"He went to Jarams." These are the words every woman dreams of hearing. For so many, they represent the culmination of a lifetime's worth of hoping, planning and dreaming. What little girl hasn't pined away for the day when she, too, would get the big, white donut of her dreams? I am referring, of course, to Jarams Donuts.
Jarams is tucked away in a nondescript shopping center in Far North Dallas, denoted by an obligatorily generic DONUTS sign. But this place is so much more than DONUTS. Other shops -- Hypnotic Donuts, Glazed Donut Works, etc. -- have received their fair share of attention for helping up Dallas' doughnuts game. And while these places all have their merits (who doesn't like animal cookies on doughnuts, amirite?), I find Jarams' offerings to be distinctly enjoyable. Transcendent, even.
That's right. I said it. Transcendent. Like the Beatles in India. We're not talking about paltry fried dough covered in sugar here, people. Jarams traditional doughnuts straddle the line between that uber soft, dissolves-in-your-mouth Krispy Kreme texture and the sturdier doughnuts churned out by your neighborhood shop. The result is extremely satisfying: a dough that provides a little resistance when you take a bite but ultimately gives way to a very tender crumb.
There are a lot of doughnuts to try, from crullers to cake, but the doughnuts that really stands out is the crème brulee. The ring-shaped doughnut is filled with pastry cream, glazed and given the blow-torch treatment. The end result is a thing to behold. The deeply caramelized glaze takes the edge off the overall saccharin quality of the doughnut, resulting in a refreshing interplay between sweet and bitter.
And then there are the cronuts. Before Jarams, I thought cronuts were the gimmicks of the breakfast food world: vapid, trendy and linguistically silly. They weren't respectable. They weren't going to get you through your day. But like a Sandra Bullock-style change agent, Jarams took all my preconceived notions of what a cronut is and turned them inside out.
Jarams cronuts are unwieldy things -- the heavyweight champions of the display case. Their exterior is craggy and fried to a deep golden brown, which provides lots of textural mouthfeel and a definite contrast to the flaky, soft interior. Jarams tops their cronuts with everything from Nutella to peanut butter and jelly to chocolate, but if available I recommend the fig butter. Topped with fresh strawberries, the fig butter cronut delivers notes of tart, sour, sweet and fresh with every sumptuous bite.
Sadly, all of this comes at a cost. No, I'm not talking about your waistline (though this definitely isn't the place to come if you are preparing for swimsuit season.) You know when you walk up and there aren't any prices in front of the doughnuts that you are in a "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" kind of situation. I spent about $15 and change for two cronuts and two doughnuts. The fig butter cronut is $4.89 alone. Ridiculous? Yes. Worth it? Also yes. These aren't the kind of doughnuts you'll want to bring to your next business meeting, but rather saved for a Saturday morning. Or in my case, every morning. Because fuck swimsuit season -- this is doughnut season.
Jarams Donuts 17459 Preston Road
