Joliet's Best Sweet Treats

This week I decided to tackle some sweet treats within the Joliet area. I gave myself the challenge of visiting nearly every bakery, coffee shop, and candy store I could without breaking the bank or spending all day on this endeavor.

Behold my list of "sweet shops":

Dewitt’s Gourmet Cookies

Book and Bean Cafe

Dan’s Candies

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Cookie Jar Bakery

Homecut Donuts

Giji’s Sweet Shop

There were a few honorable mentions that didn’t make the cut though. Jitters, although normally stocked with sweet treats ran out of muffins and cookies by the time I got there at 4pm. The Drunken Donut, which is only referred to as “The Drunken Donut” by locals and the online Facebook community, is actually just the Joliet Bakery and Liquor-- although I can infer where the name comes from. Going into the store, no lights were on, the entire place was empty, the only baked goods in sight were loaves of bread, and to top of off, they only accepted cash, so for many reasons I was not able to obtain any baked good from here.

First up was Cookie Jar Bakery. Located off of Route 52 in Shorewood, this little bakery offers some classy homemade treats. Without appearing over the top, this places has some elegant desserts at a fair price. For under $5 I walked away with a pumpkin truffle and a snickerdoodle cookie sandwich.

Up next, I traveled a little down the road to the Nothing Bundt Cakes in Shorewood.

Nothing Bundt Cakes is known for selling exclusively bundt cakes in various sizes from a regular bundt to "mini-bundts' to "bundtlets". I went with a confetti mini-bundt topped with their one of a kind cream cheese frosting. This mini-bunt also cost me just under $5.

Time to travel back over to Joliet to Book and Bean Cafe. For those of you who have never heard of this place, it's probably because if it's untraditional location within the Joliet Public Library off of Black Road. I loved the fact that I could grab a cup of tea and a snack while I'm indulging in a new book at the library, the concept is genius! Book and Bean had quite a few tasty treats, and after driving around I was starting to get thirsty so I may have overindulged on this visit. I got a small iced mango peach tea, a slice of "hummingbird cake", a fudge brownie, and two gluten-free almond flour cookies all at the cost of $9.

Next up was Dan's Candy Shop off of Route 30 in Joliet. Although it looks like it's a vacant building from the outside, they are still up and running selling some local classics such as... G-shaft...? Yes, G-shaft. I had no clue what this was but flyers announcing its presence were hung just about every five feet around this candy shop. So naturally, I had to purchase a bag. along with this I also got orange and raspberry filled chocolates, along with champagne and Irish creme truffles. For the amount of candy, I got this total was the highest so far, ringing up at just over $11 dollars.

Later in the day, I stopped by Dewitt's Gourmet Cookie Shop off of Cass Street in Downtown Joliet. For $3 I got six mini cookies, one of each flavor. Nicknamed, "De-wittles", these mini cookies are freshly baked every day to perfection.

Rounding the corner to Chicago street, I stopped by Giji's Sweet Shop. Although Giji's doesn't sell many homemade candies, I opted instead to get a bag of Swedish fish and a rock candy stick coming out to $6. This change of pace in sweets was much needed considering the number of cookies and cake I was about to consume.

Lastly, I stopped by Homecut Donuts off of Jefferson Street to finish up my "tour de sweets."I decided to visit Homecut at the prime time of 3 a.m. Why you might ask? Around 2 a.m. - 3 a.m. is when they begin to bake their newest batch of donuts for the day, giving you a fresh hot donut perfect for late night studying. I chose to get an angel creme donut and a cherry cake donut at the cheap price of $2.

Alright now let's get into the overall review of the food:

1) Cookie Jar Bakery

Pumpkin Truffle: To start, I forgot how huge this truffle was. Larger than a golf ball, this truffle was truly a mouthful. AND I LOVED IT. It was rich and creamy, like a cake ball truffle should be, and because the cake was not overly sweet, the white chocolate coating was the perfect addition. One thing I think would make it better would have been the addition of a cheesecake frosting instead of a plain vanilla buttercream. Pumpkin desserts pair amazingly with cream cheese frosting and I wished that would have been used to this desserts advantage.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Sandwich: This cookie was also super-sized just like the last, a common theme I began to notice from Cookie Jar's baked goods. I love snickerdoodle cookies and this sandwich was a home run. The only thing that I didn't like was how hard the cookies were. Trying to bite into the hard sandwich squished all the frosting out from between the cookies and made it hard to eat it.

2) Nothing Bundt Cakes

Confetti Mini-Bundt: The bundt was great, although really filling and sweet, it was the perfect portion to leave me satisfied. These cakes are always perfectly moist and daintily adorned with frosting.

3) Book and Bean Cafe

Iced Mango Peach Tea: Normally when I go to get tea I am always worried that it won't be sweetened and I'll be left drinking warm leaf water, yuck. Boy, was I surprised when I took that first sip, it was so overly sweetened I couldn't even finish it. I was genuinely let down because I was thirsty and looking forward to actually drinking something. Instead, this tea went straight down the drain.

Hummingbird Cake: As the label read, this cake was filled with pineapple, apples, walnuts, and almonds. Interesting... Well, I learned really fast that fruit cakes are not my thing, regardless of how much frosting you pour on top of it. I was a bit let down since the cake looked so moist and delicious but it just didn't work for me

Almond Flour Cookies: I don't even want to talk about it. It tasted like I was eating chalk and salt. They were so dry, not at all sweet and way overly salted. I blame this poor quality of this recipe on the lack of gluten.

Fudge Brownie: At first this brownie tasted box-made but after a few bites I began to taste the rich chocolate fudge within in. It was the perfect chewy texture, I honestly wish I'd have gotten three of these in lieu of the cookies and cake. By far the best thing I had eaten yet.

4) Dan's Candies

Orange Chocolates: The filling had the texture of taffy. Never again. 0/10

Raspberry Chocolates: Even worse than the first because it tasted like cough syrup and taffy. -1/10.

Irish Creme Truffle: I guess I should have expected the truffle to be filled with milk chocolate, but in my head, I imagined at least white chocolate to better compliment the creme aspect of it? It was actually pretty good but I couldn't see myself eating more than two or three.

Champagne Truffle: Yet again I was expecting milk chocolate or vanilla inside, sadly I was disappointed again. I have to give them props though, it really did taste like champagne and not in an overwhelming way either. It was a very delicate flavor that only lingered in your mouth for a short while. This one was the best by far.

G-Shaft: First off, no, this is not meant to be some weird innuendo. It actually refers to a mining shaft, and not... well you know. It originated in Braidwood IL as a candy made by coal miner's wife. It looks entirely inedible and I'm not exactly sure what it's flavored with but it tastes like a sugary mint. But the thing is that it doesn't actually taste like mint, it just leaves your mouth feeling minty but mainly just tastes like sugar.

5) Dewitt's Gourmet Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie: This normally isn't my favorite type of cookie but it was still good. Nice and soft and the perfect size.

Butter Cookie: Although I normally love butter cookies this one was a bit bland upon the first bite. It grew on me the more that I ate it but it still wasn't my favorite. This cookie also was very very thin, it lacked the fullness of a regular cookie, most likely because of all the butter.

Chocolate Walnut Cookie: Actually, this one was better than the chocolate chip to me. I liked the added texture with the walnuts and it was also nice and soft.

Peanut Butter Cookie: I don't like peanut butter cookies so I don't know why I even bothered eating this one. It wasn't that great but the chopped peanuts made it stand out so I guess that helped make it kinda better?

Oatmeal Cookie: Honestly I expected more, I love soft oatmeal cookies and will all the other cookies being soft this one disappointed me with how hard it was.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie: Although I don't normally love these types of cookies this was by far my favorite. I put this one in the microwave for about 8 seconds and it made all the difference!

6) Giji's Sweet Shop

Swedish Fish and Rock Candy Stick: I don't think there is much to rank here, I enjoyed eating the candy though!

7) Homecut Donuts

Cherry Cake Donut: These are one of my favorite donuts here. It's rich and sweet and doesn't give off an overly artificial fruit taste. Although I couldn't eat a whole box I still love them!

Angel Creme Donut: Now let's talk about the real winner today. The angel creme donuts. These have and always will be my favorite donuts ever. The perfect light and chewy donut and then that incredible whipped filled. YUM. And the creme filling isn't like whipped cream, its light yet still rich at the same time. Like a marshmallow fluff and whipped cream hybrid. the best part is when the filling makes the inside of the donut just a little bit gooier as you bite into it. WOW.