Shortstop Coffee & Donuts, Barangaroo, Sydney

I fricken love donuts. I mean, I didn’t get a donut tattoo for nothing 😛 Oh and then there was that time where I planned a trip to eat all of Melbourne’s best donuts in the space of 9 hours and pretty much went into a sugar coma but it was so worth it because I got to try the famous Shortstop Coffee & Donuts and oh wow this is a really long sentence but anywhos GUESS WHO HAS OPENED IN SYDNEY?!

That’s right, Shortstop Coffee & Donuts has set up shop in Barangaroo, just around the corner from Belle’s and the donuts are just as amazing as they were in Melbourne! The shop has a bit more seating than the Melb store plus you can always get takeaway and walk to the Reserve and eat by the water. The donut offerings for the day are displayed at the front and are between the $4-$5 range and will rotate in flavours each month.

Let’s start with my favourite donut: the Maple Walnut & Brown Butter raised donut ($5). The donut is so pillowy soft and fluffy but oh man do you know how amazing brown butter is?? Now imagine it in the form of icing! And studded with crushed maple roasted walnuts! Argh so good! It’s not too rich or oily and I’m pretty sure I could eat 3 in one sitting. This donut is not for sharing 😛

I’m not the biggest matcha lover in all the lands so this Triple Matcha cake donut ($5) was perfect for me as it wasn’t too bitter but I can see why other people would want a stronger matcha flavour. The donut had a fair amount of matcha and the icing was a white chocolate and matcha glaze that was a touch sweet but still pretty delicious.

Next in the cake donut range is the Red Velvet cake donut ($4.50), the deep red colour comes from the use of beetroot juice. It’s a tasty donut but I did wish there was less of the dark chocolate glaze and more of the cream cheese icing as it did overpower the flavour and I love me some cream cheese icing on a red velvet! The donut itself was great though, rich and moist and good for that chocolately fix.

The Earl Grey & Rose cake donut ($4.50) is my fave of the cake donuts, and quite possibly my second favourite out of all the donuts at Shortstop! The donut itself is slightly denser compared to the raised donuts but still pretty fluffy. The rose water with rose petal icing is the perfect amount of sweetness and considering I absolutely HATE earl grey AND rose, it’s surprising that I really like this donut haha 😛 There’s a touch of lemon myrtle and the earl grey flavour isn’t too overpowering against the light fragrance of the rose. I dunno, I feel like this donut is just so perfectly balanced compared to other donuts out there which are just overloaded with sugar.

Moving onto the filled donuts, the Boston Cream filled donut ($5) is a glorious flashback to childhood years of grabbing a custard filled chocolate iced donut at the school canteen for lunch instead of um proper food (haha HI MUM!) Short Stop’s version is decidedly more adult with a filling of vanilla crème pâtissière using Heilala Vanilla and topped with an incredibly smooth 85% Callebaut dark chocolate icing.

The Rhubarb Vanilla Brûlée filled donut ($5) is incredible, the Brûlée caramel layer is impressively crisp and the donut is filled with a creamy vanilla filling with tender rhubarb. I liked that the filling wasn’t too sugary because the brûlée layer more than made up for it in sweetness.

I loooved the Apple Pie filled donut ($5)! The sticky caramel sauce had the perfect buttery balance and had me grinning in glee. The filling is an apple compote and vanilla bean cream and topped with a spiced crumble that had me thinking about Christmas and how everything smells like cinnamon and oh boy can you believe we’re already at the end of April???

And lastly onto the crullers! The New Orleans Iced Coffee cruller ($4) is a wonder, crisp on the outside and super light and airy on the inside. The flavour is pretty damn amazing with a rich coffee flavour that is intense and oh so satisfying.

The Australian Honey & Sea Salt cruller ($4) is obviously one for the sweet & salty lovers with a glaze made of local honey and organic milk, and then sprinkled with fine flakes of sea salt. The salt on this cruller was the perfect end to my donut consumption!

Shortstop Coffee & Donuts is pretty fricken amazing. The donuts are made fresh each day in small batches to ensure optimum donut tastiness and I foresee the majority of my next paycheck going towards my increasing consumption of donuts 😛

Shortstop Coffee & Donuts
Shop 3, 23 Barangaroo Avenue,
Barangaroo
Sydney

Trading Hours:
Mon – Fri: 7:30 am – 4:30pm
Sat – Sun: 9:30am – 3:30pm