Donuts are one of America’s top treats – and the world’s, for that matter. But sometimes a glazed ring or sugar-dusted round doesn’t quite cut it. For those times, the country’s many specialist bakeries and chains have risen to the occasion with some pretty outrageous creations. From limited-edition options that didn’t skimp on the sprinkles to outlandish innovations that have become customer favorites, read on for some of the most outrageous donut flavors in the US.
Suárez Bakery, which has two locations in Charlotte, has become locally famous for its adorable (and very crave-able) donuts. The ultimate thing to order here is the Texas Doughnut Cake, a tower of the bakery’s signature donuts layered with cream and available to pre-order with different fillings and sprinkles. It serves up to eight people so it’s ideal for a special occasion. Or if you just fancy a lot of donut.
Hawaiian poi-glazed donuts are made with taro root, which is boiled and pounded into a paste then added to the donut batter for a striking purple hue. Kamehameha Bakery has been making its Poi Glaze donuts and other malasadas – yeast-raised donut balls originating from Portugal – since 1978, and they’re as beautiful as ever.
Gourdough’s, a pub and separate food truck in Austin, offers donut holes for dessert, but it’s the savory treats – including sandwiches and burgers with donuts in lieu of bread – that really stand out. The Mother Clucker, perfectly crisp fried chicken in honey butter served with a hot garlic donut, is one of the most popular – and outrageously good.
Novel Ice Cream does offer its variety of ice cream flavors in a cup or waffle sandwich, but it’s the warm donut buns, with a scoop stuffed inside, that it's best known for. The bright blue Cookie Monster ice cream donut or ‘doughmelt’, with mini cookies and crushed Oreos, is a real standout in both taste and appearance.
Not just chocolate: Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate. Vincent Van Doughnut is known for turning out creative, made-from-scratch donuts. Experimental flavors come and go but this triple choc treat – a sour cream old fashioned with a chocolate glaze, choc chips and ganache – is a longstanding favorite. Decadent and delicious.
With two locations in New Jersey (Freehold and Oakhurst) and one in Encinitas, California, Broad Street Dough Co. is famed for its fabulously detailed and OTT creations, sold alongside a core menu of filled and glazed donuts. We particularly love these bee-themed donuts, from rings topped with yellow sugar or sprinkles, to full-on yellow-and-black striped rounds.
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At least two indulgent treats packed into one delicious round, this Blueberries & Champagne donut from California mini-chain Sidecar is the ultimate in sweet luxury. One of the company’s regular seasonal specials, released in early 2022, it starts with a raised bullseye donut (a traditional style with a little divot to hold a dollop of something), is dipped in blueberry glaze, and then is topped with blueberry and Champagne compote, lemon cheesecake mousse and crumbled sugar cookies.
Five Daughters Bakery, which has a handful of locations in Georgia and Tennessee, is known for its croissant-style donuts with 100 layers of pastry. Seasonal flavors change monthly and tend to be outrageously delicious, with varieties like Strawberry Lemon Shortcake, Cinnamon Cream Cheese and these joyful Lemon Poppy Seed treats. The donuts are rolled in sour sugar and dipped in a sweet citrus-infused glaze.
This delicious little donut was created to celebrate the 13th annual What the Fluff Festival – a nonprofit event that brings people together with a love of marshmallow fluff. Union Square Donuts, which has locations in Boston, Brookline and Somerville, filled the Fluffernutter with peanut butter pastry cream, dipped it in gooey marshmallow and topped it with salted and roasted peanuts. It proved hugely popular (of course) so tends to be released fairly regularly as a limited-edition treat.
These cheeky Chamango donuts from California Donuts were released as a limited-edition flavor inspired by the spicy, sweet and sour Mexican fruit drink, which is made with mango and chamoy sauce. They were iced with a mango, lime and chili powder frosting and served with a tamarind candy straw. The LA bakery, around since 1982, regularly has crazily colorful creations such as the vivid purple Blueberry Toast Crunch, and Panda, whose face is made from Oreos.
Eating yellow snow generally isn't advised, but we would make an exception for this Snownut, created by the popular Supermoon Bakehouse as a Christmas special. Its full name was Snownut with Yellow Snow and it came filled with coconut cream, dipped in a coconut glaze and flakes and finished off with a shot of yellow liquid on top. Squeezing the pipette of lemon, honey and ginger turned the donut yellow, just like the slushy snow in the city.
No one does donuts quite like Voodoo, founded in Portland, Oregon and now with locations in California, Colorado, Florida and Texas. The menu features hundreds of options from plain glazed rings to a donut shaped like a voodoo doll. The Ring of Fire was created for the annual Mexican celebration Cinco de Mayo, with a chocolate cake donut as the base, a dusting of cinnamon sugar and cayenne pepper and a garnish of a whole dried red chili.
The retro Hi-Lo Diner in Minneapolis is known for its big breakfasts and main meal-worthy donuts called Hi-Tops. The epic Gary Cooper features a house-made donut topped with buttermilk fried chicken, maple-bourbon syrup and country gravy. Another outrageously good option is the Notorious P.I.G, buried under pulled pork, black bean and corn salsa, sour cream and a fried egg.
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BomboBar in Chicago specializes in bombos, a type of filled, hole-free donut inspired by Italian bomboloni. The menu changes frequently but tends to be reliably OTT, as this Jam-o Bombo creation – a St. Patrick's Day special – demonstrates. It was served with whiskey-infused jelly in a miniature squeezy bottle.
The tasty donut selection changes daily at Grindstone Coffee & Donuts in the Hamptons and typically includes a few regular ring donuts and the generally more lavish filled options. The Boilermaker goes further, consisting of a ring donut with a salted peanut glaze and a mini jelly donut in the center – then topped with dark chocolate. The whole thing is covered in crushed peanuts and chocolate cookie crumbs.
In 2017, Los Angeles’ coffee, fried chicken and donut shop Birdies launched this limited-edition (and wonderfully vibrant) Rock Candy Donut. Glazed in marbled pink frosting and decorated with an edible purple crystal, it looks almost too pretty to eat. Almost... Other colorful creations from Birdies include the star-sprinkled Galaxy and Pistachio Thyme, in an appealing Tiffany blue.
Nothing says 'happy birthday' to a donut-lover like a chocolate-glazed donut topped with a slice of funfetti – a type of cake with rainbow sprinkles baked in, sometimes called a confetti cake. That's the philosophy at PVDonuts, anyway, and the result is a donut so huge it might have to be shared (or scoffed by one person over a couple sittings). The Providence donut shop is best-known for brioche styles and has a rotating menu of delicious and often lavish creations.
These Champagne and Rosé donuts from the ever-popular East Park Donuts & Coffee are strictly an adults-only treat. Covered in a pale pink, alcoholic glaze with little gold stars, they’re available as a special order and perfect for weddings, birthdays and other occasions. The shop also offers 'Donut Grams' – personalized messages spelled out in donuts.
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If you like piña coladas (and whether or not you like getting caught in the rain), you would love this special creation from District in New Orleans. The limited-edition donut was inspired by the classic holiday cocktail with a generous smothering of frosting, plenty of desiccated coconut, a topping of caramelized pineapple and a maraschino cherry.
Not all donuts are designed to stand the test of time. This one-off from the donut maestros at Blue Star Donuts is a prime example. It was created for April Fool's Day in 2018 and consisted of a brioche donut dunked in a zesty cocktail glaze of tomato purée, horseradish and habanero chili. In the tradition of the best 1970s dinner parties, each Spicy Shrimp Cocktail was garnished with wild shrimp and a lemon wedge.
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Customers needn't choose between savory and sweet when having breakfast at Duck Donuts, which has locations across the USA. The hugely popular OBX Donut Breakfast Sandwich comes in various guises from plain cheese and egg to the full works: a filling of sausage, egg, cheese and crispy bacon, with frosting and more bacon on top.
Sugar Shack Donuts, which has two Virginia locations, first released the Golden Snitch to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday on 31 July 2018. The gilded creation has returned – due to popular demand – several times since so there's a chance customers could catch one in the future. The beautiful donut has a Butterbeer glaze and is decorated with gold stars and the shape of a 'snitch', a tricky-to-catch ball that features in the novels' fictional game of Quidditch.
The Pistachio Rose Cream donut appears as a regular special at General Porpoise, which has four locations in Seattle. Fluffy fist-sized donuts are filled with green, pistachio-flavored cream that oozes invitingly out of the sides. It's prettified even further by a smattering of pink rose petals.
Say aloha to the Blue Hawaiian from Donut Crazy, a shamelessly bold and colorful creation that would look very much at home lounging by the pool. The limited-edition donut, released as one of the popular Connecticut chain's monthly 'crazies' selection, had a sweet pineapple glaze and was topped with blue coconut buttercream and a garnish of pineapple, cherry and mini umbrella. A tropical paradise in donut form.
Is there a better combination than strawberries and cream? Yes, when they're added to this limited-edition treat from Donut Bar in San Diego. The specialty donut shop, beloved for its colorful and innovative varieties, served these sliced in half and piped to bursting with whipped cream topped with fresh strawberries.
The Doughnut Project makes its goods in small batches and limited editions, and the Tequila Sunrise was certainly one of its most colorful offerings. With all the flavors and baked-in sunshine to reflect the classic cocktail, these were covered in an orange and tequila glaze with a swirl of grenadine syrup, an orange wedge and a maraschino cherry to garnish. The core menu includes unusual delights like the Everything Doughnut, with a sweet cream cheese glaze and the seeds you'd expect on an 'everything' bagel.
To celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, Massachusetts mini-chain Blackbird Doughnuts released a special ice cream sandwich with a halved donut in place of the usual cookies. The donut was used to sandwich soft-serve ice cream and then dipped in chocolate glaze and covered in sprinkles. It proved hugely popular and the shop now offers any of its donuts split and filled with vanilla or chocolate ice cream.
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The Ube S’mores from much-loved joint Colorado Donuts, released as a limited edition, owed its distinctive purple hue to the ube or purple yam. The tuber gave the donut a nutty vanilla flavor as well as keeping the texture moist. It was served sliced in half and stuffed with Hershey’s chocolate and toasted marshmallows in the style of s'mores. Another toasted marshmallow and smattering of crushed Graham crackers completed the treat.
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The first time The Salty Donut released its collaboration donut with Homestead, Florida-based Knaus Berry Farm, it was so popular the specialty bakery had to limit purchases to two per person. The highly-coveted treat starts with the farm shop's legendary sticky buns. These are then rolled up inside brioche dough with a secret sauce and drenched in a house-made pecan-toffee sauce. It isn't always available, it has a tendency to return due to its popularity.
Why have one donut when you can have three? This donut in a donut in a donut obviously doesn't see any reason. The Ripple Doughnut, the beautiful brainchild of the master bakers at Doughnut Plant, is designed for those times when a single ring just won't cut it. Customers can design their own by choosing from a variety of glazes for each one plus a filling – seasonal jam, coconut, custard or chocolate pudding – for the middle ring.
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