Adventures in Donuts - It's Hip to be Square

It's hip to be square, or is it? I have continued my donut adventures around Florida trying two more places in Orlando and one well off the beaten path in Pensacola. First up is Valkyrie Donuts which serves up the square donut. Why is it square? We're not sure but thought this would be a fun place.

Naturally I ordered the Fruity Pebbles donut and also tried the Thin Mint Cookie donut. My partner in donut tasting (Reyna) ordered the caramelized banana and the pumpkin Biscoff. So here is the disappointing thing, we didn't love these donuts. I took a bite out of the Fruity Pebbles and I found the cake part to be dry, almost stale. It was disappointing so I decided to dip into the Thin Mint and see if that faired better. It was... better, but not great. The mint came across strong which was the improvement because the cake part had no taste. Unfortunately I ended up throwing the rest of both donuts out which at $3 a piece meant I wasted money on not good donuts. My tasting buddy said the same for her donuts, the cake part just had no flavor and that the pumpkin Biscoff didn't shine through at all. Needless to say we won't be venturing out this way again.

Next up we tried Bakery Plus in Orlando which is a true Mom & Pop shop. The donuts are inexpensive, the place is super busy and they have a huge selection of donuts, bagels and breakfast sandwiches. There is a $5 minimum for credit card use so unless you are buying a dozen or several sandwiches bring cash. Today I picked the Fruity Pebbles (obviously this is a thing) and the Nutella, Reyna picked up the crumb donut and the chocolate peanut cake donut. These donuts are perfectly adequate, they are basically regular donuts, pretty fresh and they taste good. The Fruity Pebbles was not overwhelmingly sweet, the cake is pretty dense but not stale so that was a plus. The Nutella donut was my favorite because the donut was sliced to add a puck of Nutella to the center so you got an amazing filling to cake ratio which I really appreciated. Reyna felt her chocolate peanut cake donut was fresher and was her favorite of the day.

Overall Bakery Plus was solid. I don't know if I would make a special trip there but they did have amazing looking apple fritters and they are located on my way to work so on that blessed day I go back to work they would for sure warrant a stop.

I was bound and determined to find some fun adventure during our trip to Pensacola so I found a local spot called Maynard's Donut Co. We stopped one morning to bring a box of donuts to Tamy's family and we snuck in a few ourselves. We shared their blueberry fritter which I had never tried before and it was pretty good and their apple fritter which was amazing. I then of course had - you guessed it - the Fruity Pebbles! The cake was light and yummy and not greasy and not so sweet your teeth hurt. We also bagged up a couple to have back at the hotel!

The next morning back at the hotel I had the blueberry coffee cake donut and I was impressed. This donut sat safely bagged in the car all day and then in our frozen tundra of a hotel room all night and it was still moist and fresh tasting for breakfast. I was pretty impressed. Tamy had her chocolate peanut butter the next morning and she loved it so much! For sure if we ever find ourselves in Pensacola again we would stop at Maynard's!

Do you have a donut location to suggest? Let me know in the comments below and I'll see if I can talk Reyna and Tamy into a trip!