Donuts from Ohlin's Bakery, Boston

One time, I visited a friend's family in the Boston area, and we decided to have a brunch at their house.  Now, for context, the family is Persian and they don't really eat sweets.  Let's just say that their brunch spread is VERY different from what I am used to.  For me, brunch needs to include a lot of sweet bready items - scones, muffins, bread pudding, french toast, waffles, pancakes ... at least some subset of that, right?  Basically, even more of an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast, because, brunch.  Right?

But not for them.

Persian Brunch: Pita, lavash, feta, walnuts, herbs, fruit.

This is a photo of their lovely brunch spread.  Toasted pita and lavash.  Feta cheese.  Soaked walnuts.  Tons of fresh herbs, including tarragon, mint, parsley, and basil.  

That isn't to say that there was no sweets.  The sweet offerings are blueberries and papaya (and other fruit that came out later).

Now, don't get me wrong, I think this is really different and fun, and obviously quite healthy.  As I learned, the way to eat it is to take a piece of the bread, crumble on some cheese, add tons of herbs, roll it up, and make a little wrap thing.  I have a lot of memories of this style breakfast at their house.  But "brunch", in my mind, it is not.

Of course, they are amazing hosts, and they know how I feel about food.  They know that Julie needs her sweets.  When I visit, they stock their fridge with an entire drawer of Persian sweets just for me.  And, for brunch, his sister volunteered to pick up donuts on her way over.  I told her this wasn't necessary, and even I said that just Dunkin' Donuts would be fine (not that I love Dunkin' Donuts for their donuts, but, nostalgia, and I didn't want her going out of her way for this.)

But she asked if it would be ok if she brought donuts from her favorite place instead, Ohlin's Bakery.  I quickly looked up Yelp reviews.  4 stars.  Um, yes?

Ohlin's is located in Belmont, the other direction from his sister's house than his parent's house, but she assured me these were the best donuts in the area and worth her journey in the wrong direction.  I didn't actually visit the bakery myself, but from my research, it sounds like a very old school bakery.  No seating.  You just come and pick up donuts or pies.  People love it.

I quickly put in my requests (er, polite asks): an apple fritter, since it is the king of all donuts.  A sugar jelly donut, since it is such a classic.  A maple glazed, not one I normally pick, but the one that gets great reviews there.  For my friend, of course, his favorite, Boston cream.  And, just to throw in one more, the other donut people seemed to really love from Ohlin's: blueberry cake.  I gave my suggestions as in order of preference, but stressed that I only wanted 1, maybe 2 donuts.  His sister showed up with a box of 18.  Correction: 2 boxes, 18 donuts.  Everything I asked for, and more.  And multiples of most of them.  I did mention that most of the family doesn't eat sweets right?  Not even when from the best donut shop in town?  Ooph.

She also came in raving, absolutely raving, about the plain cake donut.  This was a good sign to me, since if they can make a plain donut that is rave worthy, then, I was looking forward to my decadent ones. 

Long story short ... I ended up eating a lot of donuts.  Too many donuts.  I tried them all fresh so that I could give them a fair review, and nibbled throughout the rest of the day.  By evening, we still had 10 full donuts left.  No one was helping me, and they were clearly getting stale.  After dinner, I was able to revive a few by heating them up briefly in the toaster oven.  Not as good as fresh, but not bad.  No one else touched any.

The next morning, I made "donut chips" from a tip I read online, a la bagel chips.  Sliced up the donuts, coated them in cinnamon and sugar, and baked.  Kinda interesting, but not particularly good.  I also made bread pudding with an assortment of random donut chunks.  That worked better, always a great way to use up stale bread.

But back to the donuts, just the classic donuts.  Ohlin's makes a good donut, indeed.  I'd gladly get these again.  They were all far above average quality, and in particular, I appreciated how none had a greasy, old oil taste to them.  Sadly, I won't have the opportunity to try them again, as the bakery burnt down :(

Cake Donuts

Starting with the simplest option, the cake donuts.  To refresh your memory, a cake donut is one made without yeast.  The denser kind.  Ohlin's also calls these their Old Fashioned, but I always thought that Old Fashioned were the ones with irregular edges?

Ohlin's makes a variety of cake donuts besides just a basic plain one, including the much raved about blueberry, plus coconut and cinnamon topped.  They also make some with a chocolate cake base, either plain or with honey dip or chocolate glaze.  During the fall season, they also offer an apple cider cake donut and a pumpkin cake donut.

My friend's sister came baring plain, chocolate with honey dip, and the requested blueberry.  I tried all three.

Plain Cake.

As I said, his sister, who picked up the donuts came in raving about a basic plain cake donut.  A plain donut?  Please.  A plain donut is just about the last thing I'd ever pick .  Particularly a plain cake donut.

I'll admit that I just assumed this was her not really liking sweets or donuts, and didn't plan to try the basic cake donut.  But of course I did, when there were a plethora left over, and I'd tried all the others.

And, uh, she was so, so right.   You'd never think this would be amazing, but it was.  Sometimes classics can be done really, really well.  And this was.  Perfection really, in a cake donut.

Crusty outside, dense inside, great flavor to it ... plain, but, wow, a wonderful donut, and one that would pair nicely with coffee.

****+.

Blueberry Cake Donuts, Chocolate Cake with Honey Dip.

Next we had more cake donuts, these ones covered in glaze.  Most were blueberry, per my request.  I love blueberries, and blueberry donuts are not very common.  I was excited to try it.

Blueberry Cake Donut: Inside!

I was thrilled to break one in half, revealing bits of blueberry inside.

These were very good, great blueberry flavor, sweet from the well applied glaze, but, actually, I think I somewhat preferred the plain, although, it may be due to the fact that I consumed far too many sweet donuts in one sitting at this point ...

Still, a very good cake donut.  ****.

Raised / Yeasted Donuts

Next I moved on to a raised donut.  You may also know these as yeasted donuts, aka, donuts made with yeast.  They are the light, fluffy variety, a la Krispy Kreme.

Our assortment included just one raised donut, the one I requested: maple glazed. 

Ohlin's other raised selections are honey dipped (aka, glazed), chocolate frosted, strawberry frosted, buttercrunch, and sugar.

Maple Glazed Raised.

This is the donut everyone raved about on Yelp.  I like maple glazed, but I wouldn't have had it as a top choice if not for the accolades.

It was a fairly classic raised donut, nicely fluffy.  Not too greasy.  It had a great maple flavor from the glaze, but I didn't find it nearly as exciting as the rave reviews seemed to imply it would be.  I wonder if maple glaze is just a bit more rare to folks?

Ohlin's also make a maple frosted with chocolate drizzle on top too, or a chocolate base with maple and chocolate drizzle.

***+.

Filled Donuts

Now, getting more exciting, we move into the filled donuts.  Ohlin's has quite the assortment, including my requested jelly filled and my friend's Boston cream.

Ohlin's does take a different approach than most donut shops for most of their filled varieties.  Rather than injecting the filling inside, they cut them in half and stuff them, like a sandwich.  This gives a far better distribution of filling.  I wonder why more places don't do this?  Admittedly, it is quite messy this way, as filling does ooze out the sides.  The Boston cream took this form, but the jelly remained classically filled.

They also make lemon and blueberry filled like the Boston cream in that they are cut open and stuffed,  both topped with powdered sugar.  They also make a marshmallow filled one, same thing, split open and stuffed, and then topped with either white or chocolate icing.  I really would have loved to try one of those, but didn't know about them in advance to ask for one.  Next time!

The rest of the filled selection is rounded out with apple filled with cinnamon and raspberry filled with chocolate.

Sugar Jelly Donut.

The donut for the sugar jelly was a raised donut, again, light and fluffy, not greasy.  Mine was sugar coated, but they also make this with honey dip.

I loved the generous sugar coating, and it went really well with the overall donut.  This turned out to be a serious winner.

Sugar Jelly Donut: Inside!

Inside was plentiful jelly, a bit of a fake crazy color, but it was fruity and delicious, some of the best jelly donut filling I've ever encountered.  

Really, everything about this donut hit on all dimensions, and it was my favorite donut of the bunch, a perfect *****.  Really.  Nothing I would change about it.

Boston Cream.

My friend had the Boston Cream, which was the aforementioned cut-in-half style, thus oozing with cream filling.  He seemed to enjoy it, and didn't share (which, really, was fine, I had 17 other donuts ...).

They also make a fascinating sounding marshmallow filled version that I'd love to try.

Other

And then of course, I saved the best for last, my other requested donut: the king of donuts, the fritter.

Apple Fritter.

Fritters are often massive, and this one was no exception.  It was huge.  Comically large.  Covered in glaze, perfectly covered, the glaze was hard but not cracking and flaking off (I hate when it does that!).  Gobs of apple and goo inside.  

Another fantastically made donut, one of the better fritters I've ever had.

****.