New Hobart eatery Lady Hester has the best doughnuts going around
Before I’d tasted one of Lady Hester’s lemon-curd filled delicacies I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about ... now I’m a huge fan, writes a suitably impressed Amanda Vallis.
Taste Tasmania
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The first time I tasted a Lady Hester doughnut was the moment in time when I went from being “not a doughnut person” to a total convert.
It was a few years back and some friends dropped around with a box following a visit to Farm Gate Market.
Up until that point I had associated the word doughnut with the kind produced by large American-owned fast food chains and, based on my limited sampling, had concluded that they were just a glorified deep-fried lump of dough with a hole in the middle.
It was Lady Hester’s lemon-curd filled version that finally made me realise what all the fuss was all about.
Visit Farm Gate Market any Sunday and you can’t miss the queue of people lining up to get their weekly doughnut fix from owners (and sisters) Loren and Erin Clarke.
A far cry from the sickly sweet, hole in the middle fast food take on this much-loved sweet treat, Lady Hester doughnuts are round and softball-sized with a caramel coloured crust and a subtly sweet, slightly chewy sourdough crumb.
They are rolled in sugar which adds a pleasing texture and injected with one of Loren and Erin’s many decadently flavoured Persian inspired fillings that include the preserved lemon curd that I tasted on that fateful day along with dark chocolate and coconut, salted bay caramel custard with almond and raspberry rose jam to name a few.
Prior to being popularised in America following the invention of the automated doughnut machine in 1920, doughnuts have a long history and are thought to have originated in the Middle East as dough balls that were deep fried and covered in a sweet syrup.
The recipe made its way to Europe in the 1400s and became popular throughout Germany, England and the Netherlands before being introduced to America via Dutch settlers.
Lady Hester is named after an English aristocrat who was one of the first females to travel through the Middle East.
Loren and Erin chose the name for their business as they felt it represented their love of Middle Eastern flavours together with the traditional British sweets they grew up baking with their mother and grandmother.
Until recently, Lady Hester doughnuts were only available on Fridays in selected cafes around Hobart and on Sundays at Farm Gate Market but to keep up with demand and expand their offering, Loren and Erin have recently opened their own shop in Battery Point.
Along with their signature doughnuts, there is also an array of cakes, biscuits and paninis. Fittingly, we decide to visit with those same friends who gifted us our first Lady Hester doughnuts a few years back and who remain devoted customers to this day.
It’s a “grab and go” style set-up with a glass cabinet showcasing Loren and Erin’s daily creations.
“We are particularly excited about baking our own bread,” says Loren.
“A huge part of our ethos is trying to make as much as we possibly can from scratch so Erin has spent the past few months playing around with a few different recipes before we finally landed on our ciabatta.”
Filling options include Cygnet ham with aged cheddar and piccalilli (made by Urban Bounty) or Buffalo mozzarella with roasted fennel and olive tapenade (both $9) and we go for one of each. We also order a Baklava cinnamon scroll ($6.50), four varieties of doughnuts (flavours change weekly) along with a “Lemington” ($6) upon recommendation from Erin that proves to be a revelation!
As the name suggests, it’s a lemony version of a lamington with vanilla sponge sandwiched around lemon curd and raspberry jam and rolled in coconut.
The fresh ciabatta bread used for the paninis has a lovely slight crispness on the outside with pleasing chewiness on the inside.
I am struck by how generous the filling is too – large hunks of buffalo mozzarella and lashings of olive tapenade. The cinnamon scroll is equally addictive with burnt honey syrup and a slathering of cream cheese icing.
While we’re there I also pick up a slice of gluten free chocolate quinoa cake with Turkish coffee ganache ($7.50) along with a slice of carrot and pistachio cake with cream cheese icing ($7.50) to deliver to a friend who is in isolation after returning from interstate.
Erin carefully arranges each slice in a beautiful compostable Lady Hester Box making this little gift feel extra special while also ensuring that each slice will remain in perfect condition until my friend receives it.
While there’s no coffee machine or hot drinks available, there is a selection of cold drinks including a cold-pressed watermelon, apple, lemon, raspberry, mint and vitamin C juice by Tasmanian Juice Press designed especially for Lady Hester.
Walking distance from the waterfront and Arthur Circus, this is the perfect spot to pick up a picnic lunch and a few special treats.
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