Donut Quest: Gourdough's and Mrs. Johnson's

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Austin- Only place I have ever used a fork and knife to eat a donut

In Austin, there is this magical trailer called Gourdoughs. Besides having a great name, they are making some of the best donuts I have ever had. This is nothing like what exists in New York. This is just a whole other genre of donuts; this is the definition of excess. I mean, you need to use a fork and knife for this donut because there is no possible way that you can eat one of these without it looking like you got in an all out brawl with Duncan Hines and Tim Hortons. The doughnuts here are what I call dessert donuts, in which they are bluntly covered and showered with sugary goodness. They picked up on the bacon trend with their Flying Pig, covered with in a maple syrup glaze and bacon. Do I need to really explain this? You can beat the trend to death but it works, salty sweet. 

Flying Pig

The Porky

They also are overachievers and push the donut making arts with the Porky, a donut covered in cream cheese, jalapeno jelly and Canadian bacon. The Porky sounds like an odd combination but it works, the salty Canadian bacon, gooey cream cheese and the sour sweet Jalapeno jelly just plain works. The Donuts themselves are fried to order and yeasted. Even without the outrageous toppings it was a good donut that was light and airy. That did not stop me from trying the pudding, cream cheese icing, and bananas and crushed vanilla wafers filled with cream. There was also the Mama’s cake filled with yellow cake batter and covered with chocolate icing. These were just coma inducing and hit you like a pastry cream filled bunker buster. I think the idea of yellow cake batter as a filling is genius and will most likely steal this idea for a future dessert. Sure it seems like that anyone can just put a mountain of toppings on a donut, but there is some finesse to the making of their creations and the donut itself is good enough to eat on its own, though with the addition of cream cheese, chocolate and meat does not hurt at all. 

Pudding- bananas, creamed filled, vanilla wafers, cream cheese

Mama's Cake

I am a romantic sucker, so places like Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery is right up my alley. I went there when it just about opened, about 8pm (hours are 7pm to 1pm the next day) and Airport Blvd. road was empty and dark with the sign from Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery they only sign of urban development. 

Their sign glowed like a firefly’s light in the darkness. It was slightly comforting to me given I was basically in the middle of nowhere looking for donuts. Their doughnut machine is impressive and the conveyor belt donut maker and glazer are impressive to watch. But much better is to eat them. I was rewarded for my 5 minute wait and patience with a free donut to eat on the go on top of my order. Love the places in New York but sitting in that dark parking lot, eating that fluffy sweet donut there was nothing better than that donut I was eating.

Gourdough’s

1503 S 1st St
Austin, TX 78704

Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery

4909 Airport Boulevard

Austin, TX