Shipley Do-Nuts, Houston

When I went to Houston for the first time, I was surprised to find that I found it to be a culinary wonderland.  I had no idea they had such a vibrant food scene.  I had the best bbq of my life, from Truth BBQ (it was revolutionary, really.  I had no idea bbq *could* even be that good!).  But it wasn't just bbq.  I had great French food, like incredible foie gras from Brasserie du Parc.  I had epic potato gratin, excellent mac and cheese, and more from their local branch of Fleming's Prime.  And prob the best catfish of my life, along with fabulous crab cakes and good desserts, from Goode Company Seafood.  So much good food.  I was thrilled.

So when the locals all raved about their famous donut shop, Shipley's, that also had a unique savory item I wasn't familiar with (kolache), of course I was excited.  Ok, I probably would have been excited even if I hadn't been so pleased with the other cuisine in Houston, just because, well, I eat, and enjoy, a lot of donuts.  But in a city full of delicious things, if folks were raving about this place, it must be good, right?

Spoiler: I was NOT impressed.

"At Shipley, we do handcrafted do-nuts and kolaches made fresh daily to send you straight to your happy place."

Shipley's is a chain, started in the 1930's in Houston, now with more than 300 locations in Texas and the surrounding states.  They operate with a franchise model.  They are known for the donuts obviously (the full name of the place is "Shipley Do-Nuts", but it seems equally well known for the savory kolaches.  

I did not visit a Shipley's location in person, although that would have been easy, I passed by them regularly while in town.  Instead, I tried the goods at an event I helped host, and someone else picked up a very large number of boxes.  We had far more baked goods than people, so I was able to sample quite a few, in attempts to find something I liked.

Donuts

Shipley's makes about 60 different kinds of donuts, a mix of raised and cake, some filled, some bars, some donuts holes, and a few specialty items like cinnamon rolls or twists, bear claws, and fritters.  They are a very reasonable $1.25 each, or $12.79/dozen, which I'll admit is not bad at all. 

Assorted Raised Donuts: Cherry Iced (with sprinkles),
Chocolate Iced (with sprinkles, with walnuts, plain),
White Iced (with sprinkles, with coconut, plain),
Cinnamon Sugar, Strawberry Iced. $1.25/each or $12.79/dozen.

Our first box was an assortment of raised donuts.

Cherry Iced w/ Sprinkles:
"Our much loved Cherry do-nut decorated with an extra boost of rainbow sprinkles."

I tried the top left ones, which turned out to be cherry (with sprinkles, they also make it without sprinkles).

It was very, very sweet. The raised donut base was very average, and tasted like not particularly fresh oil. Eh. **.

Assorted Donuts: Maple Iced, Chocolate Glazed,
Fruit Filled, Devil's Food Filled. (bottom row)

Our next box had many of the same raised iced donuts, plus a raised maple iced and plain glazed chocolate raised donut.

This box also had two filled donuts, and I eagerly grabbed the most interesting looking one from the bottom right.  The other was filled with some kind of fruit, I'm not sure which as I didn't try it.  Filled donuts are also only $1.25 each, which surprised me, as usually these would be more expensive.

Devil's Food Filled
"Our chocolate yeast do-nut full of rich chocolate crème filling. If you think chocolate thoughts you can almost taste it."

I did not know what kind I had taken when I took it, just, that it looked interesting.  It turned out to be glazed, and a dark dough ... almost like it was chocolate but I didn't really taste chocolate.  I wasn't into the base, and was confused why it was so dark but tasted so plain.  I later learned this was the Devil's Food one, and it was at least supposed to be a chocolate base, not just dark in color, but, I certainly didn't taste the chocolate.

Devil's Food Filled: Inside.

Inside was way too sweet chocolate frosting.  Very generic, not very chocolatey either.  Just, too sweet. 

Overall, not a good donut really. **.

These also make a chocolate filled with vanilla cream, not that I'm inspired to try it.

Kolaches

On the savory side, Shipley's makes three kinds of sausage kolaches - plain, with cheese, or spicy.  They again have reasonable pricing, $2.65/each or $30.75/dozen.

I was eager to try my first kolache!

Kolaches (Sausage, Sausage & Cheese, 
Sausage, Cheese and Jalapeño). $2.65/each or $30.75/dozen.

I tried two, skipping the plain sausage.

Sausage & Cheese

"Our soft, airy dough filled with sausage and cheese that's perfectly baked and provides you with the energy you need for whatever your day has in store."

The exterior was the part I was most curious about, as I thought it would be interesting.  I knew it wouldn't be like a corn dog obviously, and not like an Asian slightly sweet hot dog stuffed bun, but I thought it would be a more interesting base than a hot dog bun, but ... it wasn't really.  No, it wasn't a hot dog bun, it was far less airy and lofty, but it was just fairly plain dough.  It was soft inside, and lightly crisp outside.  

The ratio of bread to sausage was also not quite what I was expecting.  It was probably 70% bread, and only 30% sausage, so, the fairly plain and boring baked bread element really was dominant. *** bread I guess, as there was nothing wrong with it, but it certainly wasn't interesting.

The sausage inside wasn't great either - it was fairly thin, thinner than a standard hot dog, and had some gristle to it.  Not particularly juicy, although it had reasonable flavor.  Simply put, it didn't seem like a very high quality product.  The cheese however I did really enjoy, it was nicely melty, and although it seemed just like highly processed American cheese, I liked it. ** sausage, *** cheese, ** overall for the insides. 

So overall, I was pretty underwhelmed.  It was just baked bread with a lower end thin breakfast-ish sausage inside, at least with some nice melty cheese.  I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do to jazz it up, as the sausage style didn't seem to call out for ketchup, mustard, or bbq really either.  **+ for me, interesting to try, but I wouldn't get another.

Sausage, Cheese, and Jalapeño
"Pillowy soft dough baked full of cheese, sausage, and jalapeño, this kolache has everything you need to hit the ground running."

I did also try the spicy version, with jalapeño inside as well.  This was definitely an improvement, as it did give it some kick and much needed flavor.  The other elements were exactly the same.  Soft bread, melty cheese, and jalapeño were tasty enough, for a snack I guess. ***.

If you are curious, these are 440 calories each (380 w/o cheese), so a bit higher calorie than a typical breakfast sandwich, or a regular hot dog.