Top 13 Best Donut Shops In New Hampshire

Whether you call them donuts or doughnuts, these deep-fried rings are certified comfort food royalty! And even if you prefer a healthier baked doughnut, it still hits that sweet spot. You can make them at home or order online by the dozen, and we’re here to help with both! We’ll tell you where to find the best donuts in NH, and throw in some DIY doughnut tips as well.

Best Donuts in NH

1. Klemms Bakery

Klemms Bakery

First, pick the right doughnut recipe. Cake doughnuts are soft and fluffy, with baking powder as their raising agent. Yeast doughnuts are dense and chewy with a texture that’s closer to bread. For yeast doughnuts, you can use fresh yeast, active dry yeast, or instant yeast. The first two types need to be bloomed by mixing them in warm sugar water to be sure they work.

  • Name: Klemms Bakery
  • Address: 29 Indian Rock Road Rt 111, Windham, New Hampshire
  • Website: http://klemmsbakery.com
  • Phone: 603-437-8810
  • Hours: Mon to Sat – 6 am to 7 pm; Sun – 6 am to 6 pm

Aside from the flavor, a good doughnut is marked by its texture. Yeast doughnuts should be firm but they shouldn’t feel gummy or fibrous. The trick is in the dough. If you’re using a dough hook, keep the speed low. You want your doughnut batter to feel soft and elastic. After forming the dough, put it in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and wait for it to double in size.

 

2. Muriel’s Donuts

Muriel’s Donuts

The process of letting your dough rise is called proofing. It allows gases to build up as the yeast feeds on the carbs in your batter, and that’s what gives your doughnuts that pleasant puff. Proofing takes an hour or two at room temperature, though instant yeast only takes 20 minutes. You’ll know the dough is ready when it swells two or three times its initial volume.

Remove the plastic to release gas buildup. The surface of your dough should be smooth and soft with decent elasticity. Touch it with a clean finger. The fingermark should disappear in a few seconds as you watch. If it springs back instantly, the dough needs more time. But if the evidence of your finger stays on the dough, it’s probably too tough and needs more water.

 

3. Crosby Bakery

Crosby Bakery

If you want your doughnuts to develop an even richer palate, consider fermenting them a second time. Once you’ve let out the gas, reshape the dough and put it in a larger bowl with a new plastic wrap cover. Leave this in the fridge overnight if you’re using fresh yeast or active dry yeast. But if you’re using instant yeast, this second round of proofing only takes an hour.

  • Name: Crosby Bakery
  • Address: 51 East Pearl Street Nashua, NH 03060
  • Website: https://www.crosbybakerynh.com
  • Phone: 603-882-1851
  • Hours: Mon to Fri – 7.30 am to 6 pm; Sat – 7.30 am to 5 pm

Dough can get sticky, so whenever you’re proofing, oil the bowl lightly so the mixture doesn’t cling to the sides. Also, use a recipe to get the measurements right – ideally using a kitchen scale for accuracy. Most recipes are based on active dry yeast, so if you’re using fresh yeast, you should double the amount in the recipe, and if you’re using instant yeast, you need 1.25x.

 

4. NH Doughnut Company

NH Doughnut Company

Sometimes, when you peel the plastic cover off your proofed dough, the dough deflates like a balloon. Maybe it proofed too long, or maybe you didn’t knead the dough long enough. This can be frustrating because you can’t be sure if your donut batter is overdone or underdone! The ideal kneading time is 10 to 15 minutes, and the dough should stop sticking to the hook.

  • Name: NH Doughnut Company
  • Address: 2 Capital Plaza Concord, NH, 03301
  • Website: https://www.nhdoughnutco.com
  • Phone: 603.715.5097
  • Concord Hrs: Mon to Fri – 7.30 am to 4pm; Sat – 9 am to 6 pm; Sun – 9 am to 1 pm
  • Chichester Pick-Up Hours: Mon to Fri – 7 am to 9 pm; Sat to Sun – 8 am to 9 pm

If the dough is still sticky, add a little flour at a time and knead until the dough feels silky. You can also try a windowpane test. No, this doesn’t mean you toss dough at the window or wall. Instead, hold a chunk of dough between your fingers and pull it apart as far as it will go. You want it to stretch thin so you can see through it. If the dough breaks, keep kneading it.

 

 5. Goody Good Donuts

Goody Good Donuts

You may need to add flour while kneading. Opt for high-protein flour because it will strengthen the gluten mesh of your dough, making it less likely to collapse. You can also lessen the risk by oiling the bowl before proofing and using a scraper to remove the dough from the bowl. This reduces your chances of accidentally releasing the gases in the dough.

  • Name: Goody Good Donuts
  • Address: 235 Union Ave Laconia, NH, US 03246
  • Website: https://www.facebook.com/makingholes/
  • Phone: +1 603-528-4003
  • Hours: Tue to Sat – 4 am to 11 am; Sun – 4 am to 10 am; Mon – Closed

Over-mixing your dough will ruin the texture of your doughnuts, making them tough, dry, and stringy. This is because the gluten mesh gets overstretched and the carbon dioxide is all expelled. As you mix the dough, keep poking it with your finger to confirm its elasticity. Keep in mind that cake doughnuts need far less mixing than yeast doughnuts, so check that timer!

 

6. Brother Donuts

Brother Donuts

You want doughnuts to have as much swelling as possible without exploding. Filled donuts should inflate even more because you need a cavity that you can stuff with cream, jelly, or custard. Once your dough is done, roll, cut, and shape it, then cover the raw donuts with a loose cloth and let them rise until they double in size. They’re now ready for frying or baking.

  • Name: Brothers Donuts
  • Address: 426 Central St Franklin, NH, US 03235
  • Website: https://www.facebook.com/brothersdonuts/
  • Phone: +1 603-934-6678
  • Hours: Mon, Wed to Sat – 3 am to 11 am; Tuesday and Sunday – Closed

The shaping process matters as well. Doughnuts are typically ring-shaped, though you can also make doughnut holes (small balls), crullers (twisted coils), churros (finger-shapes), beignets (square), twists (braided strips), or long johns (rectangles). Use cookie cutters of different sizes, doughnut cutters, scrapers, or a can for the ring, and a bottle cap for the hole.

 

7. Leavitt’s Country Bakery

Leavitt’s Country Bakery

It’s easier to work with dough when it’s cold. It won’t stick to your utensils as much, and it will expand more evenly once it’s in the oil or oven. Chilling your dough also helps the gluten to mesh effectively. After you’ve shaped your doughnuts and they’ve doubled in size, you can cover them lightly and put them back in the fridge to keep them cold and slow the swelling.

  • Name: Leavitt’s Country Bakery
  • Address: 564 White Mountain Highway Conway, NH, US 03818
  • Website: https://www.facebook.com/LeavittsBakery/
  • Phone: +1 603-662-0349
  • Hours: Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri, Sat – 4 am to 3 pm; Sun – 4 am to Noon; Sun – Closed

You should only fry a handful of doughnuts at a time so they have space to fully cook. You can leave the rest in the fridge and only pull them out when they’re heading for the pan or oven. But if this feels too cumbersome, keep the raw doughnuts on a cold part of the counter and drape them loosely with a damp cloth to keep them cool and avoid drying them out.

 

8. Harvey’s Bakery & Coffee Shop

Harvey’s Bakery & Coffee Shop

If you’re frying your doughnuts, you want to deep-fry them on high. The oil should be around 375°F – use a kitchen thermometer to confirm. Watch the doughnuts carefully and flip them when they’re a rich golden brown. If the doughnut skin is cracking and bursting in your frying pan, the oil is too hot. Take it off the fire for a few minutes, or lower the heat levels.

  • Name: Harvey’s Bakery & Coffee Shop
  • Address: 376 Central Ave, Downtown Dover, NH
  • Website: https://www.harveysbakery.com
  • Phone: 603-742-609
  • Hours: Mon to Sat – 6.30 am to 2.30 pm; Sunday – Closed

If you choose to bake your doughnuts, preheat the oven to about 350°F. The batter for cake doughnuts is generally thinner and has a cake-like consistency. You can also fry cake donuts – these are called fritters and they’re sometimes filled with meat or fruit. Baked doughnuts are slightly healthier because they won’t soak up any additional fats through deep-frying.

 

9. Tori’s Homestead Doughnuts

Tori’s Homestead Doughnuts

While dieters and weight influencers vilify oils and fats, they’re still the tastiest part of any dish because they soak up the flavor. This means when you’re deep-frying doughnuts, the oil will soon be infused with sweets and gluten. A quick tip to clean the oil is to fry potato chips or home fries in the oil. The potatoes will absorb the flavor and leave the oil fresher.

Still, unless you’re making doughnuts every day, you shouldn’t use the same oil for more than two sessions, even if you’re cleaning the oil between batches. So if you’ve made enough dough for a dozen doughnuts, you can only fry 24 before you swap out the oil. Repurpose the used oil for fries or salad dressing. Speaking of potatoes, you can add them to the doughnuts!

 

 10. Stonehouse Bakery & Café

Stonehouse Bakery & Café

Why would you add potatoes to pastry? Well, spud nuts are an old-time US delicacy. They’re doughnuts or fritters made of mashed potatoes. But if you don’t want to go the full spud, you can add a few tablespoons of mashed potatoes to your regular doughnut batter. It’ll make your donuts fluffy and filling. The rest of the dough will be the usual flour, sugar, and fat mix.

  • Name: Stonehouse Bakery & Café
  • Address: 746 Calef Highway, Barrington, NH 03825
  • Website: https://www.stonehousebaking.com
  • Phone: 603-664-2307
  • Hours: Tue to Sat – 6 am to 2 pm; Sun & Mon – Closed

Also, remember that the temperature of your oil (or oven) changes every time you add or remove a doughnut. So before you toss in a fresh bit of batter, double-check the temperature and adjust accordingly. Otherwise, even if you’re using a timer, some of your doughnuts will burn while others will undercook. If the oil isn’t hot enough your donuts will absorb extra oil.

 

11. Blink’s Frydoe

Blink’s Frydoe

Most people flip doughnuts using tongs, a fork, or a spatula. These can all leave indentations in your doughnuts once they’re cooked, so a better option would be to use chopsticks. But this assumes you have the wrist technique down and can easily maneuver those skinny food sticks! A shortcut is to use the kind of training chopsticks that are marketed for younger kids.

  • Name: Blink’s Frydoe
  • Address: 191 Ocean Blvd & 115 Ocean Blvd, 03842 Hampton, NH, US
  • Website: https://www.facebook.com/BlinksFrydoe
  • Phone: +1 603-926-8933
  • Hours: Mon to Thur – 9 am to 1 am; Fri to Sun – 11 am to 7 pm

These chopstick trainers have a hinge at the top and may have thumb holes and finger rings. Adults use them too, so there’s no shame in it. And they’re the perfect way to turn your doughnuts without leaving unsightly marks on the surface of your pastries. Once you take the doughnuts out of the oil or oven, cool them on a wire rack or wire strainer for excess oil.

 

12. Chichester Country Store

Chichester Country Store

It’s a good idea to put your doughnuts on a paper towel to absorb the extra fat, but it can be upsetting when you realize just how greasy your favorite snack truly is! If the sight will put you off doughnuts, ask someone else to help with this step. Ideally, use a wire cooling rack with some paper towels on it. If you plan to glaze or fill the doughnuts, cool them completely.

  • Name: Chichester Country Store
  • Address: 257 Main St. Chichester, New Hampshire 03258
  • Website: https://www.chichestercountrystore.com
  • Phone: (603) 798-5081
  • Hours: Mon to Fri – 6 am to 3 pm; Sat – 7 am to 3 pm; Sun – 8 am to 3 pm

Your glaze should have minimal liquid to avoid soaking into your doughnut and making it soggy. You can make a simple glaze by mixing powdered sugar or confectionery sugar with milk or egg whites. You can also add a little corn starch or powdered egg whites. But if you plan to coat the doughnut with granulated sugar crystals, do it straight out of the frying pan.

 

13. The Bakeshop on Kelley Street

The Bakeshop on Kelley Street

A lot of us would rather make doughnut batter from scratch. The typical ingredients are flour, sugar, and fats (liquid oil, shortening, or butter). Try bread flour for yeast doughnuts and all-purpose for cake doughnuts. Some recipes add water or milk for consistency, and eggs are optional. They add fluff and lift so if you’re making filled doughnuts, keep the eggs.

  • Name: The Bakeshop on Kelley Street
  • Address: 171 Kelley Street, Manchester NH
  • Website: https://thebakeshoponkelleystreet.com
  • Phone: 603 624-3500
  • Hours: Mon & Tue – Closed; Wed to Fri – 7.30 am to 2 pm;
  • Weekend Hours: Sat – 8 am to 2 pm; Sun – 9 am to 1 pm

But what if you don’t want to mix the dough from scratch? You can buy biscuit dough, cookie dough, or bread dough in a pinch. You can even experiment with pizza dough and pastry dough, but remember that they have less sugar built in, so adjust your glaze or fillings to stop that gap. For cake doughnuts, you can try using a box of cake mix or cookie mix as your base.

What’s your top NH doughnut spot? Tell us what you love about it and how we can get there!

1 thought on “Top 13 Best Donut Shops In New Hampshire”

  1. Must try Wicked Good Bakery’s donut, especially “Boston Cream Pie” (my name for it) early Saturday morning before they run out. I stopped by their Plymouth hideout* yesterday, tried it – best donut I ever had… and I’m very picky. Real home-made chocolate, real custardy filling. This is not your father’s Dunkin’ Donut, or any other shop’s donut for that matter. Leave one for me.
    – Crawford from the Concord (NH)

    * If you can’t find directions via their website, RSVP. I am not a bot or a relative, just a guy on the search for a worthy donut.

    Reply

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