April 29--For my 30th birthday, my friends made me a "cake" out of 30 old-fashioned doughnuts piled into a glorious, 9,600-calorie pyramid. Let me tell you: way better than actual cake. People decimated that thing. Doughnuts are universally likable, like corgis. (And, like corgis, even better when there are lots of them around.)
But bring the word "favorite" into the doughnut conversation, and things get heated -- at least when you work with other crazy food people. I live and die by a well-made old-fashioned, one that's an edible topography map of crunchy peaks and melt-in-your-mouth valleys of glaze. Yet a co-worker called the old-fashioned boring, pointing to doughnuts that showboat with bacon on top. Another swore by apple fritters. And, I discovered with shock, that I was the only one who had tried the Stan's Biscoff pocket, a borderline magical member of the doughnut genre.
There was only one answer: stage the ultimate doughnut battle. Each member of our Food Dining team nominated up to three of his or her favorite doughnuts in Chicago, we made the rounds one morning to pick up a few of each, and we gathered in a conference room, the air clouded with sugar, to try and rate each one.
The results, shown in the slideshow above in alphabetical order by bakery name, reflect our collective dream box -- the dozen doughnuts in Chicago that will never let you down. Please enjoy in moderation.
mconrad@tribpub.com
Twitter @marissa_conrad
