History

Pip's Original Doughnuts and Chai opened at NE Fremont and 47th in Portland in 2012, with Nate and Jamie Snell pairing cake doughnuts to house-made chai. The pairing is the point: tiny cake doughnuts (raw honey and sea salt, dirty doughnut with cinnamon and Nutella) come basketed and hot, served alongside a four-glass chai flight. Cardamom and lavender are the marquee pours. Pip's pulled off the rare Portland trick of inventing a category. Other shops now run chai flights but Pip's still defines the form.

Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4 (16 mini doughnuts)Hands-on 30 minTotal 1 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 200g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 120ml whole milk
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 30g unsalted butter, melted
  • Neutral oil for frying, 1L
  • 100g caster sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cardamom (for coating)

Method

  1. Whisk flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt in a bowl.
  2. Beat egg, milk, sugar and melted butter in a second bowl.
  3. Fold wet into dry; stop as soon as the batter is even. Rest 10 minutes.
  4. Heat oil to 175C. Drop tablespoon-sized scoops of batter into the oil; fry 90 seconds per side until deep gold.
  5. Drain briefly, then roll in the cardamom sugar while still warm.
  6. Serve in small bowls with hot chai brewed strong enough to stand a spoon in.

Tip from the editors. Mini doughnuts cook through in three minutes. Test one before scaling up the batch; if the centre is doughy, lower the oil.

This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.

Where to eat cardamom-chai doughnut flight

Cardamom-Chai Doughnut Flight in Portland

Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai ★ 4.7

alberta-artsDaily 07:00-21:00Walk-in onlyMini cake doughnuts and chai flights

Nate and Jamie Snell's mini-doughnut counter on NE Fremont in Portland, with house-made chai flights paired to small batches of cake doughnuts since 2012.

Tip: The chai flight (cardamom, dirty, vanilla, lavender) is the order. Doughnuts come hot, six to a basket.

Worth the queue: Raw honey and sea salt doughnut

4759 NE Fremont St, Ste C, Portland, OR 97213

More cities are in research. Want cardamom-chai doughnut flight covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.

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