Best in Dough 

• Alex Springer

I like sweets and desserts as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "dessert person." That said, the past few weeks have really found me indulging my sweet tooth.

I was scratching my head about this phenomenon until I saw that the Sugar High Dessert Festival (sugarhighevents.com) is back with their second annual event this weekend. I attended the inaugural Sugar High last year with my daughter, and we ate so much candy, doughnuts, cookies, popcorn, hand pies and cake that we just threw the car in neutral and towed it back home ourselves.

The event clearly impacted my annual circadian rhythms to satiate an inhuman number of sweet treats, so here we are. This particular strain of saccharine fever has only been kept at bay by doughnuts, and plenty of them. This craving led me to a few doughnut innovators that have helped me recapture my appreciation of this near-perfect treat, and God bless them every one.

Though mochi doughnuts have been around for the last 20 years or so, we've only recently seen these Hawaiian sweets make their way to the Wasatch Front. These tasty treats are easily identifiable by their wavy ring, which is made from eight dough balls that get fried together. Currently, the best places to snag some of these are Momi Donuts (158 S. Rio Grande Street, Ste. B, 801-508-4615, momidonuts.com) and Mochinut (2142 S. Highland Drive, 385-300-8360, mochinututah.com).

Mochi doughnuts' main difference from raised and cake doughnuts comes from the use of the chewy mochigome, a glutinous Japanese rice cake, in its dough. The blend results in an extremely light texture that brings a toothsome chew to each bite. The flavors are usually imparted by a glaze or topping; I'm sure there are mochi doughnuts with flavored dough out there somewhere, but for the most part you see them iced, frosted or otherwise slathered in some sugary goodness. Both Momi and Mochinut are primo examples of this vibrant dessert, and I just might like them better than the traditional doughnuts I grew up with—but I am still processing this bombshell of a realization, so don't quote me on that just yet.

At Momi Donuts, the strawberry glazed doughnut ($2.75) is my current favorite. It matches that lovely texture with a strawberry flavor that subtly complements the doughnut itself. This is such an airy and effortless morsel of sweetness and I appreciate the fact that I can eat three or four at a time without experiencing the food lag that I get from more traditional doughnuts.

I did make the mistake of thinking the Butterfinger mochi doughnut ($9 for three doughnuts) at Mochinut would be the same experience. While the mochi doughnut itself remains its light and fluffy self, the richness of the chocolate frosting and Butterfinger bits was enough to force me to throw in the towel after just one. So, the moral of the story is that all mochi doughnuts are not created equal.

Heading back down to my stomping grounds of South Jordan, a new spot called Hello Sugar (11429 District Main Drive, Ste. 100, 385-406-6626, hellosugardonuts.com) has been making waves among doughnut enthusiasts. This Washington-based business recently expanded to Utah, whose love of ice cream, mixed sodas and cuteness is well-matched to the Hello Sugar concept.

Hello Sugar has opted for traditional doughnuts but smaller, which may not seem like that revolutionary of an idea, but just hear me out. Where we, as a society, have bet all our chips on the bigger-is-better model, there is something to be said about the appeal of bite-sized doughnuts.

At Hello Sugar, you can get a box of doughnuts called the Carousel ($13) that gets you one sample of each flavor on the menu—around 16 doughnuts total. For me, this is ideal—I'm a busy guy, so giving me one bite of 16 different flavors just seems more efficient than trying to eat 16 regular-sized doughnuts. You get it, right?

Flavor-wise, there's not a bad doughnut on the menu, though the Starburst is my current fave—just a regular ol' doughnut topped with a colorful swirl of sherbet-flavored icing. It's a lovely pop of flavor, and perfectly embodies the Hello Sugar concept. In addition to serving adorable little doughnuts sprinkled liberally with edible glitter, Hello Sugar also serves ice cream and blended soft drinks, each of which get topped with a small stack of their signature doughnuts.

While I am not looking forward to the moment when all this sugar consumption causes me to crash and burn—I have been riding pretty high for the past four weeks—it's been a really good month for sweets overall. I figure once my daughter and I hit up the Sugar High event this weekend, I'll be ready to push pause on this debauched month of sugary indulgences. For at least a week or so.