Monday, October 3, 2011

San Francisco ! Dynamo Doughnuts !

From Greeshma and my California trip this summer, we made a pitstop at Dynamo Donuts to mark off another Bon Appetit top doughnut contender and see what San Francisco had to offer in terms of round, fried beauties.


Pretty Greeshma ready to get her dough-face on
Orders are taken from the outside store window; doughnut choices appear in a column of removable wooden slats, so the shop can adjust and remove flavors according to availability - genius!


After placing the order, you can take your box to eat inside at some small tables overlooking the room where the doughnut magic is made, or you can eat in the small garden area in the back of the shop (which is what we totally did - it is, after all, California!).


Cute hand-stamped, cardboard doughnut box
Opening the box was like Christmas morning - look at these four lovely ones!


Ginger orange
Such lift on the yeast doughnuts! 
Solid yeast - fluffy and fresh.  Nice orange flavor notes.
The chocolate rosemary almond, studded with nuts
Dynamo's chocolate doughnuts in the dating world would be classified as BBD - big, beautiful doughnuts, with emphasis on the weight!  Ultra dense, borderline dry and heavy.
Caramel de sel
Sticky sticky sticky !  Beautiful sheen, bit on the salty side.
Spiced chocolate
Of the two chocolates, I liked this one better - unique, sharp and fairly spicy.  The spice kind of gets you in the back of the throat.  The inside was fairly bland and dry.
Monte Christo
A filled raspberry jam doughnut with ham and cheese - looks a bit gross, but quite surprisingly delicious!  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it was actually my favorite!
Maple glazed bacon apple
Ample pieces of thick bacon on a sweet frosted doughnut top.  I didn't quite get the apple flavor, but it was a nice play on salt and sweet. 
Passionfruit milk chocolate
The best fruit flavor of the batch we tried - awesome pure passionfruit flavor
After nibbling on our 7 doughnuts, Greeshma and I concluded that Dynamo was a strong solid.  While I didn't swoon like post-Voodoo, there are still some unique, inventive flavors here served on a good yeast base.  I'd stay away from the strangely dense chocolate cake doughnuts and stick with the light yeast: passionfruit and the monte christo all the way!

2760 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 920-1978

3 comments:

  1. Oh, man, at first, I thought the doughnuts looked a little . . . not quite boring, but not quite mouth-watering, either . . . and then there was the jam & ham one! And then the bacon & apple! And then passion fruit & chocolate! Daaaaaaaaaaaaang. I'm so sugar-deprived compared to you.

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  2. i want them ALL. right now. in my belly.

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