Until recently, northern Vermont experienced a bit of a doughnut drought. Plenty of restaurants and bakeries make and sell doughnuts, but the tubular treats aren’t those businesses’ raison d’être. While Burlington doughnut whiz Miss Weinerz brings weekly selections to local cafés and markets, and other options pop up here and there, the city hasn’t had a dedicated doughnut shop since Doughnut Dilemma closed in 2017. Hangry the Donut Bar opened in a St. Albans storefront in early 2023 and quietly stopped operating by fall of the following year.
Nationally, doughnut sales dipped during the pandemic, when eateries shut down, according to a recent Fortune Business Insights market report. Health concerns about excess sugar and fat also dampened consumer desire for doughnuts, the report found, giving rise to more gluten-free and vegan options. In recent years, however, doughnuts have made a comeback, with U.S. sales expected to roll to $3.35 billion this year, as sweets eaters are “increasingly drawn to premium, gourmet and artisanal donuts perceived as higher quality and offering unique flavor experiences,” Fortune noted.
In Vermont, that demand has driven three existing doughnut bakers to expand into new locations. Twisted Halo, which has a Waitsfield outpost, and former home-based business Glazed Donuts both recently opened shops in Essex. Meanwhile, Morrisville’s North Country Donuts added a storefront in Waterbury Center. All three specialize in a brioche dough that is proofed for 24 hours and fried into light, fluffy circles with a slightly crispy exterior.
These businesses get creative with elaborate or kid-friendly concoctions, crowning doughnuts with Fruity Pebbles cereal or crushed cookies. Still, all three owners said maple-glazed doughnuts remain their bestseller.
“We could just make those, and people wouldn’t care what else we were doing,” said Jessica Palmer-Gwaltney, co-owner of North Country Donuts, referring to maple and another customer favorite, Boston cream. “We do the other flavors to entertain ourselves.”
Doughnuts, even unfussy ones, are labor-intensive to make, the bakers said. That could explain why few shops focus on them, Glazed owner Rachel Lee surmised.
“Clearly, the people want the doughnuts,” Lee said. “It’s the businesses that aren’t able to handle the doughnuts, maybe.”
I’ve been one of the doughnut-deprived, craving a full-time spot to get my fix. Having visited all three new shops, I’m delighted to tell my fellow pastry lovers that the drought has ended. Rejoice in the doughnut deluge.
Glaze of Glory
Glazed Donuts, inside Leo & Co., 21 Essex Way
When Rachel Lee lived in Arizona, she would drive past multiple doughnut shops to reach her favorite. After moving to Vermont during the pandemic, Lee and her husband looked for a new go-to doughnut but never found one that matched their ideal: “Almost melt-in-your-mouth fluffy, soft, but [it] still had, like, a bite to it,” as she described it.
Lee, 36, loves baking and studied up on making the perfect doughnuts. “We literally did science experiments with so many different variations of the dough,” she said. “We would test more maple, less maple, more sugar. We would do a different temperature of oil. We would do more fat, less fat.”
Lee offered her initial batches to family and friends, who insisted she could make this a paying gig. She started Glazed from her home in Essex on Valentine’s Day this year and immediately sold out nine dozen.
High protein content gives her dough structure, Lee said. Maple syrup adds sweetness and hydration and helps the butter bind to the dough, which requires a cold rise over 24 hours. She uses a technique from Japanese milk bread to stabilize the gluten and keep the doughnuts softer longer, so they can sit out for a day and not lose their supple texture.
Lee’s home business grew so quickly that she needed a committed space and larger kitchen. She built one with a specialized fryer and mixer in a storage room of the Leo & Co. café in the Essex Experience. In late August, Glazed set up a front counter and welcomed customers, who line up outside on most weekend mornings before the doors open. Glazed sells 45 to 50 dozen doughnuts a day, Lee said.
I went for the Biscoff wafer doughnut and found its crumbled topping and frosting to have a lovely butterscotch-like flavor. I’m a sucker for anything s’mores, and the Glazed version served as a delivery system for the decadent chocolate, graham cracker and mini-marshmallow spread.
By 10:15 on a recent Saturday morning, Glazed had sold out, with the help of kids who descended on the shop fresh from soccer practice. On another day, when the doughnuts were gone by 9:30, a disappointed patron lectured the staff about planning better, Lee recounted in an Instagram post, requesting the public’s patience.
A fry cook and six other employees now help Lee prep, frost and work the counter. “At every point, it’s just trying to play the guessing game of meeting demand but then not having food waste,” she said.
Most customers celebrate her success, even when they show up after the doughnuts have vanished. “Usually,” she noted, “people will congratulate us.”
Dough Must Go On
North Country Donuts Outpost, 2653 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center
Dan Gwaltney and Jessica Palmer-Gwaltney never planned to expand within two years of taking over North Country Donuts in Morrisville. But the Waterbury residents’ neighbors soon complained of having to drive half an hour each way for their doughnuts, prompting the couple to offer them closer to home.
First, the Gwaltneys hosted Monday-evening pop-ups at Red Poppy Cakery in Waterbury, bringing extras from Morrisville during the relatively slow stick season. Crowds demolished the limited supply. Next, they tried dropping off preorders at the town’s Bridgeside Books, which put extra pressure on their Morrisville production.
“That clearly demonstrated to us that people were really hungry … for high-quality, good doughnuts,” Dan said.
In June, they finally opened a Waterbury Center storefront in a plaza anchored by a Cabot Creamery shop and Lake Champlain Chocolates. The small space is takeout only and has a drive-up window, a remnant of a Dunkin’ that once occupied the spot.
The Gwaltneys make their doughnuts from scratch, down to the glazes and fruit fillings. My mixed berry-filled doughnut, dusted with powdered sugar, burst with the tartness of fresh raspberries, as well as blueberries and strawberries. While not usually a fan of the seasonal pumpkin spice latte, I enjoyed their doughnut version, with pie filling-flavored custard oozing from the center and coffee-infused frosting sprinkled with pie spice.
The maple-glazed doughnut I tried was subtle and classic. Boston cream is another North Country top seller, for good reason: Mine married delicate, smooth, not-too-sweet custard with deep cocoa-flavored frosting, closer to an éclair than a doughnut.
North Country’s doughnuts have slightly more bite and density than other brioche rings and less give — more memory foam than down pillow. The Gwaltneys prefer King Arthur Baking unbleached flour for its natural color, said Dan, 44, who previously worked in education and software sales but baked on the side for family and friends.
Recently, the Gwaltneys bought a van and hired a driver to ferry the doughnuts from the Morrisville bakery to Waterbury — carefully. “We don’t want the whipped cream to slide off, but we don’t want to use chemicals to make it stay on,” said Jessica, 45. “We’re just really painstakingly particular about what we do.”
Ring Master
Twisted Halo, the Barns at Lang Farm, 45 Upper Main St., Essex
During her three years frying fresh doughnuts outside at farmers markets, Emma Slater learned to manage her delicate, temperature-sensitive dough in all kinds of conditions. She gained a following, particularly for treats she calls churros: French-style crullers with an egg-rich brioche center and crunchy, ribbed exterior similar to that of the Mexican fried dough.
Slater’s adaptability served her well when she moved into Williston’s Champion Comics & Coffee, now Old Town Café & Comics. “There was a really tiny, kind of cobbled-together kitchen,” she said. But she made it work.
“We just had no idea how big it would get so quickly, and that’s kind of like an ongoing theme,” Slater said.
In 2024, she left that space to take over the former Sweet Spot ice cream shop and bakery at 40 Bridge Street in Waitsfield, beside the Mad River — another space with limitations. “There’s no way you’d put a $40,000 piece of equipment next to a river,” she said.
Slater and her business partner, Taylan Hagen, set their sights on a former antiques store overlooking a rolling lawn in one of the Barns at Lang Farm buildings in Essex. The state inspections and permitting process dragged on for 18 months, but Slater finally had the fully decked-out kitchen she wanted when the new shop opened in July.
Her enriched dough is softened by eggs and butter, “so it retains moisture well over time,” she said. “We want to make something that tastes good at 2 p.m., as well as at 8 a.m.”
She also uses a milk bread technique, heating the milk and flour to gelatinize the dough — a three- to four-day process before the 24-hour rise, which allows the rings to stand up to the high-temperature frying that creates a subtle exterior crunch.
Twisted Halo doughnuts are remarkably airy, squishy pillows that surrender to a bite. Their ample holes make them buoyant. That’s intentional, so they sit higher in the frying oil, Slater explained.
On a recent weekend, I sampled a Cookie Butter doughnut with a dense, rich frosting speckled with cookie bits that enhanced the simple bread, like a cozy jacket over a classic outfit. But the standout for me was a vanilla cream doughnut, dusted with crystal sugar and overflowing with an elegant, slightly sweet and silky filling, reminiscent of crème brûlée. I missed out on Twisted Halo’s caramel-drizzled churro but tried a lightly chocolaty version and a traditional cinnamon sugar with a satisfying outer crunch.
Slater, 30, grew up in Shelburne and Charlotte and sources her ingredients from Vermont purveyors, both to support them and for their quality, she said. She insists on Nitty Gritty Grain flour from Charlotte.
Slater and Hagen said they hope the shop will become a community hub that draws young people, and doughnuts do seem to have that effect. On a late-September morning, 7-year-old Ada McCabe twirled in a swing on Twisted Halo’s porch. She recommended the churro to a stranger and declared, “My mom’s getting me four doughnuts!” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “On the Rise | Three recent bakery expansions give the people more of what they want: doughnuts”
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