Delicious Denver Donuts

Doesn’t matter if you spell it donut or doughnut, if you’ve been paying attention with your nose and eyes, you may have noticed many urban bakers have been embracing and moving into a new delicious trend of these craft concoctions. Of course classics like the Boston crème and jelly filled (and thank goodness for that, I do need my Boston crème) still adorn many menus, but more and more store fronts and craft bakeries have been popping up with clever donuts that have exotic ingredients, fun profiles, and edgy names.

It seems the humble donut has been gradually making headway in the pastry world. It has elevated itself close to the level of where cupcakes were a few years ago but with much more versatility. The doughnut is somewhat a chameleon of the pastry world in that it can be fried, baked, grilled, smoked, infused, stuffed, pumped, glazed, topped, dunked and/or salted! There seems to be little the tiny doughnut can’t handle related to flavor or preparation. I even visited a new doughnut shop that’s using the Chipotle™ style of building your own. You pick the base, a glaze flavor and your toppings to build your own customized creation.

Maybe most importantly, the donut is not a huge investment of time, money or even a whole meal. At only a couple of dollars it is a very affordable and safe exploration snack, allowing you to be adventurous with minimal risk. When you buy a dozen, why not throw a couple of the unique ones into the mix? They can be a lot of fun and more than likely will shock you at how it works. Remember you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy donuts and isn’t that what life is all about? Below are my reviews on four Denver shops with craft donuts.

The Habit Doughnut Dispensary

LOCATION: 1553 Platte St. #130, Denver, CO 80202
WEBSITE

WHAT: A craft donut shop that fries batches of fresh doughy desserts throughout the day. As one flavor runs out, another new variety takes its place. If you want a fresh hot donut watch their pink cross sign out front. If it is lit up, a batch just came out. The coffee is free with any purchase, but that is not the most popular drink. They sell shooters of whiskey and other specialty cocktails for those patrons who want something stronger than fresh coffee. They serve fresh donuts from the early morning to the late bar crowd until midnight most nights. One of my favorite takeaways from this Denver donut experience was the blazed and glazed doughnut. What an incredible, yet simple profile. As a treat for your eyes, head over to Instagram and check out their offerings (@habitdoughnuts).
WHAT TO GET: Try one of their blazed and glazed brioche and a daily special.
AVAILABLE DOUGHNUTS AT TIME OF VISIT:

• Plain jane
• Daily chai
• Blazed and glazed brioche
• Girl scout thin mint
• GS samoa
• Classic glazed: Malted milk glaze
• Sugar glazed and blazed
• Lemon chiffon
• The Habit: Jumbleberry glaze raspberry streusel
• Black out: Chocolate ganache, cookie crumble with milk chocolate glaze
• White girl wasted

Glazed and Confused

LOCATION: 2501 Dallas St., Aurora, CO
WEBSITE
WHAT: With a name like Glazed and Confused they are deliberately taking a poke at the Mile High city’s newest revenue source of legalized marijuana. This gourmet doughnut shop is on the outskirts of downtown and makes several specialty and craft donuts every day except Mondays, maybe when they are needed the most. They try to use local and organic ingredients whenever possible. The décor is funky and bright, just like their creations, and they serve a solid cup of coffee.
WHAT TO GET: Grilled glazed and root beer float donut.
AVAILABLE DOUGHNUTS AT TIME OF VISIT:

• Confused samoa
• Chocolate glaze
• Breakfast of champs
• Vanilla bean glaze
• Grilly D
• My blueberry heaven
• Cinnanutellmom
• Confused car bomb
• Boston crème pie
• Coconut joy
• Breaking banana bread
• Puffynutz
• Root beer float donut

Sugar Mill

LOCATION: 2461 Larimer St., Denver, CO 80205
WEBSITE
WHAT: A small café/bakery that serves donuts for dessert. Very poor signage exterior, I almost missed it twice. They really only have one serious donut that helped them make this list, because it was that good. On the plus side, you can get a good custom drink to go with your doughy dessert.
WHAT TO GET: Fried doughnut sundae.
AVAILABLE DONUTS AT TIME OF VISIT:

• Glazed
• Fried donut sundae: A maple sugar glazed fried donut, with vanilla ice cream, salted caramel drizzle, chopped bacon and candied pecan pieces, topped with the donut hole.

Jelly’s

LOCATION: 1700 E Evans Ave., Denver, CO
WEBSITE
WHAT: A funky throwback 50’s diner, decorated with old cereal boxes that makes filled donut holes to order. They serve hardy breakfast, but were recommended for their specialty made-to-order donuts.
WHAT TO GET: The Mexican chocolate and Thai peanut donut holes.
AVAILABLE FLAVORS AT TIME OF VISIT:

• Jelly filled
• Lemon filled
• Cinnamon sugar
• Crème anglaise
• Mexican chocolate
• Green tea anglaise
• Thai peanut
• Maple bacon

These Denver donut shops prove that an individual should never underestimate even a classic food. If you have any questions about my culinary adventures in Denver, or how Asenzya® can help add sugary variety to your kitchen, contact me at dax.schaefer@asenzya.com for more information.

Until next time, good eating and good times!