Donut Habits Die Hard

Sigh. It will be interesting to get back home after this vacation and see how the scale thinks I’ve behaved. For the most part I have been pretty good. I ate a few wings and a couple slices of pizza at Screamen Eagle. There’s been a bit of cheese, a few fried foods, and a couple modest servings of ice cream. So far, I’ve avoided the temptation of fries covered with cheese and gravy with a little help from my friends.

But there was only so much I could do about the donuts.

Mary’s White Pine Bakery had been calling my name. Everything about the shop seemed like a winner. So I decided to brave the early morning drive into town and pick up donuts for the twelve humans cohabiting in this rental house.

So here’s a question for all you normal people. What would the appropriate quantity of donuts be for such an errand? I only ask, because I’m clearly far from normal, and I’m kind of curious what you would do.

Because this was my approach.

I figured pretty much just get four of everything. I suppose if I were thinking a bit more clearly, three of each donut would have made the most sense, since each could be cut into quarters. But I got caught up in the moment.

You see, when waiting in line, I noticed the bakery was using relatively small boxes for its extra large, yeast raised donuts. And those fit four to a box.

So I got four half-moon donuts, four “eclairs,” four glazed, four maple frosted, and four jelly. But they also had some cake donuts that had just come out while I was waiting. And it was hard to resist the prospect that those donuts might have still been warm from the fryer. So I got another four chocolate frosted fried cakes and four glazed fried cakes.

The only thing I didn’t get were the cinnamon sugar fried cakes and the plain fried cakes.

But before leaving, I amended the order to include two cinnamon fried cakes, and two of the bakeries cinnamon sticks, which looked like the best non-donut items in the shop. I mean, how could I leave without trying everything that looked good? Six adults and six children can eat a shocking amount of food.

I guess that’s 32 items all said and done. But that downplays how much food the haul represents. Seriously, a box of four half moon donuts felt like it had more heft than a typical dozen.

For what it’s worth, I’m blaming The Best Dozen series I wrote for All Over Albany for instilling some kind of drive deep inside me to eat all the donuts. But I suppose that’s not really fair, because that was how I pitched the story to AOA Greg.

So I guess I just have to own the fact that I’ve always wanted to eat all the donuts. And I did. At Mary’s White Pine Bakery, those chocolate eclairs were the winner. Because instead of being full of some kind of vanilla pudding, these were actually filled with a homemade bavarian cream.

Wow. It was firm. Gently sweet. Deeply satisfying. And it cut through the fat and the icing gorgeously. All I want is more of those.

But I’m just not sure I have the restraint to make it back. Plus the shop runs out of eclairs. So if I want them, I’m already probably too late today. But maybe I’ll get a few on our last morning here Saturday. I can’t even believe it’s been a week.

It will be sad to say goodbye to our friends, and this little piece of heaven in the mountains. But it will be good to get back into the swing of everyday life.

For example, I hear that Little Pecks now has a full menu beyond coffee, pastries, and pie. And you may have noticed that there’s a new Official Yelp Event brewing for August 2. There’s so much good stuff on the horizon, it’s hard to let the troubles of the world get me down.

Well, that and I’m doing the best I can to avoid the news these days. It helps to be in the mountains with spotty internet. I’m going to miss that too.

See you soon.