10 best donuts in Phoenix: I tried 400, sorry Dunkin' Donuts, you didn't make the cut

Doughnuts can be distracting.

Staring googly-eyed at a case full of sugary, deep-fried doughnuts with glazes, toppings and stuffings applied in endless combinations and shapes, it’s easy to lose sight of the heart of the matter. Doughnuts boil (or fry) down to two basic forms: Cake and raised.

So, that’s where I started. Doughnuts are hot, and the number of places in Phoenix slinging every manner thereof grows by the month. But in choosing the best, while I dig all of the funky toppings and creative takes, I kept an eye on the foundation as I went through 400 doughnuts in a week — chains to independents, Mesa to Goodyear.

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If the base isn’t solid, anything you add is just a distraction.

Here are my 10 favorite doughnut shops in the Valley. All of them serve treats that taste great whether wildly adorned or enjoyed for their barest, naked essence. If you're celebrating National Doughnut Day on June 1, here's where to get started.

Blooming Donuts

The new, zany doughnut shops notwithstanding, most places serve a fairly standardized list of classics, and finding daylight between the contenders on the bubble can be tough. Blooming Donuts, however, is one that poked its head above the fray. The glaze is light and tender with a hint of oil flavor (I don’t mind when it’s good), and the cake is well-developed with a nice crisp edge. I tried a buttermilk bar with a gentle sourness and perfect balance; an old-fashioned that was right on point; and a chocolate cake that stopped shy of being overly sweet. But my favorite was a vanilla glazed cake doughnut with a killer crisp on the bottom and a thick layer of crunchy toasted peanuts on top.

Details: 9820 W. Lower Buckeye Road, Tolleson. 623-936-7488, facebook.com/bloomingdonutstolleson.

Bosa Donuts

It’s a Valley-wide favorite for a reason. Bosa’s doughnuts are clinically executed, and I mean that as a compliment. None will surprise you or take your breath away, but for consistent, careful execution at a high level, this is the place to be. The chocolate cake is deep and moist with just a little crisp around the edges; and the strawberry glazed lacks the artificial aftertaste of many others. Classics like the plain, buttermilk and glazed and raised are great, but the apple doughnuts were standouts. The apple fritter boasts a heavy payload of fresh apple and a deep, caramelized crust, while the apple crumb boasts a chunky sweet filling that’s still fresh tasting.

Details: 16 Valley locations, bosadonutsaz.com.

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Donut Parlor

There are three things I love about Donut Parlor. First, the doughnuts have great flavor on their own. Second, doughnut slinger Chhaya “Papaya” Tan carefully balances most of his creations rather than burying that flavor in too much sugar. Third, if you desperately want a sugar bomb, he’ll have your back with a few options that bring the big-time sweet. The Boston cream pairs a silky smooth filling with a rich chocolate icing. The lemon poppy seed cake doughnut has a great sweet, citrusy scent. If you dig on cereal-topped doughnuts, there’s enough cereal here to pay for Cap’n Crunch’s pleasure yacht. The strawberry cake — with a strawberry crumb and a big dollop of jam — is a little sweet to be my jam, but it’s carefully made. While a gob of jelly and a smear of peanut butter on top of a chocolate frosted seems like a gimme, there’s no denying it just works.

Details: 1245 W. Elliot Road, Tempe. 480-570-1900, donutparlor.com.

Dutch Donut Factory

Dutch Donut hews closer to tradition, but that’s not a handicap. This place nails the basics, sending out a crisp cake doughnut with well-developed flavor and gorgeous, light raised and glazed. The maple bar brings plenty of maple, and the unsweetened crumb on the chocolate crumb doughnut is smartly restrained. My favorites, however, were a devastatingly crisp and crunchy apple fritter (though it could have used a little more apple) and a toasted coconut that struck a nice balance between the doughnut's light, yeasty flavor and toasty topping.

Details: 1152 N. Power Road, Mesa. 480-748-4037. Search Dutch Donut Factory on Facebook.

Express Donuts

Here’s another shop that doesn’t get too cute and sticks the landing. The chocolate cake brings a great touch of bitter balance to its chocolatey sweetness. The buttermilk bar has a deep, pronounced sourness and creamy core. The Bavarian pairs a smooth custard with a good chocolate glaze. And the cinnamon crumb pairs great texture with a light hit of spice. The apple fritter is perfectly balanced, not too sweet and packed with a ton of apple. This shop makes one of the best orange-glazed doughnuts I tried — a style that, interestingly, seems to be almost exclusively limited to the West Valley.

Details: 13824 W. McDowell Road, Goodyear. 623-536-7443. Search Express Donuts Goodyear AZ on Facebook.

Karl’s Quality Bakery

Karl’s is a bit of an outlier on this list. It’s a wonderful bakery steeped in tradition, and a handful of doughnuts is just a small segment of their offerings. While the simple, plain doughnuts don’t quite hold up to the others on this list, some of the specialty doughnuts — in particular, the filled ones — are top-notch. The apple fritter is an excellent, crisp specimen with abundant apple. The Boston cream is huge, heavy and absolutely laden with thick, delicious custard. And the jelly doughnut almost acts like a shell that barely contains the sweet stuff within.

Details: 111 E. Dunlap Ave., Phoenix. 602-997-7849, karlsqualitybakery.com.

The Local Donut

If you’re looking for an abundance of wild and crazy doughnuts, you’ve come to the right place. The cake doughnuts do the job, but the raised are excellent and an awful lot of fun. The peach pie doughnut arrives with fruity crumbles and a dollop of peach pie filling. The s’mores doughnut is a bit of a stunt, but it’s a fun one, studded with graham crackers and topped with a whole bruleed marshmallow. The caramel goodness combines two kinds of coconut — plain and toasted — with chocolate and a salty caramel glaze. I’m not ashamed to admit the pineapple fluff made me giggle twice: When I opened the box to discover it had been topped with a paper parasol; and again when I took a bite and discovered its flavor was as bright and sunny as its countenance.

Details: 3213 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale. 480-500-5236, thelocaldonutshop.com.

The Original Rainbow Donuts

Rainbow Donuts are both abundant and highly variable in the Valley. But, in my experience, the two shops that fly under the banner of “The Original Rainbow Donuts” are the best of the bunch. The plain cake is lightly crisped with a touch of sweetness; the raised and glazed is light as a feather with excellent flavor; and the chocolate cake has just a touch of bitter cocoa. The powdered doughnut filled with lemon is OK. But the lemon-glazed doughnut is where it’s at, a great raised doughnut with a balanced tart-sweet topping. Add a rock-solid apple fritter, a blueberry cake doughnut with intense flavor and heavy scent, and a maple bacon with two whole folded-over strips of bacon and it’s tough to go wrong.

Details: 15834 N. Cave Creek Road, Phoenix. 602-867-9502. Also, 6245 E. Bell Road, Scottsdale. 480-912-6210, theoriginalrainbowdounts.com.

Sugar ‘N Spice Bakery Cafe

Sugar 'N Spice, as the name might suggest, combines tradition with just a little bit of sass. The doughnuts here don’t stretch too far afield, but they’re a little creative and made with care. The glazed has great flavor and a little bite to it, while the blueberry old- fashioned combines tons of crisp edges with great flavor and balance. The maple cream combines a rich filling with a maple-glazed top. And the apple pie doughnut is smartly done — a crumb doughnut with an apple pie filling punched into the top.

Details: 14970 W. Indian School Road, Goodyear. 623-535-1877. Search Sugar N Spice Coffee & Tea on Facebook.

Welcome Chicken + Donuts

Casey Hopkins’ doughnuts rest at the rarified intersection of wild creativity and crisp execution. The daily selection is a mid-size variety with barely a classic among them and few that don’t rotate. The grapefruit raised is intense, punchy and a little tart, topped with pistachios for balance. Their apple fritter, in a bit of a change of pace, is light on the crisp and heavy on the apple with just a whiff of cinnamon. The chocolate rose pistachio is both a signature and showstopper, glazed with deep chocolate intensity and topped with crumbles of rose-flavored meringue. The chipotle limon is a buzzing, smoky-tart turn on a sugared doughnut. But for my money, it’s tough to beat the plain old cake doughnut, either in a sweet or savory setting. Come for the doughnuts, stay for the chicken.

Details: 1535 E. Buckeye Road, Phoenix. 602-258-1655, welcomechickenanddonuts.com.

What, no national chains?

When I was a kid, the Boston cream at Dunkin’ Donuts was just about my favorite pastry in the world. So I’m probably getting hurt looks of betrayal from DD corporate right about now. But their exclusion wasn’t a matter of principle. I included a number of national chains in my tasting, and for the most part, they’re good. I just didn’t think they were as good as the 10 shops I selected.

The build-your-own format at Fractured Prune is a lot of fun. And the case at Hurts Donut Company is an eye-popping display that looks like a paint truck crashed into a toy store. But in both cases, they pushed the sweetness to the point that the doughnuts’ flavors became indistinct or, worse, undetectable. If you dig those shops, I say give some of the more overtly sugary varieties at Donut Parlor or The Local Donut a try.

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Similarly, though their doughnuts aren’t as wild, I thought Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts were focused more on the glaze, and I didn’t think the flavor or texture of the doughnuts beneath held up. But if you like that classic, minimal style, you can’t go wrong with places like Bosa Donuts, Dutch Donut Factory, Blooming Donuts and Express Donuts, all of which topped those national favorites when it comes to flavor.

Plenty of folks will wonder why LaMar’s didn’t make the cut. All I can say is LaMar’s generally does a nice job. I just think these 10 do it better.

Reach Armato at dominic.armato@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8533. Interact with him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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