You can’t help but get a little excited as you approach the butter yellow building at 200 N. Court Ave., with the thought of sweet, delicious doughnuts on your mind.
Inside, you’re welcomed by the warm smiles of the baristas and the thumping music playing overhead. You immediately scan the glass case at the front of the shop, hoping you’re not too late to snag one of its coveted brioche doughnuts.
"Then you see it: the perfect, oval-shaped confection, covered in a white glaze with bright rainbow sprinkles. You eagerly order a few to take home and enjoy, making your Friday a little sweeter.
The soft, fluffy doughnuts are like biting into a cloud. Before you know it, you’re lining up at 9 a.m. every Friday and Saturday — the only days you can get the doughnuts — to curb your cravings.
Dandelion Café and Bakery introduced brioche doughnuts to its menu a few months ago, quickly capturing customers’ hearts with its creative flavors and cake-like texture.
We can all thank Sophie Chapman for these addicting additions.
It seems Chapman was born to be a baker. Her mother was a baker, working at former iconic bakeries here, including Bentley’s and The B-Line, so she learned how to whisk up some mean pastries at a young age.
After working as a cake decorator at Beyond Bread and spending some time as a teacher, Chapman found herself in the kitchen again, accepting a job to be a baker at Dandelion Café and Bakery.
In late February, Chapman became the new head baker at Dandelion, where she continued making its lemon poppy seed scones, brioche cinnamon rolls, lemon cream tarts and muffins.
Soon, she was thinking: What new pastry could she introduce to the menu that would allow her to be more creative?
“I feel like doughnuts are a pretty easy thing to do something different with every week, and they’re very consistent,” Chapman said. “They’re super fun to decorate, too.”
Unlike the usual doughnuts you might see at famous chains, Chapman decided to use brioche dough to make hers. That makes the texture lighter, and oh-so decadent.
“We were frying them for a while, but I just switched to baking them, and I think it makes them a lot fluffier,” Chapman said. Because they’re baked, they aren’t too heavy and don’t leave a layer of oil on your hands.
To make them takes Chapman multiple days. She makes a big batch of brioche dough at the beginning of the week, keeping it in the fridge overnight to rise. The next day, she rolls out the dough, carefully cutting it into small circles, then pops them into a proofer to rise some more. Finally, it’s into the oven and on to decorations.
This process is why Chapman’s doughnuts are so good and why they are only offered on Fridays and Saturdays.
Chapman’s first batch of Jamaica-glazed brioche doughnuts made its debut back in April. Lots of hungry customers funneled into the bakery, leaving with pink doughnuts in hand and smiles on their faces.
Every week, the café announces the new weekly flavor on Instagram. Past flavors have featured doughnuts with a matcha white chocolate coating and topped with slices of fresh strawberries, a lemon glaze with rainbow sprinkles, and a berry jam-filled doughnut that’s dusted in sugar. The best part: they aren’t overly sweet.
The lemon-glazed doughnut is like a bite of sunshine. The glaze itself is bright and citrusy; then you get a mouthful of the pillowy doughnut.
Its flavors are enough to wake you up and get you energized for the day ahead. (Chapman recommends pairing your doughnut with an iced strawberry matcha latte for the full summer flavor experience.)
To ensure you get one of the sought-after doughnuts, Chapman recommends you get to the Dandelion Café and Bakery before 11 a.m. Trust me, it’ll be worth setting an early alarm.
