Spudnut Shops were American franchised stores selling donuts made with potato flour called Spudnuts. The parent company no longer exists, but independent stores remain. The original recipe is based on a folk recipe that traces back to Germany.
Spudnut Shops were American franchised stores selling donuts made with potato flour called Spudnuts. The parent company no longer exists, but independent stores remain. The original recipe is based on a folk recipe that traces back to Germany.
After brothers Al and Bob Pelton of Salt Lake City ate potato-based doughnuts in Germany, they tried a number of things, from wheat dough that was flavored with potato water to using mashed potatoes, before creating a dry potato mix that not only worked for them but made it possible to franchise the concept. [1] They coined the word "spudnut", and went into business in 1940. [2]
In 1946, the company began establishing a nationwide chain of franchised Spudnut Shops. [3] In 1948, one new franchisee opened a store after paying $50 (approx. $450 in 2010 dollars) plus the cost of 100 sacks of spudnut flour. [4] By 1952, when the Peltons were on the cover of the April 1952 edition of Mechanix Illustrated (“Their Potatoes Make Dough”), [5] a franchise cost $1,750, plus equipment and other costs, for an initial investment of about $5,000 [6] (approx. $40,000 in 2010 dollars).
By 1948, over 200 Spudnut Shops had sprung up across the USA. Spudnuts were advertised widely, with the slogan "Coast to coast... Alaska to Mexico". The cartoon character "Mr. Spudnut" frequently appeared in advertisements, restaurants, and even in parades. [7] By mid-1949, the number was over 225, in 31 states. [3] By 1954, there were more than 300 shops in 38 states. [8]
In 1964, Spudnut shops were selling about 400,000 spudnut doughnuts per day. That year, the company announced that it had successfully designed a process of flash freezing its dough, and announced that it planned to increase its distribution centers. At that time, there were six metropolitan franchise dealers who made fresh dough for distribution to shops that did not want to make their own dough from the dry mix sold by the company. [9]
In 1968, the Pelton brothers retired, [6] selling their company, Spudnut Industries Inc., to National Oven Products, Inc., of Washington state, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pace Industries, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The annual sales of Spudnut Industries was $2 million. The sale price was $550,000, payable over five years, plus 20,000 shares of Pace Industries (worth about $175,000). At the time, there were 315 franchise holders, with combined annual sales of $25 million, [10] making it the largest doughnut franchise in the United States. [11] In 1973, Pace sold the company, which it had kept as a separate entity, together with National Oven Products, for $1.3 million, to Dakota Bake-N-Serv, [12] headquartered in Jamestown, North Dakota. Within a year of the purchase, the new parent company remodeled the Spudnut headquarters in Salt Lake City, and retired "Mr. Spudnut", the company symbol, replacing him with a design showing a spudnut with a bite taken out of it. The mix for the company's signature product continued to be produced at the company plant in Salt Lake City, available as 50 pound bags of dry ingredients or as frozen dough. [13]
However, the owner of Dakota Bake-N-Serv became involved in a huge, proposed marina development in the Sacramento River Delta, selling all of his stock to a promoter in exchange for tax-free bond notes that proved worthless. When the promoter was convicted on several charges of fraud and conspiracy in 1979, it was the end of Spudnuts as a chain. The parent company was closed, leaving all the franchisees to fend for themselves. [14] By late 1989, there were only 28 franchise stores open. [4]
The Spudnuts brand has not disappeared completely, with some 35 Spudnut Shops in nine states still open. A single outlet in Canada was taken over by a bakery shop in 2009, but still bakes the treat once a week. Over the history of Spudnuts, there were over 600 stores around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In 1975, there were 170 Spudnut outlets in Japan.
In January 2011, Sarah Palin brought national attention to the business in a televised interview refuting President Barack Obama's 2011 State of the Union address calling for the federal government to create a 'Sputnik moment'. She asserted the need for a 'Spudnuts moment' citing the success of small businesses in a free economy without federal economic interference. [15] [16]
With the closure of the parent company in the 1980s, the original Pelton mix was no longer available. Existing shops had to create their own recipes. [6]
In 2008, Douglas E. Bagley purportedly acquired an authentic Spudnut ingredient list from Will Bellar, who was the executive vice president and general manager of Spudnut International from 1970 to 1975. [17] [18]
On August 16, 2012, Douglas E. Bagley and others were enjoined in federal court from using the federally registered SPUDNUTS trademark without a license by the trademark owner, MP-OTHA Corporation of Galesburg, Illinois, per stipulated injunction. [19] [20] [21] In October of 2015, Douglas E. Bagley and MP-OTHA Corp settled their dispute which allows Douglas Bagley to continue to sell the same donut mix however he will not use the names spudnut, spudnuts or spuddos and will now be selling this mix under the name potadonut.
New England cuisine is an American cuisine which originated in the New England region of the United States, and traces its roots to traditional English cuisine and Native American cuisine of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Niantic, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, and other native peoples. It also includes influences from Irish, French, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine, among others. It is characterized by extensive use of potatoes, beans, dairy products and seafood, resulting from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry. Corn, the major crop historically grown by Native American tribes in New England, continues to be grown in all New England states, primarily as sweet corn although flint corn is grown as well. It is traditionally used in hasty puddings, cornbreads and corn chowders.
A doughnut or donut is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
Krispy Kreme, Inc. is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
A muffin is an individually portioned baked product; however, the term can refer to one of two distinct items: a part-raised flatbread that is baked and then cooked on a griddle, or a quickbread that is chemically leavened and then baked in a mold. While quickbread "American" muffins are often sweetened, there are savory varieties made with ingredients such as corn and cheese, and less sweet varieties like traditional bran muffins. The flatbread "English" variety is of British or other European derivation, and dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in North America during the 19th century. Both types are common worldwide today.
Winchell's Donuts House is an international doughnut company and coffeehouse chain founded by Verne Winchell on October 8, 1948, in Temple City, California. Currently, there are over 170 stores in 6 western states, as well as Guam, Saipan, and Saudi Arabia. Several stores also operated in Nagoya, Japan in the past, with most stores located inside Uny supermarkets, as Uny Co., Ltd. was the master franchise holder in Japan. It is headquartered in the City of Industry, California.
A cruller is a deep-fried pastry popular in Europe and in parts of North America. Regarded as a form of cake doughnut in the latter, it is typically either made of a string of dough that is folded over and twisted twice to create its signature shape, or formed from a rectangle of dough with a cut in the center allowing it to be pulled over and through itself to produce distinctive twists in the sides of the pastry.
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. They are often known to have display cases at the end of store aisles. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, pies, cereal bars, muffins, Danish pastries, crumb cakes, and buns among other baked goods. In the past several years, they have added designer coffee flavors along with scented candles to their product line in an effort to broaden its appeal.
Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Shipley Do-Nuts is an American doughnut company and coffeehouse chain with more than 300 franchised stores in the Southern United States, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and as of 2018, Colorado. Its headquarters are located in Northside, Houston, Texas.
A buñuelo (Spanish:[buˈɲwelo], alternatively called boñuelo, bimuelo, birmuelo, bermuelo, bumuelo, burmuelo, or bonuelo, is a fried dough fritter found in Spain, Latin America, and other regions with a historical connection to Spaniards, including Southwest Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and other parts of Asia and North Africa. Buñuelos are traditionally prepared at Christmas. It will usually have a filling or a topping. In Mexican cuisine, it is often served with a syrup made with piloncillo.
A Brown Bobby is a triangular doughnut. It is baked in a Brown Bobby machine, which resembles and is operated similarly to a waffle iron. These machines were created by the Food Display Machine Corporation in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., around the 1920s and possibly later.
Krispy Kreme UK is the United Kingdom subsidiary of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, an American company. The UK headquarters are in Camberley, Surrey.
The coconut doughnut is a variety of doughnut in the United States and Canada that is usually covered or topped with shredded or flaked coconut topping. It is often toasted or broiled, and there are variations made with chocolate and, in a 1959 recipe, orange juice in the dough and icing.
Potato doughnuts, sometimes called a Spudnut, are a type of doughnut, typically sweet, made with either mashed potatoes or potato starch instead of flour, the most common ingredient used for doughnut dough. Potato doughnuts tend to be lighter than all-flour doughnuts, and are prepared in a similar way as other doughnuts. A chain of Spudnut Shops was established across the United States in the 1930s before declining to a few dozen more recently. Fried ube dough is also eaten in East Asia, including the world's most expensive doughnut, the Golden Cristal Ube, which cost $100 each. Much like flour doughnuts, potato doughnuts are often eaten with coffee.
The old-fashioned doughnut is a term used for a variety of cake doughnut prepared in the shape of a ring with a cracked surface and tapered edges around it. While many early cookbooks included recipes for "old-fashioned donuts" that were made with yeast, the distinctive cake doughnuts sold in doughnut shops are made with chemical leavener and may have crisper texture compared to other styles of cake doughnuts. The cracked surface is usually glazed or coated with sugar.
Daylight Donut Flour Company, LLC, doing business as Daylight Donuts, is a privately owned and operated American chain of doughnut shops, founded in 1954 and headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The chain has approximately 950 locations in 13 countries. Each Daylight Donuts store is independently owned and operated.
Cardigan Donuts is an American doughnut shop and coffeehouse located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Co-founders Justin Bedford and Jeff Bull opened the brand's flagship store in May 2017, located inside of the Minneapolis City Center shopping mall. The restaurant, known for selling comfort food, offers daily made doughnuts, yogurt bowls, hot and iced beverages, and kombucha. It caters, mainly, to the business clientele and users of the Minneapolis Skyway System. A second location, with an ice cream bar, opened in June 2022, on the second floor of the IDS Center in Minneapolis.
