Joliet Doughnuts Round 1

I find that I never have quite enough time to to eat breakfast proper so anything I can grab on the way out or to my destination fills the role. One such food that always seems to be within arms reach is oddly enough doughnuts. So one day me and fellow blogger Donut Joe decided it was about time to figure out which doughnut ruled supreme over its inadequate brethren. In order to do this me and my colleague chose four doughnut providers within the the Joliet area that were easily available. The four choices were as follows Home Cut Donuts, Donut Den, Dunkin' Donuts, and finally a generic Walmart brand. We purchased all glazed or plane glazed doughnuts to keep the playing field uniform and fair. Donut Joe and I braved a lunchroom full of ravenous stares and vulture like students to bring you the people these results with that said onto the experiment.

 To properly evaluate the selected donuts we came up with 7 criteria; cost, height from base to top, length/width, glazing, sweetness, texture, and an overall score. Sweetness and texture were both graded on a scale of 1 - 10 one being completely bland for sweetness and rock hard for texture with 10 being overwhelmingly sweet or melt in your mouth respectively. The overall scores will be distributed after all four doughnuts have been covered. Lets begin shall we.

HOME CUT DONUTS

First up we have Home Cut Donuts, coming in at $.82 a doughnut Home Cut found itself on the cheaper end of the price spectrum between the four choices. With a height of 4cm and a length of 10cm Home Cut took the prize of "tallest" doughnut by beating out the competition by a mere 1cm.

In terms of glazing Home Cut left something to be desired choosing to have a powder glazing as oppose to a traditional cream type. Yet surprisingly the overall doughnut was a middle man in terms of sweetness with a score of 5.5 they had just enough sugary goodness to make me impulsively reach for another. 

When texture was concerned Home Cut provided a solid doughnut picking up a 5 on the scale but where the doughnut actually excelled was with every fresh bite. When bit into this humble doughnuts glazing would instantly melt in ones mouth bringing with it a sweetness that perfectly complemented the dough it was once attached to.

DONUT DEN

Up next we have Donut Den, at $.84 a doughnut with a height of 10cm and length of 10.6cm Donut den had a pretty well rounded donut.

Donut Den provided an adequate amount of glazing on their donut covering it with a traditional cream glazing. On top of that the glazing was quite thick providing for a good messy doughnut if your into that like I am. The doughnut was quite sweet ranking a 6.5 on the scale and it almost seemed to have a slight honey taste to it. 

The texture was a soft one allowing for easy biting, tearing, and chewing of the doughnut while simultaneously providing a satisfying weight. With it's light qualities I found it easy to quickly down 3-4 doughnuts. 

DUNKIN' DONUTS

Next we have the well known and quite infamous Dunkin' Donuts. Dunkin' had the most expensive doughnut with them coming in at  $.86 yet strangely they also had the smallest doughnut. With a height of 3.5cm and length of only 9cm the size was a tad bit disappointing.





Dunkin' Donuts doughnut had equal distribution of glazing having covered the entire doughnut in a fine layer of sticky goodness. The sweetness was on par with that of Donut Den's doughnut except Dunkin's lacked the sweet honey after taste.

The texture was a little bit rougher scoring a 4 requiring a bit of work after your initial bite to wear down the dough to a point where its safe to swallow. Although being a tad bit hard the dough itself had a light buttery taste adding to the overall experience.

WALMART

 

Finally we have the generic brand Walmart doughnut. Costing a measly $.58 a doughnut while coming in with a height of 3cm and length of 10.8cm the generic brand immediately jumped to the front as being a strong contender. 

At first glance the glazing appears to be marvelous on this bad boy having thick layers all around leaving no spot uncovered that is until you pick it up. The bottom of the doughnut was devoid of all glazing leaving only a rough patch of dough. An extreme disappointment yet the sweetness could have possibly saved this under dog right? Wrong, somehow even with the mountains of glazing on this thing the sweetness came in at a 4 being slightly bland and forgettable. 


The texture was another area of surprise. Notice my use of surprise and not say disgust somehow this bland disappointment  somehow found a way to score a 7 on the texture chart. To put that into perspective it would be as if a doughnut was made up of the sponge cake that Twinkies are (were) made up of. How in the world this doughnut managed to fail horribly at glazing distribution and taste yet perfect the art of texture is far beyond me. 

THE FINAL VERDICT: 
 
Coming in first is Donut Den. With a middle man price decent size and solid scoring on both texture and sweetness Donut Den has claimed the first seat in our little experement. 

In second place is Homecut Donuts. Homecut missed first due to losing in the sweetness and texture departments and on top of that the powder like glazing held it back from greatness. Still a solid doughnut yet there can only be one first place.

In third is Dunkin' Donuts. The thing that really held Dunkin' back was its price and size, for cheaper you could get higher quality doughnuts yet being a chain this was to be expected. 

In last place comes the Walmart brand doughnuts. This comes a no surprise due to Walmart screwing their customers when it comes to glazing and sweetness even its miraculous texture couldn't save the poor generic doughnut.

So that's it that concludes our little experiment to search the best doughnut. Yet the search continues for as long as there are doughnuts and snacks being made we shall be here to eat and bring you verdicts stay tuned readers, stay tuned.

Sweet sweet Bacon

Now while most would not consider bacon to be a snack I feel that it still contains relevance to this post for two reasons 1. Bacon has attracted a seemingly cult following and 2. Bacon needs no justification to be on a blog about food stuffs. Anyway to the point I have come across a recipe that well quite frankly enhances the almost perfect food. This candied bacon is known as Brown Sugar Bacon oh and believe me its as good as it sounds. On the off chance that the marriage of brown sugar and bacon doesn't sound appetizing to you, get outta here, but if it does (which it should) feast your eyes on this. Now you have a handy little recipe to impress you friends, family, and any other bacon addict you may know.

Ah yes almost forgot while your busy waiting for those sweet sweet bacon strips to cook why not have some tunes to help you get motivated for you inevitable food coma?

Friends of The Foods

Ah yes snack foods the horribly unhealthy yet unbelievably delicious mini foods. I’m not talking about apple slices and some low-fat yogurt you picked up for lunch no no no I’m talking about potato chips, candy, and homemade goodies that will stop ones heart simply by looking so sinful.

Like this bad boy.

Yet before I get ahead of myself and start listing off food that you should devour without a second thought I think it will be a good idea to list a few drinks that will help wash down any snack.

First up we have milk now I am fully aware that this is a no-brainer but that doesn’t mean it should be left out. Milk tends to go along best with baked goods as it seemingly complements the sweetness. Examples of milks friends are:

Cookies

Cake

Another well rounded drink is the Colombian made Postobόn. Postobόn is a surprisingly smooth and flavorful soda that leaves a pleasant aftertaste of fresh cut apples. The drink comes in a total of five flavors apple, grape, orange, pineapple, and lemon almost guarantee a hit for just about everyone.

Friends of Postobόn are:

Fruit flavored candy

Pixy Sticks

Lastly a well rounded and very enjoyable drink to close off this small list Dr. Pepper. Ah yes the good doctor goes with just about everything. Be it a quick bag of chips, some nachos,
or the drink itself in its float variant: Dr. Pepper is in my opinion the best drink to bless my lucky lucky taste buds. From the initial fizzle to the ever satisfying last sip Dr. Pepper has a hardy and full flavor that continues to satisfy even after the drink has been gracefully consumed. And thus concludes my miniature list of drinks that complement just about any snack.