We Tried Krispy Kreme's Santa's Bake Shop Collection. Grab These Seasonal Treats While You Can
It's the jolliest time of year, and what better way to get in the spirit than with a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts? This week, Krispy Kreme launched several festive flavors sure to bring the joy and magic of Christmas this season. The Santa's Bake Shop Collection features three new holiday doughnuts, two seasonal staples, and festive mini doughnuts. The collection offers the perfect mix of flavors, fillings, and icings.
We've had the pleasure of trying all the other seasonal specials since August, including but not limited to their Autumn's Orchard collection, Pumpkin Spice doughnuts, and Spook-Tacular doughnuts. We had high hopes that this holiday collection would deliver like the ones before, so we raced to our local Krispy Kreme to grab a dozen to try for ourselves.
This dozen brought all the holly, jolly, and sugary sweetness. We tried Krispy Kreme's Santa's Bake Shop Collection. Here's how it went.
What's in the Santa's Bake Shop Collection?
With Thanksgiving behind us, Krispy Kreme rolled out three new flavors and brought back two holiday offerings. The three new holiday doughnuts – Holiday Sugar Cookie doughnut, Red Velvet Cake doughnut, and Gingerbread Cookie Crumb doughnut accompany iconic favorites, the Chocolate Iced with Holiday Sprinkles doughnut and the Santa Belly doughnut, to create the Santa's Bake Shop collection.
The Sugar Cookie doughnut takes an original glazed to the next level with added sugar cookie-flavored icing with a festive sugar and sprinkle blend on top. To create the decadent Red Velvet Cake doughnut, Krispy Kreme takes a glazed red velvet cake doughnut and tops it with cream cheese icing and red velvet cake crumbles. It's unlike any of the other cake doughnuts.
The last new addition, the Gingerbread Cookie Crumb doughnut, is filled with gingerbread cream cheese flavored filling, coated with white icing, covered with gingerbread cookie crumbs and holiday cookie sprinkles, and topped off with a little gingerbread flavored-icing. It's more mouthwatering than any doughnut we've tried and is our favorite.
How much does the collection cost?
The holiday season can get expensive between gifts for family and friends, holiday parties, and more dinners out at restaurants. With so many dessert options to purchase this season, we suggest adding Santa's Bake Shop doughnuts to your list. They won't hurt your wallet like a fancy cake or seasonal dessert will, and they taste richer than we could have imagined.
So, how much does the collection cost? For perspective, we tried these doughnuts in Southern California; prices may differ in your area. We bought the dozen for $19.99, which prices each doughnut under $2. Not many other desserts can feed that many people for so little.
Suppose you're looking to spend less; check out the minis in this collection. Krispy Kreme also debuted their Mini Chocolate Iced and Mini Red Iced with Holiday Sprinkles doughnuts this week. The minis don't include elaborate holiday doughnuts, but you can still taste the holiday season.
How long and where will it be available?
Krispy Kreme rolls out holiday promotions at most retailers in the U.S. and Canada. Getting our hands on a dozen in past promotions has been a walk in the park, but this round took a few visits to our local Krispy Kreme to secure the coveted Santa's Bake Shop Collection. Our advice is to call your local store for confirmation before assuming they're carrying the promotion. The website highlights, "Some shops are experiencing delays receiving the recipes and ingredients from Mrs. Claus for our Santa's Bake Shop collection."
Consider yourself lucky to grab these four mouth-watering holiday doughnuts; we couldn't stop at just one. You have plenty of time to try these incredible flavors even if your local store still needs to gather all the necessary ingredients for these doughnuts. This promotion started after Thanksgiving and will run through Christmas Eve. This year, consider leaving some of Santa's Bake Shop Collection doughnuts out for Santa on the night before Christmas.
What's the nutritional information for each doughnut?
Being mindful of what we eat often takes a back seat during the holidays, but we deeply explored the Santa's Bake Shop Collection nutritional information to ensure you're adequately informed this holiday season. Here's what we found on each delicious doughnut.
Starting things off, our favorite Gingerbread Cookie Crumb doughnut has 350 calories, 24 grams of sugar, and 44 grams of carbohydrates. We expected nothing less from the most filling and decadent of the bunch. However, the Santa Belly doughnut came in slightly higher with 380 calories, 28 grams sugar, and 47 grams of carbohydrates. The Red Velvet Cake doughnut also offers 350 calories, 25 grams of sugar, and 42 grams of carbohydrates; well worth it for that delicious cream cheese topping.
The doughnuts sans filling contain fewer calories, sugar, and carbohydrates than their filled counterparts. The Holiday Sugar Cookie doughnut and Chocolate Iced with Holiday Sprinkles contain 260 calories. The Holiday Sugar Cookie doughnut has slightly higher sugar and carbohydrate values, but, in our opinion, it's worth it.
How do they compare to other doughnuts?
The typical Krispy Kreme doughnut and all its glory cannot compete with the incredible flavors displayed in the Santa's Bake Shop Collection. The toppings and fillings in this collection stood out to us compared to seasonal launches in the past. Maybe it's something in the air, but we couldn't get enough of the Gingerbread cookie flavor and the Red Velvet Cake doughnut with cream cheese frosting. Our biggest complaint lies in too few Red Velvet Cake doughnuts in the dozen.
While we love pumpkin spice, apple flavors, and fall scents, the Christmas treats left a lasting impression. We have many reasons to be merry during the holidays, but the new Santa's Bake Shop collection adds another reason to the list. Fill your dessert table with holiday cheer with this delicious dozen that includes three Holiday Sugar Cookie doughnuts, two Gingerbread Cookie Crumb doughnuts, three Santa Belly doughnuts, two Red Velvet Cake doughnuts, and two Chocolate Iced with Holiday Sprinkles doughnuts.
The verdict: we left no crumbs
Did Krispy Kreme's Santa's Bake Shop Collection meet our expectations? Without a doubt, yes.
We live for the seasonal doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, but something about this launch gave us an excitement no other dozen has in the past. The Gingerbread Cookie Crumb and Red Velvet Cake doughnuts blew us away and tasted better than other doughnuts we've tried in different seasons. It's not that we've disliked the other seasonal offerings, but after each bite, we felt ourselves saying "wow" with these doughnuts.
If you're looking for a new dessert to try this holiday season, don't sleep on the Santa's Bake Shop Collection. The Chocolate Iced with Holiday Sprinkles, Holiday Sugar Cookie, and Santa Belly doughnuts brought the flavor and completed this delicious dozen.
The verdict: We left no crumbs behind. After indulging in Krispy Kreme's Santa's Bake Shop Collection, we felt a strong pull to head back to our local shop.