How I Got Into The Dough

My relationship with the heavenly rings – halos, if you will – typically called doughnuts/donuts, dates back to my kindergarten days, when it was standard practice to bring in a box of them on your birthday. “Please let them be Tim Horton’s,” is what I’m sure my five-year-old self thought on such occasions. And shame on those parents who opted for the stale, dry doughnuts from Coffee Time. Birthday doughnuts were a regular staple of my time in elementary school, and in grades five and six things got pretty serious. 

In grade school, I could have taken this box to the face.

Eating competitions had become a popular activity among my group of friends, and birthday doughnuts were seen as the perfect opportunity to get competitive. We were donut eating machines. That there were always a limited amount of doughnuts only heightened the competition. Not only did you have to have adequate stomach capacity, you also had to eat fast in order to get your hands on as many as possible. Stamina, endurance, speed, willpower – these were all important qualities that our twelve-year-old selves had to take into consideration. It was a true accomplishment to be able to scarf four to five doughnuts in one sitting – and I was a true competitor. Personal best: five doughnuts; twelve doughnut-holes.

Donut after donut until we couldn't take it anymore. 

As I “matured,” my passion for doughnuts became less one of quantity, and more one of quality. To this day I still thoroughly enjoy Tim Horton’s doughnuts, and their annual “Roll Up The Rim” promotional season, in which doughnuts are a featured prize, remains a season of excitement for me. 

My good friend, Zoe, "rolled up the rim" on one dreary winter day in the library and won a donut (elle a gagné un beignet). Stoked was an understatement. 

With time, however, I have moved on to bigger and better things. In high school, finding the best gourmet, homemade doughnuts that Toronto had to offer became a hobby for me and for the friends that I dragged along the way. When I moved to Vancouver to go to university, my obsession with doughnuts traveled with me. Over the years, I have found that a crispy, sugar-rolled outside and a soft, moist (hate this word but it's too accurate not to use) inside is my preference in texture. But the greatest lesson I’ve learned on my quest for the perfect doughnut is really quite simple: freshness is paramount. And it is this desire for ultimate freshness that has led me here, to this blog. I have made it my goal to find the best, freshest doughnuts in Vancouver, and to share my adventures-in-dough with you along the way. Enjoy. 

Where it all started. Little Dee dreamin' sweet dreams of donuts. 

Photo Credit (in order of appearance):

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