Dirty Dozen Donuts = Delicious!!

The Tuesday Nut

Brand new to Sanford, Maine is a wonderful little shop Dirty Dozen Donuts. The name is fun, the donuts are incredible and the young owner, Kelsey Quint, is a much needed vibrant spark to the community.

 

Sanford, like many New England mill towns, was once a bustling textile center that was severly impacted as companies merged and jobs left. But Sanford is a town that refuses to die, boasting a population of 21,000 and attracting entreprenuers like Quint who breathe new life through old traditions. 

A native of York, Kelsey moved to Sandford in 2009, and after a sucessful prior stint at another of this Donut Hunter's loved Maine donut holes, Congdon's, she went out on her own to do what she knows best - donuts; boy does she ever.





Who can pass up the Boston cream...not me!



Do you want a jelly donut
 you'll need a shovel to eat?



How about a lemon donut

that's bigger than your head...done!

Kelsey not only makes an amazing donut, she believes in building community and supporting the locals that make a community strong.



“It was very cool to watch – money that I had saved from making dilly bars at a Dairy Queen when I was in High School – go to local tradesmen who were going to spend their money locally with people who would turn around and do the same,” she says. “When you hear on the news about the economy, it’s too large to not feel powerless. Focusing on my community and the people interact with everyday has a more powerful and rewarding effect.”



With that in mind, take a trip to Sanford to support Kelsey and her staff. One donut at a time we can strengthen our community and rebuild our economy. But just get there early or you might miss out. :)

Happy 4th of July from The Donut Directory

The Tuesday Nut

With the holiday quickly approaching we at The Donut Directory have decided to celebrate, the same as always, with donuts! What better way to do so than to look at some of the most delicious looking Stars and Stripes dough balls from around the country.  Remember, no matter how you do it, enjoy the donuts and celebrate safely!



The Art of Julie Gouge ...mmmm





Classic sprinkles











Sugar Swings! Serve Some: donuts and cupcakes...!

 


Yummm!!





Homemade Donuts are still the best :)

The Wednesday Nut 
  

What's better than having an extra long weekend vacation with good friends touring the back roads of Vermont on motorcycles? Well, nothing really. Unless, one of those friends is a loyal Donut Hunter and his wife is an amazing baker...of donuts!



Say hi Julie!

Say hi Julie!





With that, The Donut Directory is happy to introduce Julie Mento. Julie is the better half of Tony Mento, of the painfully short lived "Where's Tony with a Donut series" (short, because he disappeared and took the donuts with him) and is an accomplished student in the art of homemade donutery.

With a skillful hand and a taste for interesting creative ingredients, Julie always manages to say "Really it was nothing" with an ease that would make Paula Dean gain back the 30 pounds she just lost.



Into this wonderful batch of homemade donuts Julie stressed the key ingredient, “whole” nutmeg; boy did it work. The “whole” nutmeg gives the donut a rich, full flavor with a slight spice that is to die for. Additionally, Julie combined the bourbon base vanilla, created by our friends Fiona and Jeff, to make a sugar glaze that perfectly complements the hint of nutmeg; Tony agreed.

We ended up with over a dozen plain raised donuts, glazed, cinnamon sugar and chocolate glazed. I'm not ashamed to say that I polished of at least 7 and I'm looking forward to the next batch. I'll be sure to post the recipe as soon as Julie will give it up. But if you have a favorite recipe let us know and we'll bake a batch and immortalize you in The Donut Directory!





Superior Donuts - ON STAGE!!

The Monday Nut

As a both and actor and Donut hunter, for me, nothing could be better than combining the two. Coupled with donuts and coffee at the snack bar and you have an evening that is sure to be a hit.

Superior Donuts is a play by American playwright Tracy Letts. Its world premiere was staged by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2008, and it premiered on Broadway in 2009. The play focuses on the relationship between despondent Arthur Przybyszewski, a former 1960s radical who owns a rundown donut shop in Uptown, Chicago, and Franco, his energetic but troubled young African American assistant who wants to update the establishment with lively music and healthy menu options. Dialogue scenes are separated by soliloquys in which Arthur discusses his past and reminisces about the city as it was in his younger years.

Will LeBow, Omar Robinson. Photo by Mark S. Howard

The captivating aspect of Superior donuts, which was partly due to the timing of our recent economic struggles and the The Lyric Stage Company's choice to present the piece in early spring, was the accuracy in which the dialogue and the characters depict all that the American dream was and all that we dreamed it could be. Once a great nation, we have tripped and fallen, but we can rise again; like a donut. Superior Donuts send just that message and does so through the hole in the donut. The audience feels like they have a seat at the counter, can feel the grittiness, the joy, and the pain that unfolds

As James Foritano's review from Arts Scope says: "What kept the plot of Lyric Stage’s presentation of “Superior Donuts” dancing for me was the sharply but subtly delineated asymmetry of the characters, all wrestling with the “American Dream” but at different and differently slippery stages of the contest. “Superior Donuts” was, for me, the national ‘conversation’ our pundits and politicians keep promising but never broaching, although I didn’t realize that dimension, fully, until long out onto the cold streets of Boston. I left the Lyric Stage full of the atmosphere and strivings of uptown Chicago, of typical Chicagoans whose orbits intersect profoundly, wittily and sometimes unsettlingly with our own neighborhoods and selves." If you have the opportunity to catch a local performance this Donut hunter strongly suggests you do so.

Celebrate National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day!

The Friday Nut

Thank you to my good friend and ever faithful donut hunter Deb Walther for not only reminding me that it's my favorite day in the world, besides National Donut Day, but for giving me the best reason in the world to not feel guilty about eating one on the ride home today.

Check out all these pictures of Jelly Donuts on Ryan Seacrest.com and Pintrest and enjoy one today! Yumm.

It's National Donut Day! 75 Years and going strong.

The Friday Nut

I can't believe it has already been a year since the last National Donut Day, but here wer are again. So go out and celebrate with, well, donuts of course.

National Donut Day, celebrated the first Friday of June every year, celebrates the Donut Day event created by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I. The holiday celebrates the doughnut, or donut and is delicious - Thanks Donut Day USA!

With that in mind let's take a sampling of what's going on in local donuts around the country to celebrate our best dough friend!

Boston:           Free Donuts at Dunkins

                        Bostons Best Independent Donut Shops


New York:      NYC Mayor Marks Donut Day, but Urges Moderation...LOL


Chicago:         Ravenswood celebrates National Donut Day!

                        Salvation Army and Entenmann’s Bakery make the largest box of donuts ever created


Houston:         Free Donuts everywhere!!


Los Angeles:  LA Weekly, where will you celebrate?

So no mattter where you are there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. Grab friend, raise a donut and rejoice - It's National Donut Day !!!!

Mac Donuts- wholesaling homemade!

The Wednesday Nut

As a consummate food lover, I'm always intrigued by what I will find around each new corner. And, since work has brought me in and out of the Big Apple on a weekly basis as of late, those corners have been covered with food carts. To say I love food carts is to do neither the carts nor the word "love" justice. For me, food carts are much like and adult version of an ice cream truck, only I don't have to chase them nor do I have to ask anyone else for money.

Recently, I have noticed more and more of my favorite little street stops bulging with donuts and pastries of all shapes and sizes; largely because I now take the 5:00 am train in. Take my existing curiosity with food-cartage and add donuts to it and well, let's just say the whole office eagerly awaits my arrival.

Of course I can't start eating street donuts without finding out where they are from. Though I would love to believe the average street vendor rises at 2:00am and has a complete bakery back room some where hidden down under the coffee urns and rows of multi-colored juices, even I know that these nuts are likely the by product of some large scale production line. So, I asked. The first vendor informed me that he didn't make them but loaded up in the early AM at a company called Mac Donut. The second street vendor I asked said again, Mac Donut, as did the 3rd and fourth and so on. Of course, I had to find out who they were and where they came from...I just did.

I'm happy to report that, not only in sampling their products in person, but in reading about their business, Mac Donut is one wholesale company which this donut hunter is proud to highlight. Founded in 1992 in Astoria, NY the mission on their website says it all: "We intend to become the best donut company in the world by being unrivaled, unrelenting, unflappable, and simply unbeatable." Take it from me, in the world of wholesale street food, Mac Donut is definitely doing it right. With 20+ flavors of donuts, muffins and specialty pastries, stop by the next street vendor you see and ask them..."Where do you donuts come from?" There's a good chance it will be a Mac. :)