Autumn Up North - A Collaboration with Up North Distillery

Autumn Up North

LANTERN DONUTS x UP NORTH DISTILLERY SIGNATURE DONUT

VANILLA BEAN CAKE DONUT
Autumn Spice Sugar Coated • Aged Brandy and Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream • House-Made Bordeaux Apple-Brandied Cherries • Smoked Orange Peel Essence • Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy Icing Drizzle • Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy Dehydrated Apple Slice

This donut is the result of a special collaboration between Lantern Donuts and Up North Distillery. Up North Distillery is a farm to flask distillery based in Post Falls, Idaho that uses locally sourced honey, grains, and fruits to create unique craft spirits and flavors that showcase the unique terroir of Northern Idaho.

For this special signature creation, Up North asked us to create an elevated donut that featured their Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy, that they could pair with their seasonal Fireside Old Fashioned cocktail, that uses a house-made autumn spice syrup, Up North Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy, and bitters. All served in a smoked glass and garnished with an orange peel and a Bordeaux cherry.

We wanted to make sure our donut could be enjoyed with their delicious cocktail without either the drink or the donut overpowering each other. It had to be complementary, not competitive. 

So our chef took that initial concept and created a vanilla bean cake donut, coated it in a special spice mixture that he made to match some of the flavors in the Autumn cocktail syrup, including brown sugar, raw sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, anise, and cardamom. This forms an absolutely delicious donut that we drizzle with a glaze made from Up North’s Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy for a delicious flavor punch.

But of course, we couldn’t stop there. We fill the center of the donut with a small serving of barrel-aged brandy and vanilla bean whipped cream. Then we leaned into the old fashioned cocktail garnish as inspiration, and brought color to the donut in two ways. First, with some Lantern house-made bordeaux cherries that are cooked in a heavy sugar syrup made from a base of Up North’s un-aged apple brandy for a rich dark cherry color, as well as an orange peel essence for a bright spot of color. To create this delicious orange essence our chef boils orange peels three times to make them tender, smokes them, cooks them in a simple syrup, and then blends it until smooth with a little olive oil. That’s then piped onto the donut between the cherries. Finally, this incredible donut is topped with a thin, dehydrated apple slice, that’s been created by poaching the apples in a simple syrup made with Up North’s Barrel-Aged Brandy, and then dehydrated overnight.

There’s a lot of love that goes into this donut, and we’re very excited to be releasing this and making it available for the first two weeks of November!