The sweet ingenuity of Batch 13’s signature item: the bonut

It’s a biscuit; it’s a donut—it’s Batch 13’s flagship item, the bonut.

As an offshoot biscuits-and-bowls concept of Copeland’s of New Orleans, Batch 13 needed that one special item to really launch its brand. Enter the bonut, a pillowy little delicacy that takes the biscuit dough of Copeland’s and Popeyes fame and transforms it into something new and uniquely addictive.

Chef Darryl Smith carefully developed the recipe in collaboration with the original developer of the Popeyes biscuit dough. He wanted to capture the biscuit’s unmistakable flavors while creating something all-new for the Batch 13 brand.

“The intricacy just to get the [bonut] right is a testament in itself of what we went through to develop it,” Smith says. “It’s a delicate product. The fold, the cut of butter, the temperature, every aspect of it plays into the chemistry of baking, so it’s not just a quick throw-together, simple thing.”

Smith says the response and excitement over Batch 13’s bonuts has been incredibly positive.

So far, this made-to-go-viral pastry comes in three standard varieties—powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar and glazed—and three filled varieties: a citrus-infused flavor with a tangy blueberry compote, a gooey cinnamon apple and a sweet and savory chocolate chipotle bacon. Smith has already started experimenting with additional flavors that will pop up as specials or seasonal features, including pumpkin spice, king cake and Nutella. eatbatch13.com

This article was originally published in the August 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.