We all have tasted a lot of chocolate-glazed doughnuts, varying from good to barely worth dunking. The chocolate-glazed cake doughnuts at Nok’s Donuts are a step above with soft cake and a great glaze that actually tastes like chocolate.
Virtually all the doughnuts you pick up at shops and supermarkets are made from mixes, and the glazes come in white plastic buckets.
This recently opened Lafayette shop is one of the few that makes doughnuts completely from scratch, including the icings. The family-run business even takes it a step further by focusing on natural ingredients including flour, butter, cage-free eggs, and milk without artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup or GMOs. That focus on sustainability carries over to compostable coffee cups, lids, stir sticks, straws and even the labels and glue. Nok’s even crafts their own aluminum-free baking powder
The result for pastry lovers is joy. Nok’s doughnut with maple glaze is made from real maple syrup; the lemon glazed item is a blast of fresh, tart citrus flavor; the vanilla glaze includes whole Madagascar vanilla beans; and the espresso icing is made with beans roasted next door at the Otis Craft Collective.
Nok’s hippest variety has to be the doughnut topped with bright-green matcha tea icing and freshly grated young coconut.
This much quality and thoughtfulness in a doughnut means it’s not inexpensive, especially with the cost of ingredients rising. But the amount of flavor makes it more than worth it.
Look for the huge “D” on the front of The District building in Lafayette: The shop is inside a small atrium with shops and seating.
Boulder Recipe Flashback: Curried Chicken
Chicken has been on the menu in Boulder since at least the late 1800s, notwithstanding this recipe from Mrs. F. W. Leland in The Boulder Cook Book with “Recipes Cooked with Boulder Natural Gas.” Antique recipes are famously short on details but this one is easy to follow. Feel free to spice it up a bit.
“Two tablespoons of butter, allow it to melt and when hot, add one tablespoon of chopped onion and two tablespoons of chopped apple. Keep it stirred until a delicate brown. Now sprinkle over it two level teaspoons curry powder and two level teaspoons of flour. Stir until well mixed then add one pint of water, stir until it thickens; strain. Add the (cooked) chicken cut into small pieces, mix well with gravy, cover and let simmer gently ten minutes; add salt to taste and the juice of half of a lemon. Heap boiled rice around sides of serving dish and pour curry in center.”
Culinary Calendar: Last lunch on The Titanic
Ozo Coffee in Longmont is hosting a coffee brewing and art competition with cash prizes 4-6 p.m. Thursday, May 12. … Boulder’s Growing Gardens—famous for the quality of its organic heirloom tomato plants—holds its Community Plant Sale May 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 1630 Hawthorn Ave., Boulder. … The third-class passengers in the bottom of the Titanic ate quite differently from the oligarchs in first class. On May 24, Denver’s Molly Brown House Museum offers a free virtual program and Q&A with culinary historian Veronica Hinke, author of The Last Night on The Titanic: Unsinkable Drinking, Dining and Style. Registration: mollybrown.org/titanic … Boulder Mushroom offers fungi classes including: Fungi 101 for farmers and gardeners (May 14); hands-on growing mushrooms with straw (May 15); growing mushrooms with logs (May 21). bouldermushroom.com … Send info on Boulder County food and drink events, classes, festivals, farm stands and dinners to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com
