Malasada World

Bakery: Malasada World
Address: 33 Ainslie St N, Cambridge ON
Website: facebook 
Style: Portuguese, Doughnuts
Price: $$

When I heard that there was a (newer) doughnut shop devoted exclusively to malasadas, Portuguese doughnuts, I could not believe it. It filled me with such excitement that I simply couldn't wait to give this place a try. I love Portuguese doughnuts, these big flat pieces of fried dough, fluffy on the inside and coated with just cinnamon sugar, but it's pretty rare to find a Portuguese bakery that sell them (the highest chances of scoring one are in Portuguese-heavy business areas in Toronto) so imagine a whole store of them! *-* One regular baked good sampler envisioned this as being one of the best bakeries/doughnut finds of the year!

Essentially, I was going in with incredibly high expectations, so the risk of those expectations not being met was equally up there. Let's see what happened!

 A half-dozen doughnuts were bought (clockwise from top left): passion fruit, stuffed passion fruit, "nada"-style, the traditional plain one, and dulce de leche stuffed. Ranging in prices from $1.50 for the traditional to $2.25 for the jelly doughnuts to $2.75 for the fancy flat ones, I was most interested in the traditional; the plain ones are always a good indication and are great for comparative purposes. The first thing that I noted was that the malasadas were smaller than found elsewhere and were almost perfect circles, a far cry from the large, oblong doughnuts I've tried. The first bite was a bit deflating, literally: the fried shell contained a large air pocket and only a thin layer of dough, which was incredibly chewy, almost rice cake-like in texture. This same texture was found in all doughnuts, and was especially noticeable in the stuffed balls, which were the least preferred of the bunch. The dough was simply too dense for this kind of doughnut.

The passion fruit malasada was nice with a touch of sourness from the passion fruit, though the "nada malasada", a unique mix between two classics of Portuguese baking: custard tarts and doughnuts, was probably the one must-try with its baked top that actually complemented the chewiness of the dough.

Overall, I was left with a feeling of disappointment, simply because it didn't blow my mind as I had anticipated. They were just... good, fresh doughnuts. Nicely fried, but with too little substance.

Rating: **1/2