This isn't TOTALLY pastry/baking related...

...but I'm attending the #140conf in Los Angeles this week on behalf of my company, Ask.com, and I had this terrific video made by the brains behind Mashcat. Since it features a doughnut, I thought it kind of fit on Puff and Choux. Enjoy!

Vintage Blogging: Thank you Dunkin Donuts for making me look stupid.

Perhaps it's Puff and Choux's popularity, but my other blog, So I saw on the subway today..., is getting more and more traffic as well. Because of this, I was reading over some old posts and found another article I wrote that would be a good fit for this site.

The post deals with something I discovered a little over a year ago. I realized that I had been misspelling the word "doughnut" my entire life, and I place the blame squarely on Dunkin Donuts' shoulders. Below is the entire blog post. Enjoy!

Originally published November 17, 2008 on So I saw on the subway today...


I realized last night that for the majority of my adult life, I have misspelled the word "doughnuts." How could someone with a college degree in English misspell such a common word, you may ask. Well, here is a little secret: I only made it to the school spelling bee once in elementary school (5th grade), and I was kicked out in the first round. I don't even remember the word that got me disqualified, but I think that was the complete shock and mortification that sunk after realizing I hadn't even made it to Round #2: Verbs.

However, I now believe there is another culprit at large. When you break down in scientific terms exactly what constitutes a doughnut, you have some dough that is in the shape of a nut. Why not put the two together for fun?! But in 1950, William Rosenberg decided to unleash the ultimate mind fuck when he named his store Dunkin Donuts. Why he chose this spelling, I don't know. His first store's name was The Open Kettle, so I would assume if spelling wasn't his forte, he would have chosen Thee Opin Kettel. I can only guess that Rosenberg thought that Dunkin Donuts sounded catchy, and maybe he wanted to save on typewriter ink - donut is arguably shorter than doughnut. He obviously wanted to take the "ugh" out of ordering ink cartridges for his machine. Well, "ugh" is the noise I made when I realized how often I misspelled doughnut. Thanks Mr. Rosenberg. Your thriftiness has made me look like a dumb ass.

I can only guess that my early adoption of Dunkin Donuts' doughnut holes as a staple in my diet led to me believe that doughnuts was actually donut. Most people would believe that letting your six year old eat at least a dozen doughnut holes isn't a good idea, but it was the 1980s and EVERYBODY was eating doughnut holes. Ahhh...the Reagan years: A time where kids weren't fat, regardless of the fact that they ate McDonald's breakfast meals and Dunkin Donuts doughnut holes. Those were good times.

So Mr. Rosenberg, I'm telling you today that I might still have the inclination to leave out the "ugh", but I now know better. I'll be damned if your tasty donut holes trick me again. Dammit...

Voodoo Doughnuts - a little bit of witch doctor in the dough does a body good.

Other than Powell's, the one place I jotted down as a MUST while visiting Portland was Voodoo Doughnuts, where according to the bakery's motto, "the magic is in the hole."

This place might be the Holy Grail of weird doughnuts. Naturally, I ordered the voodoo doll doughnut. It seemed like a classic in its own time.


However, the rest of the menu was very tempting for this doughnut enthusiast. If so inclined, you could choose from:

Grape Ape - raised doughnut with vanilla frosting and grape powder.

Dirt - raised doughnut covered with vanilla glaze and oreo cookies.

Arnold Palmer - cake doughnut covered with lemon and tea powder.

Butter Fingering - devils food, vanilla, and crushed Butterfinger.

Neapolitan - chocolate doughnut with vanilla frosting and strawberry quick powder.

Triple Chocolate Penetration - chocolate doughnut, chocolate glaze, and cocoa-puffs.

Dirty Snowball - chocolate cake doughnut covered with pink marshmallow glaze and surprise filling

Apple Fritter - apple/glaze/doughnut as big as your head.

The Memphis Mafia - chocolate chips/banana/ peanutbutter/glaze big.

Portland Creme- raised doughnut filled with creme and covered in chocolate with two eyes)

Cock-n-Balls - Bachlorette party favorite, tripple cream filled, with your favorite saying written right on it. Comes in its own pink box.

Nyquil Glazed and pepto-bismol (currently on hold)

No Name -a doughnut so good they couldn't come up with a better name. It has chocolate rice crispys and peanutbutter on it.

I don't believe the above is the full menu as I saw several other varieties in the display case.



And I have to say, after tasting my little voodoo doll, chocolate covered and filled with strawberry jam, this is definitely a place I will be returning to when I'm in Portland again.

Here are some more pics of me enjoying my doughnut: