Specialist pudding shops are something of a thing at the moment, which is clearly an excellent development in civilisation as a whole and the well being and happiness of those of us that eat out in London. As against, obviously terrible for my waistline, but you have to man up and make the sacrifices somewhere. Nothing comes for free in this life etc etc.
And withing the most excellent new category of pudding specialists, comes the specialist category of purveyors of luxury doughnuts. No mere Krispy Kremes or, Gott in Himmel, Dunkin Donuts here.
I used the German phrase above as, although doughnuts almost certainly originated in Rome as fried balls of dough (duh…), the first proper example of a written recipe for doughnuts is in the Küchenmeisterei cookbook, which translates as Mastery of the Kitchen. This was published in Nuremberg in 1485, and offers a recipe for “Gefüllte Krapfen“: sugar free, stuffed, fried dough cakes. Bet you did not know that. Evens as to whether you care.
But back to what matters – the new wave of doughnuts. The first and foremost of the wave has so far been doh’hut, which started (as all great things do) in Leeds and now has two branches in London, at Spitalfields and Exmouth Markets. The latter has taken a chunk out of my spare change to satisfy a never-ending craving for their vanilla crème patisserie doughnuts – quite traditional but exquisitely made doughnuts with a smooth and delicious vanilla bean custard folded through with Chantilly cream and a sliced strawberry.
However, Donutelier, on the Charing Cross Road side of Covent Garden, takes things to another level altogether, at the very least artistically. As the photographs show, they aim to, and succeed in making their doughnuts not just culinary but artistic masterpieces. Their vision of making their shop feel like a fashion boutique is perhaps an unachievable task, but boy have they come close. It’s a very cool place to hang out in and spend a few pounds to add a few pouds.
And add a few pounds you will as these doughnuts are not just stunning to look at it, but wonderful to eat, helped in no small part by the staff making them on site each day from top notch ingredients. And the large picture window provides some theatre from them being glazed, sculpted, stuffed, moulded and otherwise improved in every ingenious manner in front of your eyes.
For the sake of our readers I rolled up my sleeves and tried their three summers specials: the Apricot Crumble (£6.50), which featured cream cheese chantilly and apricot coulis filling, almond crumble, apricot chantilly cream; the Raspberry Rose Crème (£6.50) with Rosewater Crème and raspberry jam filling, crisp raspberries, pistachio nibs, Chantilly cream, meringue nest and fresh raspberries; and the Yuzu Meringue (£6.00) with chantilly cream filling, vanilla sugar crust, yuzu cream and toasted meringue.
Unable to move as a result, I had to decline the Tropical Danish Croissant ring (£5.90) with rich flaky pastry, almond cream base, vanilla ganache and tropical filling, fresh mango and pineapple with shaved coconut and a sugar dusting. But in the spirit of hope springing eternal ordered a takeaway of a Strawberry Cream Croissant (£6.90) – a butter croissant with a rich flaky pastry, strawberry jam, chantilly cream, fresh strawberries and a sugar dusting. God it was good.
In fact they were all quite superb – with maybe the Yuzu Meringue being my absolute favourite. But really it’s silly to try and compare and contrast. These are epic, very special doughnuts. Just don’t go too often unless you want to replace half of your wardrobe.
Oh and for the record, the staff were delightful and the coffee every bit as bitter and short as I love it (and I suspect as long and milky as you may prefer).
Best of all, there are rumours of a branch soon to open in my very own Soho….
Donutelier, 50 Charing Cross Road, Covent Garden WC2H 0BB – www.donutelier.co.uk
Related post: Humble Crumble to open in Covent Garden