Glazed and Infused Fall Menu Party

One day I was invited to an event on Facebook. Not a strange occurrence, but it was different this time. Glazed and Infused invited me to their Fall Menu Party. If there are two things I love in life, it's sweets and fall. So of course I was excited about it from that moment until I invited my friends to join me. Even better, their reaction was to make a night of it.

Photo via Glazed and Infused website

The event page didn't say much except for tasting the new Fall flavors before their launch on October 1. I figured a few samples, purchase a few, and just enjoy the beginning of Fall. Instead, we decided it was going to be an extended birthday celebration (since my birthday was on September 22).

Enter Glazed and Infused West Loop location. Add a selection of small sample doughnuts, a not-over-crowded space, and some of the friendliest staff members excited to tell us all about the flavors they have. If that wasn't good enough, a man then came up and gave us a free box to take home. Yes, free. Six of the doughnuts from their new fall collection.




If I wasn't in heaven already, the taste of the doughnuts sealed the deal. While my excitement did make me miss the coveted Chocolate4 and Red Velvet doughnuts, it was okay. It gives me another reason to come back.

Now on to the doughnuts, my top pick was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip. It's a pumpkin cake doughnut with a vanilla bean glaze and cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate shavings. It says pumpkin without being pumpkin pie and gives you the right addition of sweet and smooth from the glaze and frosting. This little guy lit up my whole night alone.

While Glazed and Infused always has a fruit fritter, I was a huge fan of the peach fritter on their fall menu. I had tasted the bacon-pineapple before, but it felt like it was hard to find the actual bits of fruit on that one. The peach was integrated into a lot more of this fritter, giving it an extra burst of fruity flavor that I, for one, enjoyed.

I like to not think about Christmas until closer to Thanksgiving, so I was a little torn about the Gingerbread Old Fashioned they released. I always love Old Fashioned and it did remind me of Christmas. Most gingerbread cookies are too hard and crumby for my liking and this doughnut was spiced and moist with a nice touch of cinnamon-sugar to keep it sweet.

The Crunchy PB&J is a great touch on a classic for all ages. I mean, when you're stressed who doesn't love a good peanut butter and jelly? This is a Bismark filled with raspberry jam and topped with a crunchy peanut butter glaze. Not too peanut buttery, doesn't stick to your mouth, and has that great crunch. If you're a creamy person, it might be a little different, but give it a chance.

I'm still working through our box now, but it won't last long. I'll update with more reviews on other fall flavors, but until then check out Glazed and Infused fall menu.

From my friend ashdash113's Instagram

• Chocolate4: Chocolate cake with chocolate glaze and milk chocolate shavings
• Apple Caramel: Apple cake with chunks of granny smith apples, a cinnamon glaze, and peanuts
• Red Velvet: Cocoa buttermilk cake with cream cheese glaze, and red velvet crumbles
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip: Pumpkin cake with vanilla bean glaze, cream cheese frosting, and chocolate shavings
• Gingerbread Old Fashioned: Classic spiced buttermilk gingerbread cake with cinnamon sugar.
• Crunchy PB&J: A homemade raspberry jam-filled Bismark with a crunchy peanut butter glaze
• Fruit Fritter: Changes everyday, but the Peach is the newest

Fat Tuesday: Paczki for Poland

"Fat Tuesday" is a day that emphasizes one of my sins: gluttony. I mean, I get to partake in eating everything and anything I can before I give something up for Lent. This year, though, I learned of a Polish tradition that I clung to in all of it's sugary, flaky, gluttonous deliciousness. The Paczki. (Pronounced: Poonch-key)

Paczki Day is usually a "Fat Thursday" type of thing in Poland, but has transferred through immigration and love of food to being incorporated into our "Fat Tuesday." This is almost a quite literal thing. In the 1600s in Poland the paczkis were made out of extra lards and meats that were going to be given up for Lent, the Chicago Tribune reported. Now, though, they're much more Americanized, sweetened and not just for the polish.

I'm grateful that I read the entirety of the Chicago Tribune article after I had eaten my paczkis. The explained how the batter is made out of three kinds of fat: butter, margarine and lard. It's a yeast-based dough that is deep fried in vegetable oil until golden brown.

But... it was totally worth it.

I made a trip in my hour between classes to one of my favorite Chicago Bakeries, Dinkel's, to stand in line and get four paczkis to share with my brother later Fat Tuesday Night. It was worth each minute, running to the "L" train only to miss it and walking into my writing course with baked goods.

The doughnut-like pastry is soft, light and has a beautiful sugary texture. It's this softness that makes you feel less guilty while devouring the entirety of a paczki. I mean, I couldn't help myself and ate a whole one with custard filling and chocolate frosting. The custard was smooth, creamy and added a density to the light pastry that holds it. The chocolate was a great touch of flavor and sweetness without overpowering the textures that make up the paczki. This was the same experience in the double chocolate, which has chocolate filling and chocolate frosting. It had a great combination of sweet and the soft pastry to not overwhelm your sweet tooth, but leave you craving more.

I also got a strawberry and a cinnamon-apple that were absolutely delicious. The strawberry had a typical kind of strawberry compote/filling that gooed out with that first bite. It had sugar sprinkled on top to go along with the natural sweetness and bring out the flavors. I gladly had sticky hands after picking at this one. The cinnamon-apple was impressive as well. The filling was almost like an apple pie filling, with a great mix of spices and that syrupy mix along with the actual apple chunks. The light sugar coating on the pastry also made you remember that it was a dessert and perfect for Fat Tuesday.

Dinkel's was one of the easiest places to go, for me, to get the paczkis, but I really want to try some at a real polish bakery. Next year. Or after Easter? Who knows. But Dinkel's did have a great selection of flavors in addition to the four I got. Some of them included: pineapple, cherry, raspberry, lemon, plum, apricot and custard.

If you're looking for paczkis I found the chicagoist's article helpful - my ex-boss sent it to me when she found out about my hunt. And even if you have to wait a whole year to try them, give them a shot. They are worth the calories, sugar intake and possible gluttony.

- Mollie

The Millionaire's Doughnut

Perhaps I'm behind on the doughnut trends, but as much as the kraze for Krispy Kreme has thrived around me, I never completely understood it. I could chalk this up to a lot of things: I tend to only associate doughnuts with police men, The Simpson's, gaining weight, and tired mornings. I can't help thinking how many calories are packed into those little round things, while otherwise sweets are pretty much calorie-less in my mind otherwise. It's something about this conceived notion of doughnuts I've picked up through the media and my life that I'm not as obsessed with them.

This could also be due to the fact that I had never, actually, seen one of the Krispy Kreme stores and only eaten them when my boyfriend got them on sale at the grocery store - only glazed though. He drooled quite literally over them and would eat them at any point in the day, after heating them up just slightly in the microwave of course. While I enjoyed them, it was just another doughnut, plain and simple.

Photo from delinquyent.tumblr.com

Yet, in London, I discovered the reason why Krispy Kreme is the hyped-up, exciting, doughnut fiend of a company that it is.

I truly understood it late one night when, after a trip to the nearest train station to get some Krispy Kremes, I dug my teeth into the "Millionaire's Shortbread" doughnut.

Now, not only have I seen so many different types of doughnuts in one little Krispy Kreme stand, but I have wanted to try them all. I mean, some where shaped like Christmas trees, others were filled with chocolate, there was Java Cake, Cookies and Kreme, Apple Cinnamon, and Strawberry. It was an exciting array, but the Millionaire's Shortbread caught me with it's speckled gold dust on top and pieces of shortbread. I had to have it.

One bite felt like a simple, plain, fluffy doughnut. Nice, but nothing special. It was when I got into the caramel and chocolate filled center that I knew I was in doughnut heaven. I had found it. Millionaire's ate these kind of doughnuts and now that I tasted this bit of joy I couldn't go back. The thick chocolate melting out across the soft pastry and mixing with the gooey caramel was perfect, especially when I got a bit of the crunchy shortbread in a bite. I wanted more. It's going to be a problem resisting.

So perhaps Krispy Kreme has something going with this doughnut thing. I know I'll try hard to not be as judgmental, especially after tasting this little bit. What's your favorite doughnut? Because this might be mine.


- Mollie