Sunday, July 1, 2012

The Vegan Donut

Have you ever tried a vegan donut? If so, how did you like it? Do you think Homer Simpson would enjoy vegan donuts?

At the Whole Foods Markets nearby where I live, I noticed a variety of vegan donuts being sold for delectable purchase. Funny observation though was that they only sold vegan donuts... there were no donuts on the display that were considered non-vegan. For someone like me who is lactose-intolerant and would like to find more baked goods that are healthier (if you can consider them healthier when they're made without dairy products like butter and whole milk), I say "THANK YOU WHOLE FOODS MARKET!"

Assorted vegan donuts at Whole Foods Market in Walnut Creek, California
Now that the vegan baked goods have been identified, my adventure begins. I tried all six vegan donut variety flavors offered at one of my local neighborhood Whole Foods Market. The available vegan donut flavors were:
- Chocolate Vegan Donut
- Maple Vegan Donut
- Vegan Apple Cinnamon Donut
- Blueberry Vegan Donut
- Cherry Vegan Donut
- Vegan Crumb Donut

And yes, folks,... I ate all six flavors in one sitting. Here's my verdict:
- All Whole Foods Market vegan donuts are of the cake donut texture.
- All are tasty and moist. Being that these donuts are vegan, they are not dry at all and taste very similar to a non-vegan donut. The difference is actually not detectable. Well done.
- The best flavors out of all of these, in my opinion, were the Cherry, Maple, and Chocolate Vegan Donuts. These donuts tasted like the flavor description given to them.
Chocolate Vegan Donut
Cherry Vegan Donut
Maple Vegan Donut

- The worst flavors out of all of these were the Blueberry and Apple Cinnamon Vegan Donuts. These donuts tasted like sweet sugar. Though the sweet sugar taste was flavorful, and given that the texture was moist and good, they get minus points for not tasting like the flavor description given to them.


  Blueberry Vegan Donut        Vegan Apple Cinnamon Donut
- The Vegan Crumb Donut was just okay in terms of flavor. Tasty and enjoyable, taste and texture matched its flavor description, but not significantly impacting for me to comment much about.
Vegan Crumb Donut
So now that I've completed my pig-out adventure session, the question remains - would eating these vegan donuts really be healthier? I turn to my search engine (Google of course) to find nutrition facts pertaining to these vegan donuts from Whole Foods Market. I can't find nutrition facts for more than just the Chocolate Vegan Donut from Whole Foods Market, but I'm thinking perhaps I shouldn't have eaten all six in one sitting.... Or I should have baked my own at home. Comparing the nutrition facts of the Chocolate Vegan Donut from Whole Foods to the nutrition facts of Krispy Kreme cake donuts, the total fat is slightly lower, but the saturated fat content (in grams) is pretty similar. Yet the vegan donut trumps the non-vegan donut health-wise still with 0mg of cholesterol and significantly less sugar (in grams). So all in all, I am not unhappy with my pig-out adventure session.

Homer Simpson is a cartoon character that loves donuts. I believe he would not discriminate between the non-vegan and vegan donuts, especially if he were to eat Whole Foods Market vegan donuts. If you haven't tried these vegan donuts yet, I encourage you to put it on your to-do list. You won't be sorry (or feel too guilty!)