food, reviews and of course coffee
Pipp & Co are a relative newcomer to the bakery scene in Bristol. I had been meaning to go there for a while, so when I did I was impressed with them. More traditional than the Americana style of Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons. These sugar coated doughnuts are filled with different fillings, all very tasty.
I do quite like, what I suspect we would call posh doughnuts, but don’t always like paying the high prices we sometimes see.
Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city. The Kamppi shopping centre was next to the hotel. Whilst I was at the hotel I popped out, with an idea to get some snacks from the supermarket, but as I passed Round Bakery, I saw their donuts were 50% off. They looked very nice, so I bought two of those. I got a chocolate one, and a maple and coconut donut.
These were excellent doughnuts, despite being reduced they were still nice and fresh. I liked the decorations which added to the doughnut. What I didn’t find out until now was that all their doughnuts are vegan.
I was giving my car a charge at the Instavolt chargers and popped into Tim Hortons for a coffee to kill some time as the car was charged.
In the end I went with an espresso and a Boston Creme doughnut. The coffee at Tim Hortons isn’t half bad, and I much prefer it over the coffee from Starbucks. In the past I would usually have a flat white, but more recently I have been drinking black coffee. I drink black coffee at home, so it isn’t too surprising that when going out for coffee now, I am choosing black coffee.
The doughnut choice was limited, but then it was evening, so not too much of a surprise there. I went with one of the “simpler” doughnuts, rather than one of the premium versions. I do like a Boston Creme doughnut, and this was a nice doughnut. It was soft and fresh, the chocolate topping was good, and the creme was tasty. It wasn’t too sweet either, which is quite surprising for doughnuts. The coffee was a good contrast to the doughnut.
On June 26th 1963 President John F Kennedy gave a famous speech in West Berlin in which he declared “Ich bin ein Berliner”. It is one of the best-known speeches of the Cold War. Of course there is some view that he was referencing a doughnut, well let’s go to Wikipedia and see what that says about this.
There is a widespread misconception that Kennedy accidentally said a malapropism that he was a Berliner, a German doughnut specialty. This is an urban legend which emerged several decades after the speech, and it is not true that residents of Berlin in 1963 would have mainly understood the word “Berliner” to refer to a jelly doughnut or that the audience laughed at Kennedy’s use of this expression.
Despite that on my recent trip to Berlin I did remember that speech and I did have a few doughnuts.
Close to my hotel there was a doughnut shop close to my hotel and looking through the window these did look like really nice doughnuts. However at €4.50 each they were a little expensive for me. In the supermarket next door they had a selection of doughnuts roughly €1 each, much more in my price bracket for a snack and better value for money. Not that I could actually compare as I never bought one of the €4.50 doughnuts.
I did enjoy my doughnuts, usually with a cup of coffee.
So there I was in Cabot Circus in Bristol in the early evening, anticipating a visit to the cinema, but doing some shopping before the film.
I noticed that people were going into Krispy Kreme being given a glazed doughnut from the conveyer belt and walking out. So I went in and I got a free doughnut from Krispy Kreme. They appeared to be giving away their excess stock.
In the past I haven’t thought highly of the Krispy Kreme doughnuts, they’re okay, but nothing special. However who am I to say no to a free doughnut.
Actually this one was still warm and very fresh. It was rather nice, quite enjoyed it.
I popped out to the new Tim Hortons to buy some Timbits for lunch. It recently opened and they had taken over the old Pizza Hut. They also added a drive through. I didn’t drive through and went inside. Having visited the Pizza Hut, it was interesting to see what they had done inside. They had kept much of the interior structure, but obviously done some decorating. There was a new serving area. I did actually start to queue, but in the end I went to one of their ordering screens and placed my order for a small box of timbits. These are small doughnuts in various flavours.
I then had to wait a while before I could pick up my order, which I took home.
There was a choice of timbits in the box, I had a chocolate one and a cinnamon one.
The timbits were okay, but I wouldn’t say they were outstanding.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jam Doughnuts were on special at a Sainsbury Local.
They were 33p each or two for £1.20…
Bargain!
There is something about the traditional jam doughnuts, the ones with red jam in the middle and dusted with real granulated sugar. With the increased availability of American style donuts, such as Krispy Kreme, in many different places and quite a fair few pale imitations, it’s nice to know that the traditional jam doughnut is still available. I don’t always want my doughnuts to use icing sugar instead of normal sugar, I don’t always want icing or toppings. That’s not to say donuts (as opposed to doughnuts) have their place, but we shouldn’t forget the delight of the simple jam doughnut. There are also differences between the yeast raised versions, cake versions and batter versions. In my mind I much prefer the doughnuts made with a yeast based dough.
I remember as a young boy being entranced by a bakers shop in town that had windows into the bakery part of the shop, so you could see where and how they made the doughnuts. You could see where the doughnuts were cooked, the trays of sugar where the virgin doughnuts were coated and finally the jam injection contraption that filled them with sweet sugary red jam. They also had other flavours, apricot and blackcurrant, but for me it was always the ones with the red jam. I rarely bought jam doughnuts with my pocket money, but when I could I really enjoyed eating them.
I wonder about that red jam, in theory it should be raspberry jam, but anyone who has read the ingredients list of Jammie Dodgers will realise that mass catering these days seem to use a raspberry flavoured plum jam rather than a real raspberry jam, so hence the red jam moniker.
So are you a secret doughnut eater? Do you prefer the Americanized (sic) donuts? What about varieties from Germany or Holland?
Despite my reservations about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts I recently bought a box of them for my team at work (as a reward).
Slightly concerned about the Christmas specials, as it is really nowhere near Christmas. I really should have picked my own selection for the box, but as I was in a bit of a hurry I got a full box with a selection already in, which included the tree and snowman.
Personally the one I had was a little too sweet and sugary for me, but the rest seemed to go down well.
Ich bin ein Berliner
The infamous quote from John F Kennedy was as any German will tell you translates as “I am a doughnut”.
So it was with this reminiscence in mind that I bought a Berliner doughnut from Waitrose that had been reduced.
It was the first Berliner I had ever had. Never had the chance to get to Germany for many years, and though through JFK I was aware of the Berliner it’s not something I had seen.
So what did I think?
Es ist ein schaler Berliner.
Yes it was stale.
So it was reduced and it was reduced because it had been out all day (maybe a couple of days) and as a result it was stale. Well I hope it was stale in some ways, as if that was how it was suppose to taste then I am disappointed.
So I didn’t finish it.
I will need to get to Germany sometime for a doughnut…