“If you’re happy, the donuts are happy…”
Meet Fany Gerson, the 2011 James Beard nominated cookbook author and donut mastermind behind DOUGH, an innovative, never-a-few-hours-old artisan donut shop in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Fany was kind enough to give me a personal tour of DOUGH’s back kitchen last week to watch as they handmade donuts. Now, I love a good donut. But donuts rarely amaze me. Rarely do they make me sit up and do a double-take at the sight of them. However, as I filmed DOUGH’s over-sized, ring-shaped cakes getting dunked and dressed, something happened… I could literally feel my jaw drop in childlike wonder. “Wows” and “oh my gods” kept cooing from my shameless self as Fany presented donut flavor after donut flavor. I was embarrassingly, but not embarrassingly, on a filming sugar-high, and I hadn’t even tried a donut yet!
Anyhow, I hope this story holds you and your sugar tooth captive, even if just for a moment. It took months for Fany to perfect her donut’s dough recipe, testing and tweaking over 50 ideas before it came out just right. It’s got that crisp little crunch on the bite in, then that big, soft center with a chewy give and hits of nutmeg that helps you savor the unique flavored glazes and textured toppings. It’s a great donut, and the foot traffic says it all. On busy days, over 1,000 donuts in dozens of flavors are handmade for customers.¬† Specials change daily, and once the spring/summer begins, Fany plans to introduce more seasonal flavors and filled jams.
DOUGH is definitely worth the trip out to Brooklyn. Trust me. I even shared a box with a few random strangers who admittedly didn’t like donuts…until they took a bite of DOUGH’s.
DOUGH’s Donuts
305 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Thanks for watching food. curated. Happy eating!
OMG!!…Doughnuts, can’t just stop at one. They certainly have come a long way since the daily morning stop before school. Which one is your favorite at Dough?
Alda – I LOVED both DOUGH’s Coconut Milk Glazed with toasted coconut. And the Dulce de Leche w/sliced almonds. SOOOOO good. Oh, and the lemon poppy seed was great too! Plus, so many I didn’t try too!
YUM! great story! beautifully shot and told
Beautiful video – I live in Clinton Hill and can’t wait to try these! The lemon curd is calling my name…
love this video. i’m kind of freaking out just looking at this right now — seems amazing. why do they close at 4pm?!
Thank you for such a wonderful video. The donuts just seem to come to life.
Those donuts look heavenly. Why is Brooklyn so far away?
great video! I am a fan of Fanny Gerson and her cookbook! I guess I will be in brooklyn this saturday morning stuff my face with donuts.
Unfortunately, here in Southern California we do not have wonder pastry masters like the one you showed in the video. Ours are deep fried and slapped on a tray. YUM!
I visited Dough on the Donut Crawl that Nicole Taylor organized through Twitter…and I looved everything about it. I had no idea that Fany, was the mastermind behind it! This video of her reminds me of all the million things I love about baking and pastry…her enthusiasm for making the ordinary doughnut something better comes right through. Great job Liza, as always.
Sniff, in France we have a lot of good pastry but nobody makes Donuts… Is there any american who wants to open a shop in Paris? i’ll come everyday!!!
I’m sure you can find someone! Who wouldn’t want to move to Paris. The question is, would Parisians want donuts?
I’m sure they want.
Parisiens spend 8 euros for a milk shake in american “burger restaurant” in Paris. (yes we only have burgers restaurant to represent the american food in paris. and most of them sold the burgers 15euros….)
I think some good donuts can be sold in Paris with no problem.
Sorry for my english im french…
Love your site! please continue!!!!
“donuts”**