Doughnuts. Just that one word alone can make you salivate. But sometimes when you sink your teeth into one, it doesn’t taste as good as it looks. Dry. Chewy. Not good stuff. The boys at Happy Dough Lucky – Sach, Lewis and TK – are aiming to change all that. They’ve spent a load of time perfecting their recipes and flavours, so their brand new vegan doughnuts are as delicious as can be. We chat to Sach Nijran about their upcoming launch and why you should give their bad boys a shot…
The name Happy Dough Lucky may ring some bells – that’s because they’re well-known as the little pizza pop up in The Lacehouse. The proper Italian-style dough and fresh, rich flavour helped make its mark on the Nottingham foodie scene. But while they enjoyed a slice of success with that, they always had the sweet treats in mind, and last summer they decided to make a start.
This meant going on a food pilgrimage (pre-COVID) – what better excuse to go on a trip to Italy than researching doughnuts? Sach explains, “We love to travel, and after seeing how Italian bakeries work, we really became passionate about not just giving people food but improving the whole experience.” From this, every little authentic detail has been considered – they spent almost two weeks working on the packaging alone and, when they’re able to re-open, customers will be able to see the bakers making the doughnuts by hand in their open kitchen.
The amount of time spent on these details, however, doesn’t compare to the time they spent making the doughnuts themselves truly special. “We've experimented with seventeen different dough recipes, proving them all at different times. The amount of proving makes all the difference on how much yeast you can taste in the final product,” Sach says. “Our doughnut dough has got the airy fluffiness that is required for the perfect doughnut. For the perfect pizza, you need that extra yeast flavour going through it.” And if that didn’t sound like hard work enough, their bakers are even in the kitchen at 2am kneading to ensure that the dough is as fresh as it can be.
Another exciting element that the doughnuts have is the fact that they’re vegan. Sach continues: “Although vegan food has improved so much in the past few years, it always felt like the desserts are a poor man's version of the real deal. We just didn't want that – we wanted it to be as good.” Their toppings are set to be extravagant while maintaining that freshness their pizzas are so well-known for. Sach tells me, “For example, a lot of companies will buy in their red velvet cake to sprinkle on top of the doughnut, however, we make our own for our pink velvet cake, so we know exactly what goes into it and can make it for our tastes.” The pink velvet recipe is top secret, mind – we tried guessing it but they stayed tight-lipped.
They’re launching on Deliveroo this month for a limited time of twelve weeks, so if you’re wiping dribble off your chin just looking at the photos, you better get ordering ASAP. After all, there is no occasion that doesn’t call for a box of warm, fluffy, mouth-watering doughnuts.
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