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The Carrot That Is Not A Carrot

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Getting humans into space has been a long, complicated process. Not everyone is able or willing to go, and the costs are formidable.

We found this out after going back and forth from the moon a few times. Because getting off the planet is such a pain, there has to be a clear reason to go, and some irresistible kind of incentive.

In case you thought it was heroism, post-launch fame is no longer guaranteed. All sorts of different nobodies have been to the International Space Station.

A series of helmeted government employees have been sent but we paid them to do it. Years ago a succession of dogs and monkeys were launched with mixed results. I think it’s fair to say all the animals and some of the people were happier and better off on the surface of the Earth.

California in 1849 had a golden magnet. But what force will lure humankind to the stars?

Enter a group of young Swedes with a wonderful idea – let’s send donuts.

The Homer Simpson in me is already looking skyward, hungrily.

Which kind is the most attractive & delicious doughnut?

53 thoughts on “The Carrot That Is Not A Carrot”

  1. I am fortunate enough to live a pleasant morning walk away from Mojo Monkey donuts (see, walk justifies the donut, so it’s a win-win) so i don’t have to leave the neighborhood, let alone the planet. They make a lovely German chocolate donut that is my standard choice unless they have something crazy and new I just have to try.

    Weekends they make begneits (assuming I can get there on the weekend), the wonderful fancy version of my childhood favorite, the powdered sugar donut- restricted in my childhood because they are “messy”.

    They do not stint you on that messy powdered sugar at Mojos either.

    I’m thinking a powdered sugar donut in space would be a frustrating experience. Also messy.

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    1. I would like to see a powdered sugar donut in orbit for that very reason. Alas, I fear I’m too old to go exploring down this path Twenty-year olds – you could spend a lifetime studying the zero-gravity behavior of powdered sugar. Does it become a cloud or a clump?

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  2. Good morning. I am a sucker for anything that has lots of sugar including doughnuts. Glazed doughnuts are usually my first choice. My Aunt made cake doughnuts that were outstanding. The melo glaze doughnuts found at a bakery near where we live are good, although they are the first doughnuts that I have found which have too much sugar. Too much sugar on a doughnut? Before trying a melo glaze doughnut, I would have thought that I would never find a doughnut with too much sugar. .

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  3. John Johansson, Johannes Jönsson friends of alexander and benjamen jonsson is just the way you want to thin of the group from sweeden. i am wondering how they hooked up with a friend named Rasmus Ankarskär, he should not be there.

    donuts in space is a good idea. we could send police officers up there too whee they could sit around and act busy on our tax dollars.

    police officers in space lkeeping us safe sounds like a worthy cause i think.

    could we ask for day old bagels to be sent up to space? i wonder if the aging of day old bakery goods is effected by space travel. mabe you could extend the shelf life in no air?

    ow long would twinkees last in space?

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  4. I am a fan of the humble chocolate covered cake donut. To find a good one is sublime. It’s easy to make a mediocre chocolate covered cake donut: chocolate can be too sugary or not at all chocolately and simply “brown,” donut can be greasy or mushy…a good chocolate covered cake donut will have a true cocoa taste, a slightly crisp outer layer on the donut and melt-in-your-mouth innards. World’s Best Donuts in Grand Marais does them well.

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    1. I used to like WBDs as well, but the last time I had one, a few years ago, it was greasy and not flavorful at all. Maybe they just had a bad batch that day.

      C in O

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    2. I recommend to you the Chocolate Ganache Old Fashioned at Mojo’s. Slightly closer than Grand Marais and all it should be.

      The German Chocolate I referenced is one of those with a great glob of German Chocolate frosting plopped in the middle.

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  5. I;m with Anna. Chocolate covered cake donuts are my all-time favorites. I’d go to another planet for a dozen if there were none left on Earth.

    Tobie’s in Hinckley has high-quality CCCDs (Chocolate Covered Cake Donuts). I think they put a hint of cardamom or some other “exotic” spice in theirs.

    The long-closed Palm’s Bakery in St.Louis Park had my sentimental favorite CCCDs, probably because my wife worked there in high school, and I usually had them for lunch instead of cafeteria food.

    My new current nominee for best CCCD is The Perfect Day Cakes’ CCCD. The donut is light, dense, and savory all at once, and the chocolate is the good stuff, not just brown colored sugar icing. It leans toward a dark chocolate or even bittersweet flavor. Hmmm, I might have to drop in for one later today …. *drool*

    Chris in Owatonna

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      1. You can also get killer cupcakes and other assorted pastries like pecan caramel rolls, long johns, an occasional turnover. Match that with a custom brewed cup of tea with any combination of organic herbs and spices and I guarantee it will be worth your drive, Barbara. 🙂

        Chris

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        1. An apple turnover is a very, very nice thing, especially if the exterior is a bit crispy. That might be better than a donut, for me. Plus, it is wedge-shaped, which is better, aerodynamically, on re-entering the atmosphere.

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    2. I also worked at Palms for about 8 months right after I moved to the Twin Cities. There was always a big rush at the top of every hour from the high school students across the street!

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      1. No kidding?? Small world. My wife has fond memories of working for the Palm family. Probably not too enthused about high school kids flooding into the store all at once. 🙂

        Chris in O-town

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        1. What I remember most is getting there on the early weekend mornings. Bus from my house up to Lake & Lyndale, then a walk in the dark (4:30 a.m.) over to Lake & Hennepin to catch the bus out to St. Louis Park. Kinda creepy.

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  6. I love the puffy raised glazed doughnuts I used to get at the bakery in Luverne when i was a child. We have a company in Dickinson called Baker Boy which makes lots of frozen dough products. It started out as a doughnut shop called “The Doughnut Hole”, which still operates on the main drag here. I also have become enamoured of morning buns from Starbucks.

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  7. I’m afraid I am not a donut connoisseur like some baboons… Bloedoe’s Bakery in Winona did have excellent donuts, and old fashioned was my usual favorite. Then I had (I believe it was) a cruller at Dunkin’ Donuts that knocked my sox off – glazed and almost pudding-y inside…

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  8. Morning all. Doughnuts are a red-light food for me. Have to stay away if at all possible. That being said, Old-Fashioneds are my favorite. Plain, with white glaze or even chocolate – bring `em on.

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  9. I worked in a silk screen processing plant in the summers of 1957, 1958 and 1959. Each day I consumed a lunch at the Maid Rite shop across the alley, and each day my lunch was the same: two puffy raised glazed donuts topped with an intensely flavorful chocolate icing. And each day I washed the donuts down with a giant mug of root beer, an astringent kick-ass sort of root beer that stung the mouth and made you wince as you drank. That cost $1.98 in those days. With my two pennies of change I would buy salty peanuts from a bright red peanut vending machine. (I suppose the peanuts, a sort of vegetable, provided nutritional balance to the sugar of the donuts and root beer.)

    Since 1959 I have looked in vain for donuts and root beer that could match those I used to enjoy every noon. So far nothing has come close.

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  10. SCAM ALERT! You wouldn’t be able to taste the donut’s sweet delectableness in space. Because there’s no gravity to, shall we say, assist in the drainage of viscous fluids from the sinus cavity, astronauts’ proboscii are constantly plugged up. You know how you can’t taste anything when you’ve got a cold? Bingo. Donuts taste better down here.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/does-food-taste-the-same-in-space/273927/

    For donuts down here, I’m a big fan of Grandma’s Bakery (which just started making their own bagels too!). Their retail store is in downtown White Bear Lake but I prefer to go to the bakery, which is off of Buerkle Road, again, in White Bear.

    Barring Grandma’s, Yo-Yo Donuts in Minnetonka is awfully good too!

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  11. i like napolians. used to get them when i was a kid. they are pastry not donuts but my mouth waters thinking about them
    pastries in italy at the corner joint are blow your face off. a cup of italian coffee and a fistful of pastries is a nice business meeting agenda. then a nap
    i was a kid with a street gang (pre driving age) and one night one of the guys said hey lets go to richards and they meant the bakery. it was 10 30 11 and we went up and banged on the door and out form the back comes richard all covered in flour from making stuff. i had not spent a lot of time there but obviously the other guys had been here before. day olds on fridaynight before he put them out for saturday morning sales. he introduced me to lots of stuff. i was a bismark guy with raspberry filling. long johns and eclairs were good. fried cinnamon cant be beat. the almond paste is to die for done right and the donuts i like are the simple glazed . raised with the white see through frosting. sugar was ok and later applesauce but richards didnt do applesauce. he did however hire the gaurdine sisters one after another for about 15 years. one after another starting with patty who was pretty followed but the next one who was prettier all the way down to the one i went to school with who was not pretty at all and kind of a vanilla person in general but the sisters were beautiful and exotic. i spent some serious time in richardslooking over the goods. memories. … today a donut sits like a ton of bricks and i cant do it. gluten free donuts suck ill bet. never had one and they dont call out to me today. napolians… maybe. gosh they were good

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  12. Not a huge donut fan. I’ll eat a small plain one with a little cinnamon sugar sprinkled on it, but no glaze for me. Just reading about them makes me queasy and my teeth hurt.

    That said, at the Icy Cup where the West Side Saturday morning farmers’ market is held during the summer months, they make several different kinds of donuts during market hours. They a freshly made in small batches and they are warm and quite good. But as I said, I’m no connoisseur, so I can’t attest to how they stack up against other donuts.

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    2. The appeal of Krispy Kreme was the “hot now” light, for me. But yes, that was a hype-heavy food, as rich in promotional excess as it was in calories.

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  15. I had a volunteer job in the rough part of Hartford, CT one high school summer. When I was heading home and had to change buses, I used to stop at Dunkin Donuts and have a lemon filled. Mmm.

    Occasionally my father would stop at a French bakery and bring home eclairs that we ate for dessert. Of course, we called them Sinclairs (that being our last name). I haven’t had a good Sinclair since visiting France in 1967.

    Now I’d probably say that a good Krispy Kreme-esque glazed would be my favorite.

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  16. I like a good chocolate Bavarian creme, the kind with the custard inside. If they’re really fresh they’re amazing. But I wouldn’t turn down a donut of any shape or kind.

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  21. For the record, Perfect Day Cakes occasionally makes maple bacon donuts and long johns. Not a regular in the pastry case, but you can always request a dozen if you’re so inclined. 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

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