Square Doughnuts in the Big Apple

Top: vanilla bean with jelly, tres leche, coconut creme

Center: blueberry, crème brûlée
Bottom: chocolate chip cookie, pineapple, Valrhona chocolate

Every doughnut at Doughnut Plant looks fun, original and stylish. But with prices that match their high quality ingredients (none of these: trans fat, preservatives, artificial flavors or even eggs), one is forced to choose wisely. Even I found myself limiting how many I bought, settling on these 8 doughnuts for roughly $24.

Yeast doughnuts, cake doughnuts, round doughnuts, square doughnuts; they are ALL specialty doughnuts at Doughnut Plant, each offering something unique. I could simply highlight my favorites of this batch, but all of them were delicious and deserving of attention. Here they are reviewed in their pictured order:

Vanilla Bean & Blackberry Jelly - A square yeast doughnut filled with jelly. Unlike most jelly doughnuts, every bite offers tastes of the filling and in a controlled ratio. 'Nuff said.

Tres Leche - A round cake doughnut with filling! This doughnut has a delicate flavor with a rich filling that is ripe with milkiness and perhaps coconut milk. I liked what I tried, but not as much as the person in my party who snagged the leftover portion before I could. My throne may be in danger.

Coconut Creme - A square yeast doughnut with filling. Delicious coconut creme filling and glazed with coconut flakes. Though they would claim this flavor was made in the plant with the other doughnuts, I'd argue it was made in heaven. A favorite of members in my party.

Blueberry - A berry-purple(!) round cake doughnut. This was the prettiest of the doughnuts. Admittedly, blueberry cake doughnuts are not my favorite, but this did contain some nice hunks of blueberries. I had hoped the glaze would have been more tart.

Crème Brûlée - A small round doughnut with a crystallized top you could crack with a spoon. The robust flavor of this filled doughnut is that of burnt sugar, flavorful first and sweet second. My favorite of these doughnuts, which admittedly did not last long enough for me to share.

Chocolate Chip Cookie - This doughnut is deceptively simple. Crushed cookies completely coat its cakey core. At first it tastes like eating a fried cookie, but then it tastes like eating A FRIED COOKIE!

Valrhona Chocolate - A light, chewy, round yeast doughnut covered from top-to-bottom with a thin layer of frosting, which tastes more like chocolate than most other would-be chocolate frostings.

Pineapple - A round yeast doughnut with a pineapple glaze. Sadly, I ate this the next morning. One recommendation: if you buy doughnuts for the next day, the yeast doughnuts do not keep well. The frosting did still have the quick sharp flavor one would hope to get from a pineapple food product.

Doughnut Plant is located in easy walking distance from where the Chinatown buses load and drop off. After impatiently eating the Crème Brûlée, it is amazing that any of these doughnuts made the trip to Boston. Some of them were saved until the next morning. (Please note that the yeast doughnuts do not keep well overnight.) But do not let this keep you from buying in bulk, though, because the cake doughnuts with remaining bites actually tasted better the next day.