Coming to the farmer’s market and walking under the pavilion in the morning has always given me a sense of relief. It is a way to escape the reality of life and allows me to look at a little bit of other people’s lives as they share their craft with everyone else who decides to come.
As I walked around and saw the different stands that had crafts, trinkets, fresh vegetables and vibrant flowers, I spotted the familiar white truck with the bright yellow words saying “The Donut Truck.” There was a man in front handing donuts to people in a long line.
Andrew Horst has worked at the truck for the last six years. While he works there on Saturdays, this is not his main job. He and his brother own a successful steel construction business. But Horst enjoys his time spent outside the truck on Saturdays. One of the main reasons he is working the truck is not just for himself, but for his family.
“I wanted to help provide a stable, good income for my sister.” Horst said.
While talking to Horst, the line progressively got longer. But while I was standing and watching him interact with the community; the people who knew him and talked with him shared smiles that followed with short, sweet conversations. Eventually, Horst invited me to help him out, and I began taking the payments.
After watching Horst interact with the community, it was a completely different feeling for me to interact with him behind the table. I saw more smiles and friendly eye contact and felt a sense of belonging in a matter of minutes.
The truck was a center of much community and many relationships. One such relationship is between The Donut Truck and Union, which the truck frequents a couple times per semester. Horst revealed the way that The Donut Truck came into connection with Union was from a friendship.
“There was a guy who used to come here. He was over Creative Dining and he was interested in the food and the truck,” Horst said. “We became friends. Eventually this led to him wanting us to come and cook donuts for the students. From there, we branched out into the administration, and they were wanting us to come more.”
At Union, often students are given the impression The Donut Truck is run by the Amish. This is in fact not true. This community of people are Mennonites.
As I talked with Horst he shed some light on the differences.
“To the Amish, they do not use electricity or telephones or drive vehicles or use a lot of the modern conveniences that we have,” Horst said. ”Mennonites have some of the same core values and beliefs, but are different in that we use the conveniences.”
In all, there have not been many challenges that the truck has run into — their greatest challenge is the fact they only accept cash payments. But the lines keep growing with new people and lots of recurring fans who enjoy these mouth-watering donuts.
“We were probably making donuts in the 600 to 800 range six years ago. Now we’re doing a thousand to 1200 range in our peak season,” Horst said.
I wondered aloud how they made their homemade donuts taste so sweet and feel so light and airy.
Horst explained the multi-step process to me:
- Collect the raw ingredients – which are measured out in weekly batches
- Mix it to make the dough
- Put the dough into the proofer and let it rise
- After 30 to 60 minutes, the dough is put onto a cutting tray and spread. A jar lid is to punch out a round circle of dough.
- Form the donut by stretching out the center with your thumbs – this is why the donuts are so unique
- The donut goes onto a tray and into the proofer for another five to ten minutes, where it rises a little bit more.
- The donut goes into the fryer and fries
- After approximately five minutes, the donut is placed on a cooling rack, where it sits for awhile.
- The donut goes into the glazer and gets glazed on both sides.
- The donut is placed onto a dripping rack, sits there, and drips off.
- Finally, the donut hangs on the “tree” and is ready to sell.
When The Donut Truck logo says homemade, you better believe it. Even the chocolate sauce that they glaze the donuts with is homemade – courtesy of Horst’s mom.
“A lot of other donut type stuff would be all done mechanically and come out on a conveyor belt and taken from there,” Horst said. “One thing about these donuts, there’s a lot of labor that goes into making it, but a great reward at the end.”