The Doughnut Quest

Doughnuts are an amazing food. They seem to be light as air and yet sit like door knobs in your stomach if you eat too many. Bakeries are amazing places that are filled with iced treats and confections that delight the palate and light up the eyes of children of all ages. As a teen I remember stopping at a local bakery with girl friends for a soda and a pastry of my choice as we talked about everything from boys to homework. As an adult this activity is a rarity. Most bakeries today are either in giant grocery stores, or owned by chains, although I can remember when Krispy Kreme was just a bakery in Akron and had the best doughnuts ever. That was when I could eat doughnuts without thinking about salt, sugar, fat or calories.

Today if I am going to eat a doughnut, I want it to be the best that I can get locally, so my husband and I embarked upon a journey to acquire a half dozen plain glazed from four local bakeries. We planned to taste test a doughnut from each bakery and decide once and for all who had the best doughnuts around. Well you know what they say about plans. One of the bakeries turned out to be a French bakery and had no doughnuts. But after driving fifty miles to the four bakeries, we came home, lettered the bottom of three paper plates and put cut up pieces of a doughnut from one bakery on each plate. Then we left the room and our son moved the plates around. So when we tasted the doughnuts, we didn't know where they were from. There was a clear favorite, but before I say who, let me describe the bakeries.

First we went to Oakmont Bakery located at 531 Allegheny Avenue in Oakmont. The phone number is 412-826-1606. The website iswww,oakmontbakery.com Their hours are Monday to Saturday from 6am to 7pm and Sunday from 6am to 3pm. They are the only bakery that had a dining area, so we indulged ourselves by sharing an unremarkable bear claw and coffee before we went to visit the other bakeries. If you want to sit and chat with your friends and enjoy desserts this is the place to do it. There were plenty of people there already and it was 7:00 on a Saturday morning. There was a number dispenser that was obvious and easy to use. Our wait was just long enough to allow us to look at the large variety of goodies in their display cases. Price lists are available for cakes and pastries. They do a large business and have the reputation of being the best bakery around. There is plenty of parking and everything we saw looked really spotless.

Our next stop was in Millvale at Jean-Marc Chatellier's French Bakery. It is located at 213 North Avenue in Millvale. The phone number is 412-821-8533. The website iswww.jeanmarcchatellier.com Their hours are Tuesday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 2pm. Since they are a French Bakery they had no plain glazed doughnuts. They do have chocolate filled croissants that are wonderful and not too sweet, which we took home for later. They also have the most beautiful glazed fresh fruit tarts. They are colorful and a delight to the eye as well as the palate. There is no off street parking for the shop but we had no trouble finding a spot to park. The shop did not sparkle and gleam like Oakmont, but the pastries are amazing. Unfortunately like Moio's (www.moios.com ) the Italian pastry shop in Monroeville, they had no plain glazed, so there was no way to level the playing field as to quality. Like Moios, they are the only bakery of their type. If I want a cannoli or napoleon, I go to Moios for chocolate croissants I go to Jean-Marc's.

The next stop on our journey was Dudts Bakery at 1701 Duncan Avenue in Allison Park. This is in the same shopping Center as the Drivers License Bureau, so everyone can find it and there is lots of parking. Their phone number is 412-366-1733. Their website iswwwdudtsbakery.com Their hours are Monday through Friday 7am to 8pm and Saturday 7am to 7pm. The counters were covered with white boxes with names written on them - cakes waiting to be picked up. There were fewer types of baked goods in their display cases, and the overall impression was not the sparkling cleanliness of the Oakmont Bakery, but perhaps they just hadn't invested in higher wattage bulbs. They were selling the food and not the ambiance. They did not have a price list available when we were there, but they were friendly and pleasant. The number of pastry boxes on their counters indicate that they must have an excellent product. We picked up our half dozen doughnuts and headed to Stoecklein's.

Stoecklein's Bake Shop is now located at 6545 Saltsburg Road in Penn Hills (instead of just around the corner where it used to be located - damn). Their phone number is 412-798-6545. Their hours are Monday through Saturday from 6am to 5pm. They have no website that I can find, and the hours listed vary. There is parking in front of the store which is adjacent to a pizza place. When we entered the shop the smell was like heaven. As always the display cases were full of cookies and the doughnuts were arranged by types on shelves in upright glass cases behind the counters. There were people to put our half dozen doughnuts into a slim box . There was a glass fronted refrigerator with assorted drinks as well as a coffee machine. They also sell lottery tickets. There is no place to sit down and visit, but that would be an awesome idea. I have to confess that I had ordered a dozen cranberry apple fritters which are now in our freezer awaiting a special occasion. We used to have them for Christmas breakfast when Stoecklein's was nearby. Mike and I got an additional fritter and split it and stood there enjoying the smell and chatting with the staff. We left with a cake price list and a cookie list. I know I used to pick up mince pie from them for my father for Thanksgiving, so they have other things too. It was our last stop and we were glad to be going home.

I have already describer our testing method. We each wrote down what we thought of the doughnuts on plates 1, 2 and 3 before we turned the empty plates over. Surprisingly the bakery that everyone says is the best was our least favorite bakery. Oakmont Bakery's doughnuts were the lightest, but had the least taste. Still they do have a place to dine in, so if take out doughnuts is not your thing, they win hands down. Our opinion of Dudt's Bakery was sort of divided. The doughnut was densest, which my son liked, but my husband and I thought was only okay.

As unbiased as we could be, Stoecklein's doughnuts were the best. We always thought so. The cake part of the doughnut had more taste than the others. I think the dough itself might have been a sweeter dough. They were only slightly lighter than Dudt's, but it was the taste that we preferred. If I lived in Allison Park, I might not be inclined to drive to Stoecklein's but if I was going to be in the area, I sure would order ahead. If you come to Pittsburgh, or live in Pittsburgh, get your doughnuts at Stoecklein's. We think they are the best ever. If you don't live in this part of Pittsburgh, you might want to try to find out where all the privately owned bakeries are and spend a Saturday picking up plain glazed and running your own taste test. It was lots of fun.