You can try over 40 different doughnuts at this U.P. bakery – mlive.com

How does a bakery located in what many would consider a small town sell upward of 3,000 doughnuts on a busy day? If you are Huron Mountain Bakery in Marquette, you make 42 different flavors for people to choose from.

Marquette has about 23,000 residents, which makes it the largest town in the Upper Peninsula, and yet it still is considered a small town. Locally-owned Huron Mountain Bakery has baked their way to being one of the top bakeries in the country by sheer volume alone. The shop makes everything from bread to pie, cookies to pastries, and wedding cakes to doughnuts.

We stopped by to try their doughnuts during our search for Michigans Best Doughnut, and were amazed when we were told that they make so many different kinds, every single day. And while they make a pretty incredible variety of flavors, they keep all of them pretty traditional. You wont find any bacon on top of your long john here, or matcha tea in your icing. Joe Heck, head cake baker and decorator, explained that We stay with the good classics. If it aint broke, dont fry it.

Huron Mountain offers all kinds of doughnuts, including raspberry jelly filled.

While we didnt try all 40 varieties during our stay, we did try quite a few.

Classic sour cream cake is Hecks favorite, and it didnt disappoint. Simple, yes, but fried perfectly to create a lovely crispy edge, while maintaining a tender interior. Heck explained that the moisture in the sour cream causes the doughnut to split a bit when fried, creating even more crispy edges. It doesnt have any bells and whistles, he said. And that is perfectly just fine with us. Huron Mountain typically offers several flavors of the cake-style doughnuts, from traditional vanilla and chocolate, to seasonal offerings like pumpkin, which will be starting soon.

Raised doughnuts here have a lightness and depth of flavor that you just dont normally find. Thats because these get time to rest according to Heck, a rest that is much longer than most bakeries allow. These were like lovely clouds, from the jammy raspberry filled one to the signature angel doughnuts, that come filled with a light angel cream" which is kind of like a whipped buttercream, and comes in both vanilla and chocolate.

The apple fritter comes out extra caramelized from the fryer, with loads of crunch chunks, offset by the sweet apple filling. Cooking this one just a bit longer than most, its the right call to really develop that flavor.

Our list of doughnut varieties could go on and on. Just trust us, there really is a flavor for everyone at Huron Mountain Bakery.

Huron Mountain Bakery employees Drake Scheidt and head cake creator Joe Heck, show how to make apple fritters at the busy bakery's location in Marquette.

Owner John Scheidt is a true entrepreneur, who just fell in love with baking when he was in college and worked at a local supermarket baking bread. When he and his wife, Darcy, decided that it was time to open his own place, they came up to Marquette for the weekend and promptly fell in love with the town.

Since he opened Huron Mountain in 1996, hes added another location in nearby Ishpeming, and also took over long-time Marquette bakery BabyCakes, where you can enjoy beautiful, French-inspired desserts. Scheidt also partnered with long time local baker Heck in 2016, and now Joes Cakes are sold at Huron Mountain. You can see Heck above, as he showed us the doughnut-making process at Huron Mountain. Next to him rolling out apple fritters is Scheidts son, Drake, who now works at the bakery full time.

We named Huron Mountain Bakery one of our top spots during our search for Michigans Best Bakery.

A chocolate covered Long John from Huron Mountain Bakery in Marquette.

Heck shared his personal "Doughnut Buyers Guide with us. He uses this system to predict what doughnuts a patron will order when they come in. The most obvious observation is that anyone middle school and younger will inevitably order the doughnut with sprinkles, the more the better, and with no care to the actual flavor of the doughnut under its sugar crown. If you are older than 70, youll most likely indulge in a maple iced, coconut, or lemon filled. Huron Mountain opens early every morning at 5 a.m., so its not unheard to have someone coming in who may be a bit hungover, or still enjoying the rhythm of the night. Hecks theory on these guests is to get them any doughnut, as quick as possible, and then get them out.

Huron Mountain is a busy spot every day, but on doughnut holidays things almost come off the rails. On National Doughnut Day (first Friday in June) and National Donut Day (November 5), the bakery will do triple the regular number of doughnuts that they typically do. On Paczki Day, the bakery is filled with a forest of racks, filled with those famous Polish fat balls. Theyll fry upward of 16,000 paczki that day. Its out of control. Its the busiest day of the year by far, Schiedt said.

No matter what day of the year you stop by Huron Mountain, you are assured a high-quality and delicious doughnut. You are also assured an incredible variety of flavor choices, what might just be the most in the entire U.P.

A jelly filled doughnut from Huron Mountain in Marquette.

Huron Mountain Bakery

1301 S. Front St.

Marquette, MI 49855

906-225-1301

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US 41 West

Ishpeming, MI 49849

906-485-6848

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A classic sour cream cake doughnut at Huron Mountain Bakery in Marquette.

More Michigans Best Doughnut coverage:

See our first 11 finalists in the search for Michigans Best Doughnut

We tried doughnuts at three popular chains, see who came out on top

You can check out all of our nominees here.

And read some of the most passionate pleas from our readers here.

Special thanks to Michigans Best Doughnut search sponsor, the Michigan Sugar Company, makers of Pioneer Sugar.

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You can try over 40 different doughnuts at this U.P. bakery - mlive.com