Westernco Donut

Another work trip to the Seattle area, another chance to indulge in local donuts (er, I mean, another great business opportunity to bond with my co-workers ...).  Last time, we had well known Top Pot donuts for our large event.  This time, I had a few other places at the top of my list to try, but alas, none delivered to our office, nor were near enough where the locals lived to stop to pick them up.  One of said locals went to a place they'd never been before either, Westernco Donut.

"Westernco Donut has been in the business of making the finest donuts for over 30 years and counting. We make our donuts the old-fashioned way. We don't try to offer the largest variety of donuts nor do we try to keep up with the latest trends from around the world. Instead, we focus on quality."

Some donut shops are all about their toppings, their innovative wacky flavor combinations, their  accolades.  Westernco Donut is definitely not that.  No bougie donuts here.  Just, simple donuts, done well.   And for the most part, they won me over.  I wouldn't go out of my way for these donuts, but, I enjoyed them.

Assorted Dozen.

Our first box was a lovely assortment of donuts, all fairly interesting, no plain or even simple glazed here.  There was puffy twists and bear claws, very glazed old fashioned (chocolate or vanilla), a filled raised circle (which turned out to have lemon filling), two cake donuts with icing and toppings (white with cocolate, chocolate with sprinkles), and my usual favorites, the apple fritter and cinnamon roll.  Normally, my first grab would be said fritter or cinnamon roll, but the top left two, the stuffed buttermilk bars, drew me in instantly.  They were oozing so much goodness!

Stuffed Glazed Buttermilk Bars. $2.50.

I immediately took half of each of them, one with jelly, one with pudding.  I was thrilled to find that they tasted as good as they looked.  Nicely crispy outside, moist inside, great crunch to the exterior.  Good base flavor.  Plenty of glaze.  The jelly one was goo style jelly, but that totally works in a jelly donut, and it was sweet, fruity, and enjoyable. ****.

The pudding filled buttermilk bar was the same excellent donut base, with vanilla pudding coming out.  Definitely "Snack Pack" style pudding, not a fresh custard, but, again, that works here, just like in a Boston Cream.  You don't need fancy custard. ****.

Vanilla and Chocolate Frosted Old Fashioned. $1.75.

Of course I also tried the ring shaped old fashioneds, after the success of the bar style, both the vanilla and chocolate varieties.  Again, good donut base, lots of glaze.  The chocolate was deep and rich. Both above average, although the coatings were so substantial it made these pretty sweet.  ***+.

The also make these in plain, chocolate based, and maple frosted varieties.

Assorted (baker's) dozen.

Our next box was nearly as interesting.  Here we had maple glazed raised bars, rasied glazed, vanilla sprinkled, and peanut coated rings, a chocolate covered circle one that I assume was filled, and some repeats: another twist and bear claw, another each of the glazed old fashioned (vanilla and chocolate), and another fritter.  This box also had two non-donuts, a chocolate croissant, and, hiding under the top right donut, was some kind of supersized palmier.

I tried a few from here too, once the others had gotten their picks, and many still remained.

They also make french crullers, regular cake or chocolate cake donuts with a variety of toppings, and donut holes, but our assortment didn't have any of those.

Apple Fritter. $2.50.

This was a fine fritter.  Good glaze, nice crags, moist inside, light cinnamon spicing, small bits of apple.  Fairly average, but good average.  ***.

Chocolate croissant. $3.
The chocolate croissant looked a bit lackluster, which I think is why it remained after everyone had their fill, so I gave it a try. It was much better than it looked, fairly flaky, and loaded with really nice chocolate. ***+.

Giant Palmier-thing.

I really don't know what this one was.  Their website doesn't mention anything like it, nor do any reviews I saw.  And I failed to get a close up photo of it.  But it looked much like a palmier, just, huge, in all dimensions, and drizzled with icing.  

It was the only real dud of the bunch.  It was dry, it was messy, and the pastry didn't have any buttery nor redeeming qualities to it.  Just, boring all around and not very fresh tasting.  I gave up on it quickly.  It could perhaps be layered with some cream like a napoleon successfully, but, the others were so much better, and we had so many left over, it wasn't worth the effort to "save" this. **.