Greenacres
Bakery

Feb 2020
$6.00
Donut from Greenacres Bakery

A ‘greasy spoon’ is a small, cheap eatery usually specialising in home-cooked and fried food. We use the term in America for the roadside dinners that serve up fried eggs, grits and bacon – it fills your belly and clogs your arteries. The term ‘greasy spoon’ also encompasses the aesthetics of the eatery. Usually an unappealing exterior, with interior surfaces covered in a sheen of grease, and an aroma of fat in the air. It sounds unappealing, but greasy spoons can also be a gem to find; polish it down and delicious riches await.

What does this have to do with Greenacres Bakery? Well, the bakery sits in a row of dilapidated shops offering a spicy and varied array of cuisines: Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, Japanese and Indian. None of the shops, including the bakery, were particularly appealing in appearance. Most looked shut, some permanently so. The bakery was worn down and had the smell of oil permeating out of the door, but I am fully aware of the value that can accompany a greasy spoon – so I was not daunted.

Greenacres Bakery, Adelaide
Greenacres Bakery,
Hampstead GardensView on Map

The woman in the shop was friendly. She was inquisitive about my day, astounded by Apple Pay and eager to serve well.

In the counters were a range of donuts of different sizes. They had mini donuts for $1.50, regular-sized for $2.50. All very reasonably priced.

Then I spied another donut, tucked away on the top shelf. For a mere $6 – which would still be cheaper than any donut in Melbourne – it was the largest donut I have ever seen. 18cm in diameter it would feed a family. It was the donut that had eaten all the other donuts. How could I not invest? The question was, could I manage to eat it on my own? Should I?

I didn’t have a chance to try. When I arrived home we had visitors, eager to dig into the fried good. The donut was divided into eight and shared around. Considering the difficulties and technicalities of making an 18cm diameter donut, Greenacres did ok. Its drawbacks came more from the size which affected aesthetics and texture, but the flavour was average. So maybe worth returning for a regular-sized donut another day.

Aesthetics — 3.5

This was not an aesthetically pleasing donut. The only positive comment was that the donut was huge – 18 cm in diameter. The dough was a light golden colour but looked dried out. It was topped by lumpy chocolate icing, unequally distributed and dripping down the sides. The hole in the centre of the donut had nearly been swallowed up into itself.

Topping — 6.5

The icing was the standard fake chocolate flavour, immensely sweet and filled with E-numbers. The sprinkles were sweet and crunchy but did not fully cover the dough. The icing was too thin and sparse to make up for the large volume of dough it topped.

Dough — 6

The dough was unexciting and on the yeasty side. There was a touch of sweetness to the dough, but the saltiness accompanying the yeast was more distinct. Given the size, one would expect a very oily donut (considering how long it would have sat in the oil to cook through), but surprisingly no oily flavour overpowered the mouth experience.

Texture — 5

The middle of the donut was undercooked, which wasn't surprising due to its size. The dough was chewy, very chewy, and doughy in the middle. As you moved to peripheries, the texture dried out. The sprinkles were crunchy and the icing thin and sticky.

Overall

5.3

It's... Edible

Family-sized donuts appear to be a bit of an Instagram fad at the moment, but the realities of a large donut need to be considered. It's a difficult balance to cook a donut through, without drying out the edges and saturating the donut with oil. The icing to dough ratio will inevitably be weighted towards the mass of dough, so it would require an outstanding flavour and texture of dough to overcome the lack of icing. The flavour of the icing and dough for this particular donut wasn't outstanding, yet wasn't terrible either. My tip: if you get a donut from this bakery maybe stay clear of the $6 giant in the corner.

  • Aesthetics: 3.5
  • Topping: 6.5
  • Dough: 6
  • Texture: 5
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