About those supermarket deli/bakery donuts

Some of us who shop at Kroger have occasionally bought “fresh” glazed yeast donuts at the store’s deli/bakery. Once upon a time the donuts were indeed made from frozen dough and fried at the individual Kroger store. But no more.

Here’s the lowdown from an employee who prepares the donuts for sale at a Kentucky Kroger deli/bakery:

The baked donuts arrive frozen, and each night some are thawed out. Once thawed, they’re glazed with icing and put into a warming oven at 380 degrees for about 2 minutes. I've known for a long time that Kroger's yeast donuts aren't fried. However, I'd thought they were baked on site, after being made from frozen dough. Wrong!

In Kentucky stores, Kroger charges 50 cents each or $4.49/dozen for their reheated frozen glazed donuts. Both the yeast and cake donuts are shipped to the deli already baked and frozen, and put out for sale to folks expecting better. I stopped buying Kroger’s fifty-cent wonders a long time ago. After seeing a big pile of them thawing recently, I won't be buying any in the future either.

Contrast this performance with Wal Mart’s deli/bakeries.

Wal Mart’s yeast donuts are “finished” on site. The donuts actually arrive at the deli/bakery already cut out and frozen, but uncooked. Twice daily, they are thawed out in a walk-in cooler. After they are proofed, they’re fried and glazed with icing. I watched them being fried one night. In my city, they are put out in a self-serve case and in sealed boxes that list the time they’re made.

There’s such a generous amount of icing, I can remove a third, and still have a very sweet donut. I’ve bought these donuts in the 12 count box 3 times in the past 3 weeks for important taste testing. I consider them a serviceable supermarket donut when bought fresh, far superior to what Kroger offers. However, I don't particulary like the icing. Wal Mart’s glazed donuts are sold here for 37 cents each and $2.50 a dozen.

Of course, the WM, Korger, or any other supermarket donuts around here aren’t nearly as good as the hand cut, hand fried yeast donuts from B. F. Spalding, our revered local, family owned donut shop that’s open 4 days a week, from 7 AM to 9 or 10 AM. They sell out fast. (See 11-3-03 comments about Spalding's posted to "Donut Alert" in Roadfood News Forum).

And the supermarket donuts aren't even close to hot or cold Krispy Kreme original glazed. I occasionally make the 3 hour round trip to Florence, Ky. for hot Krispy Kremes, and have made numerous detours from I 40 and I 75 to Knoxville's Kingston Pike KK store.

Krispy Kreme donuts, made in the afternoon at the Louisville KK factory, arrive in Lexington around midnight for sale at gas stations. By the time folks buy them to take to work, they’re been sitting around more than 12 hours. One local service station sells them for $6/dozen. The Louisville factory also services institutional accounts, making 7 thousand donuts each day for the Army’s base at Fort Knox, Ky.

Krispy Kreme opens their first Lexington shop here in January (ground was broken this week), but it will be a 25 minute round trip from my house. To be sure, I’ll sometimes pick up KK glazed donuts when I’m in the neighborhood and see the lit up “Hot Now” sign. Otherwise I’ll patronize the B. F. Spalding family donut shop as much as possible.

The Lexington, Ky. donut situation (price from cost per dozen):

Spalding’s: 40 cents each. Superior donuts, worth twice the price.

Krispy Kreme. 42 cents each. Not yet open here, but donuts at the Florence, Ky. KK shop were excellent when hot or warm, and pretty good when cooled. We’ve never bought nor eaten any of the donuts shipped from Louisville for gas station sales. These 24 hour stations charge 50 cents for a donut fried the previous afternoon.

Wal Mart Superstore deli: 21 cents each. Pretty tasty when fresh. And a good value.

Magee’s: 55 cents each. The icing won’t stick half the time and it’s not loose in the bottom of the bag, so they often lack sweetness. I find them heavy, dense and doughy tasting. I bought some last week, only for comparison purposes.

Kroger area delis: 38 cents each. Just not acceptable!

* * * * *

JiminKy:

Great review and I have always suspected Krogers was cheating.

I occasionally buy Walmarts when my mom and I visit about 5:00AM. I am enticed by the smell when I enter the store.

I have been visiting the donut factory by KK on Kingston pike since they opened there in 1975. I pass it on the way to my office about 6:30AM when they are cooking them. The great smell attacks my olafactory senses when I am at the Zoomers Exon which is next door. I stop there to pick up a USA Today and a couple of more papers. When I was off my Atkins diet, I would pick up a dozen and take them to the office. I would have a couple with my Mello Joy coffee. I would leave the rest in the lounge where they lasted about one minute.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

The Krogers in Houston sell Krispy Kremes. At least the Kroger Signature stores do.

I live in Ashland Kentucky, and since our Krogers are on strike, I wouldn't be able to scope out the donut situation. I can't say I have even bought any there, or any pastries, they tend to be really costly, I can make em at home. As for WalMarts, I don't care for the regular glazed ones, sometimes they are too wet, but I like the other pastries they have to offer. I would kill for a Krispy Kreme store here, but the 2 hours drive to Lexington is something I do once a month anyways. Thanks for that info JiminKY.

Krispy Kreme will be opening up a brand new , "built from scratch" location in Northfield, NJ...(atlantic City area).......only a mile from my condo...

If you're gonna eat a Krispy Kreme, the only way to go is to get the glazed ones right out of the oven..........or else, it's nothing that special, just IMO.....

....it should do some damage to the Krispy Kremes they sell across the street in the Super Fresh Supermarket. (who knows when THEY were made, and where?!)
looks like the "real thing" will be open any day or week now............it was formerly the site of the "big car wash", which was torn down...

Ellen, We’re happy donut happiness is coming your way. Northfield’s spiffy new Krispy Kreme opens November 25. KK's Web site says so. On the "New Store Openings" page, KK invites folks to "join in the festivities and experience a Hot Original Glazed fresh off the line." I hope to attend the January opening of our KK (never having done something like that) and have a cup of their fresh ground coffee with my inaugural donut.

Your new store information:

Northfield, NJ - November 25, 2003
331 Tilton Road
Northfield, NJ 08225

Ten other November openings around the country:

Altoona, PA - November 11, 2003
2550 Plank Road Commons
Altoona, PA 16602

Boardman, OH - November 18, 2003
796 Boardman - Poland Road (US 224)
Boardman, OH 44512

Sevierville, TN - November 18, 2003
732 Dolly Parton Parkway
Sevierville, TN 37862

North York, Ontario - November 20, 2003
825 Don Mills Road
North York, Ontario

North York, Ontario - November 21, 2003
90 Billy Bishop Way
North York, Ontario

Newport Beach, CA - November 25, 2003
1316 Bison Avenue
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Columbia, MD - December 2003
8630 Snowden River Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045

Rockville, MD - December 2003
14919 Shady Grove Road
Rockville, MD 20850

Syracuse, NY - December 2003
2851 Erie Boulevard East
Syracuse, NY 13224

Latham , NY - January 2004
549 Troy Schenectady Road
Latham, NY 12110

KK Web site: www.krispykreme.com

Years ago in Lexington, Kentucky, my sweetie and I were stopped at a red light, waiting for the signal to change, and noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of us. It read:

I WOULD SELL MY SOUL FOR FRIED BREAD

We decided the driver must be a donut lover.

We understood.

I envey all of you, here in Oshkosh, Nebraska, there is no place to buy a freash donut! Students sell KK'S to raise money, but they are shipped in from Denver Colorado, and no one knows when they are baked!

::hates to say this...but..:: I work 7 mins away from a Krispy Kreme store here in Louisville...12 mins from my house too

Clothier,
It's sickening isn't it... must stop timing everything.. must put stop watch down....

LOL Clothier your right...

quote:

Originally posted by EatBeef

I envey all of you, here in Oshkosh, Nebraska, there is no place to buy a freash donut! Students sell KK'S to raise money, but they are shipped in from Denver Colorado, and no one knows when they are baked!

We, the fortunate, do commiserate with deprived Cornhusker friends. It's interesting to hear that KKs have the cachet to sell there, even when they aren't fresh. I'm in that group that only enjoys fresh donuts, so have never had a KK more than a few hours old.

Back in the fall, I tracked down a KK employee and learned that all the KK donuts sold in the mornings at local service stations and supermarkets were made the previous afternoon in a city 80 minutes away. Meaning, the donuts folks bought at 7 a.m. were made between 12 and 17 hours earlier.

Our mom and pop place makes outstanding donuts but is only open 4 days a week and sells out by 9 a.m. KK opened their first store in Central Kentucky on January 6, 12 minutes from where I live in Lexington.

I looked up Oshkosh (pop. 887) and see you're smack in what some call the Empty Quarter, far from a major population center. So, I guess you might do what a lot of us have done, scout out good local donut shoppes and national brand locations to visit when traveling. As for KK, you can use their Web site (www.krispykreme.com) to locate stores, and learn where new stores are opening.

Hi guys and gals,
I have a few comments on this subject. I used to work at the Winn-Dixie deli bakery on Chapman hwy in Knoxville(now a Food City) One of my jobs was to set out, proof, and fry the donuts. The dough came in frozen, it was made by Rich's. All of the frozen bread was made by them too. The donuts came already hole cut and we also had pre-made donut patties for the filled donuts and the long donut patties for the "long john" donuts.
The donuts were good, albeit too sweet for me. I always liked Krispy Kreme. I thing KK has changed their recipe. A few years ago, before they went public, I remember their ingredients label said they contained beef tallow and lard. Now only vegetable shortening. Also, they have soy flour added to them. I know that wasn't in the original recipe.
The craziest thing about KK is that they charge more for them at the store than if you buy them at a Krogers or other outlet. 60 cents per donut. Damn, they are good, but(almost)not that good fresh.

I rarely get to an actual KK store since none are convenient, but my recollection is that they are around .60/ea, and much cheaper by the dozen. KK doughnuts have replaced many of the made in store product. There are 2 large grocery stores near me. Super Fresh sells them for .65 while the Giant about 1/4 mile away sells them for .50. I had a couple of glazed from Giant earlier this week and they were as good as any KK's except when hot out of the oven. Don't really know the time frame between when they are made and when delivered to the store, but I think they are in the store within 6 hours of baking.

The KK donuts in our grocery stores are not close to being fresh. Lexington's supermarket KKs are made 80 minutes away in a Louisville KK factory. What is being sold this morning was made yesterday afternoon, and arrived here around midnight.

The new KK store that opened here January 6 sells KK original glazed for $5.68 a dozen (6% sales tax incl.) The KK store in Florence, Ky. sells a dozen for $4.95 (tax incl.)

I was reading the label on a box of KK original glazed in Kroger last night, looking for any mention of potato flour or potato something, and didn't find anything like that. In another KK forum, someone had mentioned potato flour was the secret of KK's goodness.

There is a small grocery store chain in MA called Roche Bros. I used to love their donuts and get them often. Great Boston Creme, Old Fashioneds, Jelly, and glazed. I walk in last week at the Natick, MA store to find the whole section gone. I ask the gal at the bakery and she said they only make muffins and rolls now, as they ended up throwing out a lot of donuts and it was too labor intensive.

A sad day indeed when a grocery store can sell crappy donuts that are pre made, but a grocery store cant even sell the good ones made in house!

quote:

Originally posted by renfrew

There is a small grocery store chain in MA called Roche Bros. I used to love their donuts and get them often. Great Boston Creme, Old Fashioneds, Jelly, and glazed. I walk in last week at the Natick, MA store to find the whole section gone. I ask the gal at the bakery and she said they only make muffins and rolls now, as they ended up throwing out a lot of donuts and it was too labor intensive.

A sad day indeed when a grocery store can sell crappy donuts that are pre made, but a grocery store cant even sell the good ones made in house!

This is a very sad story. I once ran a program that picked up considerable amounts of unsold day-old bakery goods from supermarket delis each morning. Kroger and other store owners were always complaining about their deli's financial performance. Sorry for your loss, renfrew.

quote:

Originally posted by clothier

Hey Jim, what did you do with the day old stuff? Kind of like Second harvest does?

Here in MI, local chain Farmer Jack is having a tough time of it, and the first thing to go were the deli counters and the meat cutters/packers in store.

Exactly. The day-old goods were immediately distributed to shelters and charities with feeding programs.

Makes me realize how LUCKY we are around my area..because of Middletown's central location of a booming population, supermarket chains have fallen all over each other to locate here..within a 10 minute drive we have a choice of:

2 Shop Rites [wakefern cooperative stores from the NYC area]

a Price Chopper [Golub from the Albany area]

a Super Stop and Shop [from the Boston area]

a Hannefords [also from the Boston/NE area]

a Redners Warehouse [from the Reading/Scranton areas in PA]

A Super Wal-Mart

all we are missing is a Wegmans from Rochester...and who is continually rumored to be looking around..

To say the LEAST, competition is FIERCE, with each store having to put special fliers out for this area to keep up..so the LAST thing any of these stores is going to do is skimp on the specialty departments!

Just about all of the non-WalMart stores bakeries have top notch fresh stuff..especially the Price Chopper and Shop Rites

PLUS..we are EVENTUALLY getting a KK here..although it keeps getting DELAYED...

oh yeah..plus TWO Dunkins also....would you believe the Dunkin Donuts franchisee for this area is named...BERLIN??

I sometimes think that I am the last one on earth to buy into this Krispy Kreme thing. It could be that I grew up in the northeast, and am a bona-fide Dunkin' Donuts guy. It seems to me that they have significantly more variety at DD, the coffee is better, and, frankly, even KK's signature glazed taste better from DD. It seems like almost all grocery stores now here sell KKs, yet I have never seen DDs sold anywhere but in one of their stores -- except for a brief time when I recall them sold at 7-11s.

Does anyone else prefer DD to KK? And -- is there a way to get Publix to start carrying them?

Originally posted by stevekoe

I sometimes think that I am the last one on earth to buy into this Krispy Kreme thing. It could be that I grew up in the northeast, and am a bona-fide Dunkin' Donuts guy. It seems to me that they have significantly more variety at DD, the coffee is better, and, frankly, even KK's signature glazed taste better from DD. It seems like almost all grocery stores now here sell KKs, yet I have never seen DDs sold anywhere but in one of their stores -- except for a brief time when I recall them sold at 7-11s.

Does anyone else prefer DD to KK? And -- is there a way to get Publix to start carrying them?

DD 'ages' better,fer sure..but NOTHING beats those glazed babies when they are right off the belt...[:P]

quote:

Originally posted by stevekoe

I sometimes think that I am the last one on earth to buy into this Krispy Kreme thing. It could be that I grew up in the northeast, and am a bona-fide Dunkin' Donuts guy. It seems to me that they have significantly more variety at DD, the coffee is better, and, frankly, even KK's signature glazed taste better from DD. It seems like almost all grocery stores now here sell KKs, yet I have never seen DDs sold anywhere but in one of their stores -- except for a brief time when I recall them sold at 7-11s.

Does anyone else prefer DD to KK? And -- is there a way to get Publix to start carrying them?

Steve, It's been a while since I've enjoyed some DD glazed yeast donuts, but if they haven't changed, I do prefer them to Krispy Kreme. However, these days I prefer "hot" Krispy Kremes to about anything else. Still yet, I prefer my local family donut shop's glazed to any chain donut I've tried.

I grew up eating a very light and airy donut, and KKs are smaller, heavier and more dense. To be clear, I do enjoy KK donuts. When their new store opened here Jan 6, I ate 15 (3 at the store and the dozen I brought home) before late afternoon. No more donuts for me this month.

I only eat glazed yeast donuts, and know nothing about either company's other products. We have a Dunkin' Donut store here that sort of went south, which is really too bad.

All I know is that all this donut talk has made me think about picking up a dozen or so to take into work in the morning. I will head off to bed dreaming of boston creme, apple cinnamon, chocolate glazed....and Homer Simpson's "mmmmm....donuts". <we really need a drooling smiley to insert here.....>

Steve

I do like DD, but they have to be done right and that is hard to find lately...Used to be that all stores made them in house from the DD mix..now they have these regional plants that distribute them....there are a few of them that still do and a trick i have found to finding them are the ones that are certified kosher. There a couple along the east coast that I know of and all of them still make them in house due to their supervision...I am not sure how that plays out in other areas.

Regional donut factories make and distribute donuts to DD shoppes!? I'm stunned by this report.

It has been a while since I last ate a Dunkin' Donut. It would have been 1989 in Beckley, W.Va. Before leaving, I paused to watch a baker work dough through a display window. That night I'd thought the glazed donuts were absolutely delicious.

I won't be buying donuts at any chain store or franchise unless they're made onsite. Thanks for alerting us, renfrew. Thanks very much.

For anyone who hasn't seen a Krispy Kreme store, the donuts are shaped, fried, and iced on a mechanical donut assembly line. The stores are designed so customers can view the entire process close up; info printed on the glass describes the steps in the process. This may not be very charming, but the donuts rolling off the end are quite appealing and probably stimulates sales.

I just can't waste the calories on KKs or DDs. I usually wait until my travels take me past a real bakery where they make donuts on site. One of my favorites is in Evansville,In. where my mom-in-law lives. A small donut chain called The Donut Bank. I make a few withdrawls every time I'm there.

If it isn't a Spudnut it isn't a donut!

And when KK does open a new store in a major city...look out!

San Antonio got its first KK here close to where I live just last year. There was a *continuous* line around the bulding and down the access road(which runs along IH 10 east) for four weeks, 24/7!

That tells me just how revered KK donuts are to a lot of people. I grew up (and some might say out on KK donuts in Alabama and Georgia, where I always had some freshly made. But not these people here in the Alamo city...

Steve Gordon
"riceboy"
San Antonio, TX

quote:

Regional donut factories make and distribute donuts to DD shoppes!? I'm stunned by this report.

I believe that it depends on how many DD's there are in a given area. Here in the greater Boston/Worcester area there is literally a DD on every corner. And they're working on increasing it to TWO on every corner. With high densities, operators can afford to build central bakeries. The donut quality REALLY suffers, though. You will NEVER get a fresh DD donut around here. It is probable that in areas with fewer stores, the norm is still to make the donuts in the stores.

BTW, I stopped at the KK in Medford Massachusetts recently - five bucks for three donuts and a coffee. Donuts - 90 cents each.

quote:

Originally posted by ConeyIslandLou

Makes me realize how LUCKY we are around my area..because of Middletown's central location of a booming population, supermarket chains have fallen all over each other to locate here..within a 10 minute drive we have a choice of:

2 Shop Rites [wakefern cooperative stores from the NYC area]

a Price Chopper [Golub from the Albany area]

a Super Stop and Shop [from the Boston area]

a Hannefords [also from the Boston/NE area]

a Redners Warehouse [from the Reading/Scranton areas in PA]

A Super Wal-Mart

all we are missing is a Wegmans from Rochester...and who is continually rumored to be looking around..

To say the LEAST, competition is FIERCE, with each store having to put special fliers out for this area to keep up..so the LAST thing any of these stores is going to do is skimp on the specialty departments!

Just about all of the non-WalMart stores bakeries have top notch fresh stuff..especially the Price Chopper and Shop Rites

PLUS..we are EVENTUALLY getting a KK here..although it keeps getting DELAYED...

oh yeah..plus TWO Dunkins also....would you believe the Dunkin Donuts franchisee for this area is named...BERLIN??

Which one of the many, many "Middletowns" do you live in, Lou? If it's the one in New Jersey, you DO have a Wegman's, right on Route 9. If it's the one in New York, I used to live there, too, and while I remember 2 ShopRites and a Price Chopper, I don't remember all that other stuff!!! Of course, it was growing like nobody's business, which is one of the reasons I left.

If you do get a Wegman's, you'll likely be disappointed in their donuts. IMHO, only slightly better than the ones you'll find in the other supermarkets. And they carry them to the exclusion of other brands, like Entenmann's and Friehofer's. Still with DD in the 'hood and a KK on the way, you won't really care!

I never met a supermarket donut I much cared for or a state that didn't have at least one place called "Middletown"!