Donuts at Mrs. Johnson's Bakery

Erik and I got kicked out of a bar on Monday night.

Were we drunk? No. Disorderly? Certainly not.

We had Eliza with us. Sweet, sleeping, three-months-old Eliza. Was she drunk and disorderly? Nah.

Apparently, some bars in Austin take the “no one under 21” law very literally. We went to Lavaca Street Bar to meet a couple of friends and were promptly told by a waitress, who apologized profusely, that we couldn’t have a baby in the bar. Bummed out and all dressed up with no where to go, Erik suggested we get dessert somewhere. I suggested donuts at Mrs. Johnson’s.

Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery is special. Oh, sure, the donuts are spectacular, but what really sets Mrs. Johnson’s apart from the rest is their hours of operation. I’ve never known of a bakery that opens at 7:30 p.m. and closes at noon the next day. What this means is that you can get a hot, fresh donut not only to go with your morning cuppa joe, but also late at night after binge drinking your way down Sixth Street (or after getting kicked out of a bar for having a baby). You don’t even have to get out of your car because Mrs. Johnson’s has a drive-through window (though I would hope that if you’ve been binge drinking on Sixth Street all night you’re not driving anywhere. Ask your friendly designated driver/cabbie to swing by on the way home).

Mrs. Johnson’s donuts are delish. You can tell how good a donut shop is by how good their old fashioned donut is. It is a simple donut, yes, but if a bakery can get it right, chances are the rest of their donuts will be stellar. Beware the bakery that dazzles with fruity fillings, crazy sprinkles, and silly names; they might not have what it takes to turn out a truly tasty creation.

We got six donuts to go (we actually went inside the bakery; I didn’t want to miss out on that warm, sticky bakery smell). Erik chose a cinnamon roll, a Bavarian cream filled, and a glazed cake, and I got an apple fritter, a chocolate cake, and, of course, a plain cake (a.k.a. an old fashioned). Our free donut to eat on the way home--a Mrs. Johnson’s tradition--was a glazed cake donut.

It took all my willpower to not eat my three donuts that night. I had the plain cake donut right away and it was still warm. The outer crust was perfect: crunchy, sweet, fried goodness. The inside was moist and perfectly cakey. I saved my other two for the next morning. The apple fritter was good, though it could have been more apple-y, and the chocolate cake donut was delicious.

Going to Mrs. Johnson’s got me thinking about donuts. I’ve always been fascinated by universal foods--you know, foods that have a variation in almost every culture, like donuts. Pretty much every country has a version of sweet, fried dough: beignets in France, oliebollen in Holland, facturas in Argentina...even Chinese red bean buns are reminiscent of a filled donut (and they happen to be one of my favorite things in the whole, wide world).

In my Googling I found a recipe for Pumpkin Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze that looks dreamy; I’ll definitely be trying it when the weather cools down a bit. More interestingly, though, is a recipe I found for Neighborhood Donuts. Now, I usually despise "semi-homemade" cooking (I’m looking at you, Sandra Lee), but these piqued my interest. It’s a creative use for a lot of ingredients most people have in their kitchens. There have been countless nights we’ve wanted something sweet and dessert-y but were too lazy to get our butts out of the house. Neighborhood Donuts sure would have done the trick.

Suffice it to say, I’ve got donuts on the brain. I’d better get over my fear of frying, and fast.