peterson’s donut corner / escondido, ca

I’ve had numerous people tell me about Peterson’s Donut Corner up in Escondido, CA. I knew they had giant donuts, they were really, good, and all that jazz. But Escondido was kinda far…

Around Christmas last year Jake and I made a special trip up to Escondido just to score some donuts. But that mission was a FAIL when we saw that they were closed for two weeks for a Christmas break. Just my luck, to try and visit a normally 24 hour operation during the two weeks of the year they were actually closed. Oy.

petersons-donut-corner-escondido

Fast forward to this summer a couple of weeks ago after our scary freakin river tubing adventure. I felt that I needed some kind of reward for being brave enough to get into the river, even though I freaked out and had to get out the river ASAP and walked the rest of the way. I convinced Jake we needed to stop here, and since it was technically on the way home, we stopped in.

petersons-donut-menu

Peterson’s is one of those “cash only” places so we ended up only getting a few donuts since I didn’t have cash that day (Jake saves the day and trip). Above, a peek at their menu and prices. A regular cake donut will run you .95 cents, but it’s bigger than the donuts you’d get at other places! It’s like two donuts in one.

hand-seating

They have these amusing hand chairs on their patio.


donuts-in-the-window

Here’s a little peek in their windows. Don’t mind the glare.

donuts-in-the-window-nuts-maple

Damn, you can’t even see the middle where the hole is since that thing is totally covered in frosting, yo.

donut-twists

Giant twist donuts. Probably as long as my whole head.

giant-donuts

Here are the three donuts we got. Notice that there’s only three donuts in this big old box… and yet, there’s not a lot of room left in that box…

cream-filled-maple-bar

Let’s close in on the maple bar. This is actually a vanilla “kreme” filled bar with like, an inch of maple frosting on top.

We shared this single donut between four people (plus one bite with my mom). This thing was HUGE. The cream filling was delicious – fairly akin to a pastry cream. The maple frosting on top tasted like a buttercream, maple flavored frosting. It was thick layered on top, frosted like you would a cake. The frosting wasn’t overly sweet and had a nice light maple flavor. The donut itself was fluffy and airy – just really good all around.

whipped-cream-french-crueller

I didn’t see any other French Crullers in the window. This one was actually off in a side window and I happened to spot it when looking at all their donuts. I’ve never had a cruller with whipped cream in the middle and on top. The whipped cream was very fresh and just another bit of airiness to the donut. This donut tasted a little bit on the stale side, but it was still good. While the whipped cream was good, I didn’t think it really added that much.

huge-maple-buttermilk-bar

The last donut we got was Jake-requested. It’s a maple covered buttermilk bar! I know, it just kind of looks like a blob of … something here in this photo. I should have taken an “inside” photo to show how large this sucker was.

This one turned out to be our least favorite because the buttermilk bar was pretty dense and dry in the middle. The thing I like about buttermilk bars is that they have all these crunchy bits (on the original glazed, at least) and you can break them off. The glaze soaks in and keeps the bar moist. This one is so big that the frosting really only covers the top, while the rest of it turns into this dry, boring, unglazed part of the donuts. The maple here is a glaze instead of a frosting since it’s hardened and covers up the whole donut. It’s a sight to behold a donut this large, but sadly the flavor wasn’t there for this one.

I’d like to try some of their regular cake donuts in the future – and maybe grab one of those twist donuts! And of course, more cream kreme filled bars are certainly in order.

Peterson’s Donut Corner
903 S Escondido Blvd
Escondido, CA 92025
(760) 745-7774

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10 thoughts on “peterson’s donut corner / escondido, ca

  1. I’m impressed. I’ve recently began to love cruellers but I’ve noticed they have a tendency to go stale really fast; they don’t hold up for very long. But bravo they filled it with cream.

    1. Hi Darlene – Yeah, that is the downside to crullers. They go stale so fast! The cream helped a little with the staleness so I still liked it, but I think I prefer them without the extra whipped cream. Cathy and CC told me that you can get freshly made, hot crullers at 8PM on Saturday at Mary’s Donuts in Santee. I’m going to have to make a pilgrimage for that! 🙂

  2. French crullers are my favorite donut, but they’re hard to find and when you do find them they’re often stale. I didn’t know fresh crullers make an appearance at Mary’s on Saturday night! That’s worth a visit.

    I like the cake donuts at Peterson’s and I like that they make their own frostings (even if I’m not a fan of orange and strawberry frostings). Right now, one of my favorites to get is their raised crumb donut – it has this weird middle layer of cinnamon and icing in it. Almost like a cinnamon roll donut with a crumb coating. It’s not great the next day, but eaten fresh is really good. The apple fritters are good, too – not too greasy, and also humongous.

    1. Hi Leanne – Yes, I keep meaning to do the Mary’s thing on Saturday but haven’t gotten a chance to do it yet. Hmmm, maybe this weekend…. 🙂

      I didn’t see a crumb donut when we visited… I definitely want to go back for that – that sounds awesome! I wish they had like a donut scheduled printed out. hehe

  3. yay! you went to Peterson’s! Man, those are some BIG-@$$ donuts! Effing huge, I say! I’m curious to try that cruller with the whipped cream. You’re right – they’re only good fresh, otherwise, it’s Stale City the next day. Nice write up, which I will consider a preview for my eventual visit in the future.

    1. They are seriously HUGE. I can’t tell if you can really tell the scale from my photos. I took a photo of my hand next to it, but the photo looked craptastic so I didn’t use it. I hope they have the ones with whipped cream when you visit! I just looked at their Facebook page the other day and it looked like they were doing more experiments with donuts (like the bars) + whipped cream.

  4. I forgot to mention – this is Cathy’s “local” donut shop and it was she gave the tip of 8 pm being the magical hour. We timed our visit purposely so we could try the crullers fresh.

  5. By the way, cc and I were there at exactly 8 p.m. on a Friday…I think the crullers come out at 8 p.m. every day of the week…if you get there at 9, they will still be warm and actually on display in the glass counter. (we were kind of like pressuring the guy to put frosting on some hot from the oil crullers for us…)

    Petersons makes killer blueberry items.

    1. Hi Cathy – I think I once went to Mary’s on a Wednesday evening and there were no crullers in sight 🙁 Thanks for the tips! I plan on making a return trip to Peterson’s soon to try some of those cake donuts and the cinnamon thing Leanne mentioned.

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