New Take on Doughnuts

New Take on Doughnuts

PHOTO BY LANCE YAMAMOTO

The food scientist behind the project, Katie Wages, stuffs doughnuts with ice cream for a trendy new treat at her shop I Scream Donuts.

Just when you thought all possible sweet-on-sweet mashups had already been engineered, that no one could possibly invent a new peanut-butter-stuffed Oreo or cheesecake milkshake, and that wonuts already are the new cruffin — someone started stuffing doughnuts with ice cream.

This trend almost certainly started in Sacramento, where such shops as Sweet Dozen, Baker’s Donuts, and The Parlor made international headlines five years ago for sandwiching ice cream inside plain and glazed donuts split widthwise.

“I tried an ice-cream doughnut in Sacramento last year and fell in love,” said Katie Wages, a Bay Area native who spent some of her growing-up years in the state-capital city. Little did she dream that this would shift her career path in a fluffy, frosty, melt-in-your-mouth direction.

“I wanted to have the option to get one in the East Bay,” she said.

So this year she launched I Scream Donuts, selling the trendy treats stuffed with Tara’s Organic Ice Cream and sorbets in the Temescal shop that former owner/ice-cream artisan Tara Esperanza shuttered last December. Wages also serves old-skool cones with optional organic vegan sauces and sprinkles and stages rotating art shows in the cozy space, with some proceeds benefiting local charities, the rest aiding the artists.

Ice-cream flavors range from classic strawberry, salted caramel, and mint-chocolate-chip to geranium, lavender, and cinnamon-cookie crunch.

“I purchase doughnuts and ice cream, and I put them together in a special way. It wasn’t too hard to come up with my own process, but it did take some experimenting,” said Wages, who studied food science in college. She has chosen to opt out of production and buy ingredients rather than craft them in-house.

“I used to make ice cream with my great-great uncle when I was a child and had a blast,” Wages said. “I might try experimenting with making ice cream eventually.

“I still have dreams of being a food scientist, and I Scream Donuts is definitely an outlet for my joy of sharing tasty treats.”

 

I Scream Donuts 4731 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 510-923-1567, IScreamDonuts.com.