Cheap Eats 2013

This Year’s Best Doughnuts, From Butternut to Boston Cream

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine

1. Dough’s Tropical Chili
448 Lafayette Ave., at Franklin Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant; 347-533-7544; $2.25
In the latest flavor from this trendsetting shop, orange zest adds a bitter note to the mango-and-passion-fruit glaze, while cayenne and strips of lightly fried guajillo pepper kick it up. It doesn’t hurt that all this takes place atop one of the best yeasted doughnuts in the city.

2. Rockville Market Farm’s Butternut
At Smorgasburg, N. 7th St. at Kent Ave., Williamsburg; 802-355-0059; $1 each; six for $5
The Vermont farm’s own eggs and butternut-squash purée give these old-fashioned doughnuts their unusual ocher exterior and delicate flavor.

3. Leske’s Bakery’s Peanut Butter and Jelly
588 Fifth Ave., nr. Prospect Ave., Park Slope; 718-369-0404; $1.25
A puff of dough filled with black-raspberry jelly and finished with a glossy peanut glaze manages somehow to taste new. Plus: no crusts to trim off.

4. Dominique Ansel Bakery’s Lemon-Maple Cronut
189 Spring St., nr. Thompson St.; 212-219-2773; $5
Sure, it’s good, but is it worth $5 and a two-hour wait at the crack of dawn? We asked the real experts—a cop, a fireman, a UPS guy—and posted the results exclusively in our iPad app; available for download at nymag.com/apps.

5. Cafe Boulis’s Loukoumades
30-15 31st Ave., Astoria; 718-806-1014; $4 for six
A ring-shaped variation on the classic Greek fried dough. Sprinkled with powdered sugar and flavored with honey, it’s the unofficial doughnut of Queens.

6. Du Jour Bakery’s Boston Cream
365 Fifth Ave., nr. 5th St., Park Slope; 347-227-8953; $2.25
The chocolate sheen actually tastes like chocolate, the vanilla custard is cool and not too sweet, and the dough is fried. This is, in other words, a role model for future generations of Boston cream doughnuts.

7. Doughnuttery’s Cacaoboy
425 W. 15th St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-633-4359; six for $6
Dusted with a dark mix of cocoa, cocoa nibs, black sugar, and sea salt, these miniature cake doughnuts may be going through a goth phase, but they’ll certainly cheer you up.

8. Carpe Donut’s Apple Cider
Check daily schedule at carpedonutnyc.com; 917-509-5119; $2.25 each; six for $11
This new food truck’s springy cake doughnuts are elegantly dusted with cinnamon sugar and served warm.

More From Cheap Eats 2013
The Cheap List: 18 of Our Favorite New Eats
The Best New Cheap Cuisine, Culinary Mash-up, and More
Ranking Shake-Shack-Inspired Cheeseburgers
Sandwiches That Would Make Dagwood Proud
Barbeque With a New York Accent

*This article originally appeared in the July 8, 2013 issue of New York Magazine.

This Year’s Best Doughnuts, From Butternut to Boston Cream