By Jane Bokun
A new Amish donut store opened up in my neighborhood and since no one takes a chance on anything here, I went to check it out. I love donuts and even if they are made with love by a modern-day, life-eschewing cult, I’m still in.
As an Amish store, I wondered if there was electricity and if they had to make change by hand or wooden abacus. I wondered this because Amish history started with a church led by Jakob Ammann. One of the things that separated the Amish were their ways of living designed to avoid the distractions and temptations of the wider world.
I do have some history with the Amish once living in Elkhart, Indiana. Besides what I’m doing now, I consider it the worst time of my life. There were factories there which the Amish worked in and they would get out on the road in actual buggies at 7 a.m., not that they had an electric alarm clock. I visited the farm where they worked and lived and found instead of Serta beds, there were beds made of straw. If you’re thinking you don’t want to connect with the rest of the world, a bed of straw may make you mad enough to become an outcast who can’t cut your beard.
One of the things the Amish do have is a monopoly on good food with cream, butter and real sugar – and plenty of it. The reason they are not fat is because they have to churn the butter. The donuts inside the Rise n’ Roll Bakery in Schererville, In. are the creamiest, freshest tasting pastries I’ve tried. They are almost too decadent. For example, almost all of them have creamy fillings that are paired with fruit.
The Rise n’ Roll Bakery started in Middlebury, In. and has things like pies, cinnamon rolls, breads, cheeses, jams and more. It’s kind of a dichotomy between the extremely clean living of the Amish and their penchant for a meal that you need to do a major city marathon to get off. I’ve decided to cut my donut into slivers and eat them for a year – like a wedding cake.
