Pomegranate thyme and bing cherry balsamic may sound like salad dressings, and lemon chamomile creme custard may evoke thoughts of fancy teas, but they're actually cutting edge flavors in the latest fad to hit the baking scene — doughnuts.
So much for glazed and jelly.
Fresh off the nation's fascination with cupcakes, bakers across the country are experimenting with gourmet flavor combinations and unorthodox ingredients in doughnuts, everything from meats to Cocoa Puffs breakfast cereal.
At Glazed Donuts Chicago, for example, mint leaves spring from the holes of iced mint mojito doughnuts. Baker Kirsten Anderson also adds grape jelly to the dough of her peanut butter and jelly doughnuts.
"You're taking a relatively inexpensive item and you're turning it into a luxury item," says Anderson, whose seasonal offerings also have included butternut squash and white chocolate blueberry doughnuts.
"So maybe people can't afford the best house or the best car, but they can go out and buy a piece of indulgence at a price they can afford."
Paul Mullins, author of "Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut," calls them "designer doughnuts," and says the trend defies the stereotype of doughnut shops as smoke-filled of laborers lingering over burnt coffee and bad doughtnuts.
And fancy doughnuts are increasingly common. Designer doughnut shops, bakeries and related businesses have proved popular with young urbanites on both coasts, as well as large cities such as Chicago, Mullins says.
"The chefs, they're really skilled, they are really creative," he says. "These designer doughnuts by regular Krispy Kreme-standards are pricey, but by haute cuisine standards, $5 or $6, that's not that much."
The doughnut-makers are playing with consumers' notions of creativity and curiosity, Mullins says. "What in the world does a chamomile doughnut taste like? I don't know if I'd want it on an every-week basis, but I'd give it a shot."
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