The Clarkson Bakery

Where: 113 Pine St, Clarkson, NE
What: Cherry Kolaches and a Peanut Butter frosted cinnamon roll
When: July 2012

There are certain places that are legendary in my family. The Clarkson Bakery is one of them. If we are up in the West Point area of Nebraska, someone has to go over to the bakery and get some kolacky (which is apparently both the single and plural form of the word according to dictionary.com). For those of you who are confused, kolacky are kind of like danishes without the extra sugar glaze and frosting. And the bakery isn't like just the next town over for all you urbanites. It's like a 30 mile drive down the road for these things. And then back.

So during the last reunion weekend, not only did we get kolacky from the bakery one day while at the hotel, but I actually got to go to the bakery for the first time! Think of the smallest downtown you can think of. That's bigger than Clarkson. The gas station across the street had two pumps that were the old fashioned kind. No awning. No digital screen.

Anyways, the bakery is tiny and doesn't actually have donuts, so I'm sorry if some of you thought this was going to be about donuts. I don't know what would have given you that idea :-) But the kolacky are really good (not super sweet, but good fruit flavor). The cinnamon roll was alright, I'd just stick with the kolacky next time we're in the area. Which will be for next years family reunion!

The Donut Professor

Where: 8410 S 73rd Plaza, Papillion NE
What: Maple raised donut
When: Saturday, August 24, 2013
website

This place is close to my aunt's house and I've driven past it probably a million times. But it was always closed. So last Saturday I hustled over there and barely made it before noon. The selection was probably what you'd expect for a place about to close. In maple my choices were raised or long john. I'm glad I went with raised, because the long john would have been even more of a waste of a donut.

The maple frosting was too sugary and the actual donut was ridiculously dry. It tasted like it had been out for a couple of days, not just hours. I understand a lot of places don't make the donuts in house, but I feel like they should still taste fresh to some degree! I'd say 0/5. Didn't even finish the donut. Attempted to eat just the frosting. You know that's bad when I'd rather just throw it away.

LaMar's, spoiler alert: 3rd time was NOT the charm

Where: 4240 S 48th St, Lincoln
What: Boston Creme
When: Thursday, August 8th, 2013

I had the opportunity to be over near the other LaMar's location in Lincoln a couple of weeks ago and decided I might as well try it. Maybe they have the maple the downtown location advertises BUT DOESN'T HAVE.

They didn't. So since I was there already I got a Boston Creme because I hadn't tried that yet and figured I had already stopped, might as well. Also, I should note that they shared the building with a Goodrich that wasn't in a Subway! Maybe I should have just gotten a malt instead. But it wasn't Monday, which is apparently Malt Day? I didn't ask about the specials. Maybe there'll have to be a 4th time...

The chocolate frosting was good, the creme was just eh. In fact, I'm not positive if it really was a Boston Creme for real, but maybe just a bavarian creme? It just didn't have a lot of flavor. It wasn't overly sugary, just almost like pudding that was made with too much milk or something. Also, it was almost $2. In Lincoln, that is too much for a donut. 2/5.

Sun Mart Foods

Where: 1340 West O St, Lincoln
What: Maple cups? It had a weird name...
When: Thursday, August 15, 2013

I've been very bad about posting reviews recently, mainly because I'm almost out of new places in Lincoln to review and I haven't had any trips recently either! But I think this is the first of three reviews I have waiting to go, so I'll try to be quicker with them!

I was actually trying to go to a place called Randy's Donuts this morning in northwest Lincoln, but it was closed. Not sure if it was permanently or because it was 11:30am already by the time I got there. So instead I went to the grocery store in the same parking lot since I didn't think I'd had one of their donuts before.

They only thing that they had that was maple was this huge looking donut pastry hybrid thing that was easily 6 inches in diameter and pushing 3 inches tall. (Quick! Calculate the volume based on a roughly cylindrical shape! Go!)

Anyways, the frosting was a little much. In volume that is. The flavor was perfect, but it was quick thick. The pastry part was really good, kind of like a croissant but not as buttery. It was $1.25, which was kind of pricey for me as most of you know. I forgot to even look at how much normal donuts cost. Man, I'm not good at this whole complete review thing...

But here are pictures to make up for it. I'd say 4/5, but don't eat it all in one sitting. This may last awhile...

Target

Where: 8201 S. 40th St, Lincoln
What: Glazed Old Fashioned
When: Sunday, August 4, 2013

First of all, I made the mistake of going to Target the week before school started here in Lincoln. When all the school supplies were majorly discounted. And every family in a 3 mile radius was back to school shopping. At the Super Target.

It was a little stressful. Especially since I don't know where everything is there yet and my list had some weird things on it (carpet cleaner...for that pack of chik fil a sauce I may have stepped on while cleaning the day before...)

So obviously, it was a donut day. Despite having a fairly large food and bakery section, the donut selection sucked. There may have been four varieties to choose from and none of them looked super appetizing. Perhaps because some of them had weird purple frosting on them. If you need fancy colors to draw attention to your donuts, you aren't making them right.

I went with the glazed old fashioned because it looked decent and simple enough. It was 89 cents if I recall correctly. And possibly the worst 89 cents I ever spent. It was too sugary on the outside and too doughy on the inside. Not a lot of flavor (besides Sugar, which should only be a flavor for cookies). 1/5.

My review of Krispy Kreme

So just like Dunkins, I've been to a lot of Krispy Kremes and sometimes they're good and sometimes they aren't.

They're very different than Dunkins so I won't go into which one I like better. It's like comparing apples to oranges, y'all.

I feel like Krispy Kreme is very decadent and more dessert like. There is a lot of sugar and a lot of butter in those things. My favorites are hot glazed, Boston Creme, or lemon filled. The lemon filling is very smooth and tart.

If you still haven't tried a Krispy Kreme donut and you see the hot donuts now sign lit up, you have to stop. The ones they sell in grocery stores are not anywhere close to the ones at the actual donut shops.

One thing I will say Krispy Kreme has on Dunkins is that most (all?) of the donut shops make the donuts there for real, in front of windows where you can watch them coming off the line.

And that's all I have to say on Krispy Kremes.

I guess I better mention Krispy Kreme at some point

Before a review, a story.

I got a text from my mother a couple of months ago, mid May I believe, that saddened me. She informed me that the Russel Stover Outlet in South Carolina that we often stopped at on road trips between Florida and the Northeast would be closing.

This was big news for our family.

I can't remember the last road trip I took with my mom were we DIDN'T stop at a Russel Stover store. At most major events, we had boxes of chocolates to share with relatives. Camping at Platte River State Park for my aunts' 40th and 50th birthdays? Giggling like 10 year olds with my aunts and cousins and throwing candy around the cabin while wearing the Russel Stover hats. Hanging out in the hotel after my brother's wedding in 2010? Eating chocolates and playing rummy. Heading into Omaha last October for my great aunt and uncle's 60th wedding anniversary? Gotta stop outside Kansas City for chocolates! BLT's can wait!

I know this is a donut blog, but I have to sometimes try to explain my insane family. And besides the Russel Stover obsession, we may have had a Krispy Kreme obsession. Not as hard core as RS, but it was there.

My parents, sister and I once took an impromptu road trip to South Carolina from Florida to try to see my bother while he was on tour with his band. This was in the age before cell phones and we had no way of contacting him to make sure they were still playing there (or even where they were playing) and to let him know we'd be there. You can probably guess how this ended, us hanging out in an internet cafe trying to find someone online who knew anything about the tour and then returning to the hotel defeated that we never found him. Turns out the show got cancelled and they weren't even in town that night.

But! The trip was not a total waste, because of course there was a Krispy Kreme practically across the street from our hotel to stop at in the morning. There is a Krispy Kreme in the greater Orlando area, but it's in Winter Park and we don't make it out there all that often. So it became a thing for a couple of years that any road trip we took had to include at least one Russel Stover stop and one Krispy Kreme stop. Sometimes we stopped at the same Krispy Kreme (NW corner of DC on the outer loop, open 24 hrs). Sometimes we had to call someone at a computer to find one for us (neither my parents nor I have a smart phone. The two oldest siblings have graduated to smart phones, but my next oldest sister and I are still holding out. For who knows what, but we're holding out!)

We still stop at a Krispy Kreme if we see one on our travels, but we haven't made any last minute calls for people to help us find one. You just can't ignore the "Hot Donuts" sign when you're on the road.