Blue Dot Donuts, New Orleans

In America we all had certain things we all wanted to devour. For my brother it was ribs, my mum wanted fried green tomatoes and I wanted crawfish. My sister-in-law however really only wanted one thing while we wanted dozens, she wanted doughnuts. There had been a lot of research and one play my brother found on Tripadvisor with good reviews was Blue Dot Donuts in New Orleans on 

Canal Street, so there we had to go. We also discovered it was owned by three policemen, and there was even a policeman in there...we're such losers we wanted to take pictures of the poor man.

We took the trolley up, it only took about 15 minutes and was super easy, and let me tell you - you see some sights. It was brilliant as you start to go through some of the neighbourhoods and it's so interesting to see local guys coming on and off, love to people watch. The trolley stopped right by the shop and as soon as we crossed over to walk in a total stranger shouted over 'Buy some donuts! They're amazing!', as if we needed any more encouragement, we practically broke into a run. Crazy British (and one Norwegian) people that we are, when you see doughnuts from anywhere other than Greggs, you run. We had heard that they run out by 11am sometimes so we were there for 10am, not even that hungry after breakfast but we weren't going to miss out.

The shop itself is a cute little bright blue house, and it just sucks you in. We literally were like kids in a sweet shop. I have to be honest, the rest of us weren't too bothered about getting doughnuts, that is until you walk into the friendliest shop in the word and get the best service, things soon change. And the hunger awakens. 

So in we walked, totally confused on how things worked, no real reason I think we were just overwhelmed by the sheer amazingness of it all, yeah, that's a word. There were so many flavours we had to be talked through it a couple of times, I think they thought we were quite funny - you know the 'it's so fluffy' girl in Despicable Me? Yeah...that was us.

The first doughnut (I say first, because there were of course more to follow) I chose was the maple bacon log. By the point I was totally converted to maple syrup and I'm a strong believer in putting bacon with baking and wish England did it more. It was a good choice, no, an epic choice. So sweet I felt my fingers turning into sticks of rock but then you get hit by the saltyness of the bacon and it's just - wow, stupidly delicious. By now I was already overloaded with sugar by choosing one of the biggest dougnuts, I then of course needed to buy a box...yes I absolutely did. 

We met the owner, who I believe was called Ron, I did write the names of everyone down but I of course lost it. He was really lovely, kept giving us freebies just to try because we were so in awe of it all. He was so proud to show off their products, we actually had to refuse some in the end. Although he did give us a HUGE, and I mean a HUGE apple crisp cake donut.

 I'm pretty sure the box I bought only cost me something ridiculous like $3.50, I mean really?! I probably would have paid that for one, they got a big tip from us. We must have stayed for an hour just chatting to them, one of the bakers came down and showed me his dough boy tattoo..that's a true story. I just loved it there they were brilliant. 

 

I chose a blueberry iced, apple crisp, chocolate iced cake with peanuts, chocolate iced with rainbow sprinkles and then a couple of handfuls of donut holes - powdered sugar, apple fritter bites, cinnamon sugar, glazed and chocolate dough glazed.

Look they even do dog treats!

I so wish there were places like that here, don't get me wrong, we do have Krispy Kreme so it's not just doughnuts from Tesco, but that sort of customer experience doesn't exist here. Open a UK branch! I'll run it for you! I'd be lying if that one visit didn't make me want to move there and help them make doughnuts all day long....sigh.

Run, walk, ride, drive or fly like we did, just GO, seriously. Go now. 

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Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Recipe

I think we can all agree it's been a pretty horrific weekend news wise, being half Norwegian myself I find myself really glued to the news and in shock at what the world has come to. While I'm not saying doughnuts make the world a happier place...but it's a nice bit of escapism for a couple of hours and for a little while you can concentrate on something happy.

I found this American recipe that uses cup measures...usually I try to convert them, but I have some nice heart shaped cup measures so I thought I would stick with it. It makes quite a big batch so you might want to halve it if you want to just try it out.

Recipe:

• 2 cups scalded full fat milk (I shamefully didn't know what this meant, but has since found out it is when you heat it until boiling...scalding hot...
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons yeast (use fresh if you can, just double the weight of it as it does rise better, I would have used it but I tried to freeze mine but when I defrosted it, it turned to sludge in the fridge - not very nom)
• 4 free range eggs, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 7 cups sifted plain flour
• oil - I used vegetable

Glaze

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar/extract
• 1/2 cup cold water

Method

1. Melt butter in the hot milk, add 1 teaspoon of the sugar and then the salt. Leave to cool.
2. Beat in yeast, nutmeg, eggs sugar and 3 cups of the sifted flour.
3. Add the rest of the flour the dough should be sticky, I found I had to add a little extra flour but be careful and only add a bit at a time to avoid it going dry.
4. Knead the dough for five minutes and leave to proof somewhere warm for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
5. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes, leave to rise again for about 45 minutes.
6. Using a sugar thermometer if you don't have a deep fat fryer like me, heat the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe just under, they say it should be hotter but for me they came out very dark so I turned it down.
7. I then cut holes in the doughnuts as the middle can go a bit doughy. I then cooked then for 1 - 2 minutes or until brown and flip and the same on the other side.
8. Scoop out and leave to cool.
9. Mix the glaze ingredients together, you can always add extra flavours to these if you want, I went for the original one to begin with maybe next time I'll be more experimental.
10. Dip the doughnuts in the glaze so the whole thing is covered, it will look very white to begin with but it does drip down to a glazed look.
11. Leave for a minute to set then eat. Nom!

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