Dough (Facebook / @doughbrooklyn)
305 Franklin Ave. (map it!)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(347) 533-7544
Open daily, 7a-5p
Accepts cash only
Date of Visit: Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 9:00 a.m.
As we were saying good-bye to New York, we still managed to sneak in some delicious eats. Before we even hopped in the car, we walked with our friends down the street to Dough, a corner shop in the neighborhood serving big donuts to a steady line of regulars.
The shop seemed empty when we first arrived, but within seconds it was crowded with folks nabbing fresh donuts and coffee, then sneaking back out the door. The customer area is fairly small, with just a small counter and a couple seats if you want to stay. But the retail front is surrounded by big glass walls that let you see into the back and side rooms, where a small army of bakers is busy at work.
We managed to find some room to stand and nibble on donuts, and watch one baker roughly chopping chocolate.
Despite the small size, their output is clearly enormous, as evidenced by the loaded carts and vans parked out front.
Dough specializes in one type of donut: large yeast donuts with a variety of very creative toppings. There’s no simple sprinkles or vanilla icing here; they dowse these bad boys with chocolate, fruit, nuts, even flowers.
Let’s take a look in their display cases. Example one: a cafe au lait donut topped with strussel.
Example two: a pumpkin donut with a light glaze and pepitas.
We attacked our box of donuts with gusto. Our selection included (clockwise from upper right) coconut, hibiscus, chocolate with cocoa nibs, and blood orange. These donuts back a punch flavor, so these aren’t easy coffee-and-a-donut type donuts. These are “I’ll slice a small piece off each one” donuts. The chocolate was rich with a slight bitter edge, the coconut nice and toasty, the bloody orange very strong, citrusy, and a tad sour from the acid in the actual slices of orange. And the hibiscus? Well, I don’t know how else to describe it but sweet and floral. All four were really delicious and fascinating types of donuts – like nothing I’ve had before. I like that they seem to use a base recipe for the yeast donut, and then use the toppings to really distinguish them.
As we were headed out of town, we didn’t linger too long over the donuts, but I’d love to go back and try even more.
