Mark Klebeck - Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker

God, August and June Klebeck; beautiful Georgette, Lucy, Louise, and Ulysses Klebeck; Terri and Martin Chacon; the entire Klebeck Family, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins, in-laws, etc.; special thanks to Norm Day, the Hardwick family, Bill T., all the Top Pot extended family, including office staff, bakers, baristas, drivers, and roasters; all the artists and crafts people who helped make Top Pot so beautiful; special thanks to Russ R. and Maggie Cole for Gods sake; Tina R.; Todd H.; Kent L.; and the Lorig crew (Russ H., Joel G., Beau H., Matt C., and Todd H., again!!); Kris von Oy, the Pilkey family, Father Squier, Father Daniel Syverstad O.P.; Blessed Sacrament; the entire A.S.B. students, families, and staff; Saint Francis Cabrini, Lakewood, Wedgwood, and Seattle for making Top Pot so amazing and successful; Joel Radin and his family; Bryan Yeck; the early coffee crews at Bauhaus, Zeitgeist, and Top Pot; the early and current investors who believed and still believe!! Last, but not least, Mark K., Jess Thomson, and the entire Chronicle Books family!

My parents, August and June Klebeck; my wife Libby, for her endless love and support; our sons Wolfgang and Ottothat they, too, will be fortunate to grow up and figure out what it is that they love to do in life; my brother Michael who I had the best time designing and building stores with, who inspired me, and who has more guts than anyone I have ever met; my entire Klebeck family; the Fernau family from Stevensville the polka capital of the world Michigan; Bill Terhar, a great friend and leader who tirelessly motivated me and drove Pot to success; Alex Sharma for believing in the company from day one; Tony Walker and family; Phyllis Hatfield; all our shareholders who believed in us; Tom Douglas for being such a great supporter, colleague, and 5th Avenue neighbor; my friend Brian MillerWide Angle TV; Tracy Dethlefs at Hullabaloo TV; Juanita Clemente; Dave and Dana Dysart; Chris Ballew; John Richards and everyone at KEXP; the city of Lakewood, Washington; King of Hawaii; the Wexley School for Girls; Dandy Social Club.

The artists: Tina Randolph, Matt Shoudy, Russ Rasmussen, Norman Day, Todd Hardman, Christine Godlewski, Art Chantry, and Ed Fotheringham; Scott Pitts for his photographic talents and mentoring; Amy Gundlach; Seattle Met Magazine; Alaska Airlines Magazine; Jessica Shambora at Fortune magazine; Andy Rothman at CNBC; the Travel Channel; Mark DeCarlo; Allison Dalvit at Food Network Challenge for pushing me to compete! Amy Clancy; Steve Wilson; Ben Saboonchian; Bret Stetka; John T. Edge; John Riordan; Jane and Michael Stern; NPR; KUOW; Julien Perry; Lori Harris at SBUXyou will always be remembered for your friendship and dedication to Top Pot from day one; Josh Brower and Jerry Nagae for your guidance and for always watching out for us during this great ride! Frank Burklund and all the Top Pot Doughnut bakerspresent and pastyou are so appreciated! To Gina Mainwal and Kim Yamagiwa, who led the charge early on; to our front counter staff, delivery drivers, and vendors; Joel Radinco-founder and friend; Bryan Yeck and the staff at Zeitgeist Coffee; Belshaw Brothers; O.B. Williams; Visions Espresso; and the hundreds of GREAT suppliers.

Special thanks to Jess Thomson for her months of work putting this book together; Lorena Jones at Chronicle Books for always checking in and pushing me to make this happen; TO SEATTLE WASHINGTON USA! You made this happen and we could not have done it without you!

To EVERYONE else inadvertently not mentionedTHANK YOU!

We werent bakers or pastry chefs before we started Top Pot Doughnutsjust two brothers who liked a good business plan and the occasional Monday morning doughnut. Over the years, along with our team of bakers, weve developed the doughnuts Top Pot has made famous. In this book, weve collected all the knowledge weve amasseddoughnut-making tips and tricks, the best classic flavor combinations, and ideas for outside-the-box doughnutsand translated it into recipes designed with the home cook in mind. From traditional spiced and devils food cake doughnuts to yeast-raised and old-fashioned ones, with variations for bars, bismarks, twists, and fritters, Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts passes our recipes on.

At Top Pot, we make about 1.3 million doughnuts every week. In rough numbers, thats enough glazed goodness to stretch doughnuts end to end for ten miles every day. But we didnt start big. In fact, when we opened our first doughnut shop on Seattles Capitol Hill in 2002, we didnt even have doughnuts. But were getting ahead of ourselves.

Top Pot started with a sign. In 1996, a few years after wed opened a coffee shop called Zeitgeist in Seattles Pioneer Square, we found a giant neon sign from a defunct Chinese restaurant that read TOPSPOT. We bought it for $400 and stored it in our mothers backyard in North Seattle for five years, where it slowly began succumbing to rust and raccoons.

Meanwhile, Zeitgeist boomed. Built with a midcentury German design aesthetic and a high-end clientele in mind, the shop sold excellent house-roasted coffee and fancy pastries. There was just one problem: Each Monday, one of our pastry purveyors was closed, so we never had enough breakfast foods. We started passing by a local doughnut shop before opening on Mondays, just to have something to fill our pastry case, and noticed that, with astounding regularity, the doughnuts were the first to go. We might have eaten a few ourselves.

In 2000, Michael found a great deal on some used doughnut-making equipmenta kettle fryer, the depositor used for cake doughnuts, a proofing rack, and a big stainless steel work tablethinking we might someday learn to make our own. The same year, Zeitgeist moved to a new location, and we started baking our own quick breads and muffins. We hoped to add doughnuts to the list of housemade goods, but the equipment didnt fit in the new space. We squirreled it away in the shop wed just leased on Summit Avenue in Capitol Hill that was intended to be Zeitgeist II, thinking wed found a temporary solution.

Then we hit upon the idea of opening a doughnut shop, making them by hand rather than depending on the machines the large, increasingly popular doughnut shops were using. Following the same design philosophy we captured at Zeitgeist, and before that at another coffee shop called Bauhaus, we decided to name our new place Top Spot and to front it with the rickety old neon sign. Before becoming coffee entrepreneurs, we had been general contractors, and between us, we had years of experience in remodeling, building cabinetry, and designing restaurant spaces. So we built out the cafe ourselves, pouring the terrazzo floors and building the bookcasesnow a signature trimming at Top Pots cafesone shelf at a time. But the day we drove the sign down Interstate 5 in Michaels 1966 Ford F-100, there was a rattle and a loud clunk as the S fell off the rusty old signand Top Pot Doughnuts was born.

When the Summit Avenue store opened, things were a little hectic. We had the doughnut-frying equipment but no doughnut-making experience. We knew doughnuts were special; as the last two of eight kids, we would often get to go with our mother to a doughnut shop in Tacoma called The Golden Oven for twists, as a special treat when she had time with just the two of us. We felt we could create a doughnut that was more artisanal and more gourmet than what was out there, hand cutting each batch, and frying and glazing in small batches rather than relying on conveyor belts and machines to churn out doughnuts no human hands had touched. We thought, How hard could it be?

For the first month, while we sold the same muffins, bagels, and scones wed had at Zeitgeist, we learned how to make doughnuts. We made mistakes. But since the beginning, accidents have been a crucial part of the process and, we believe, of our success. We didnt want to make the same doughnuts those other guys made, so we tinkered and played, crafting doughnut after doughnut by hand until we found versions that fitted our creative personalitieshence our slogan, Hand- Forged Doughnuts. We talked to our customers and realized that even though about 80 percent of the doughnuts made in the United States were raised (yeast) doughnuts, people wanted more cake doughnuts. So we made more cake. A month later, without the help of a single doughnut expert, we had doughnuts we loved.