested category, but Hoeckele's came out on top. Some of our notes said, "Lots of flavor, has the best smell, " and the detailed, "Pleasing and savory/sweet. Dense enough to chew but quickly dissolves. Pleasant aftertaste." Texture went to Krispy Kreme by a 10th of a point. "Light", "fluffy" and "pillowy" were adjectives used here. The best glaze by points was also Krispy Kreme. I was the sole objecter here, but the men all agreed that the coverage, thickness and sweetness of a Krispy Kreme glaze was the penultimate perfection.

By points, Krispy Kreme was the best overall doughnut, with Hoeckele's a very close second. As Larry's wife, Heather, commented: "There was a reason that we sometimes went to St. Louis just to get a Krispy Kreme before the one in Cape opened." Wise, wise words from a wise, wise woman.

Then, to top things off, we made tiny ice cream sandwiches with the leftover doughnuts, or amuse-bouch, as Matt called them to class things up a bit. In a brief aside, Tillamook vanilla ice cream found at Schnucks is amazingly creamy and not overly sweet. I'm glad they introduced me to it.

Doughnut Quest was finally over, and we lamented the fact that some big players were not included. Maybe we could repeat the quest on Matt's next visit. But then again, how many perfect quests does one life deserve? I am indeed fortunate.