I’m not the kind of person who turns down doughnuts when they’re offered. I happen to hold a firm belief that doughnuts may be one of the Earth’s most perfect foods. While I also understand they’re anything but healthy, they remain a favorite treat of mine. What’s not to love; doughnuts are the pizza of breakfast pastries. There’s a flavor to satisfy whatever kind of sweet tooth a person has, from glazed old fashioned to jelly and cream filled to Dunkin’ Donuts’ famous Manager’s Special. So, when recently I was in Portland, Oregon visiting my friend Marsha and she strongly suggested a visit to Pip’s Original, I was immediately on board.
In a place where perennial doughnut shop, Voodoo Doughnuts is infamous enough to have garnered its own beer collaboration and constantly hosts lines of thirty or more people, it’s difficult for another doughnut to get a bit in edgewise. Pip’s is a coffee shop that sets its pastries apart by the very specific type of doughnuts they create: baked to order, 3 flavors only, mini sized.
There are three flavors, honey and sea salt, nutella, and cinnamon/sugar. After trying all three, I am hard-pressed to decide which one I liked the best. When I was eating them, whatever I had in my hand was my favorite. I’m a sucker for chocolate sprinkles doughnuts, but the simplicity of the flavors of Pip’s Orginals complimented the dough without overpowdering it, and that’s really what makes these little doughnuts such a magical breakfast bite. A freshly made doughnut from Pip’s is unlike any other doughnut I have eaten–it’s got a crispiness on the outside that protects a soft, moist, crumbly inside. The doughnuts are light and airy while being cakey at the same time. It’s doughnut magic.
If you find yourself in the Fremont district of Portland, make sure to stop by Pip’s Original and buy a box of freshly made doughnuts.
