Uffa Donuts offers plenty of picks, ranging from cake donuts and specialty flavors to fritters and cronunts. Photos: Chris Emeott
Maple Grove’s newest donut shop serves up fresh creations daily.
A neon sign on the wall greets visitors to Maple Grove’s newest donut shop, announcing, “Uffda Donuts Make Me Happy,” and it’s admittedly hard not to smile at the cases of pillowy goodness in a rainbow of colors and flavors.
Uffda Donuts opened last October, east of the Weaver Lake Road/I-94 exit. The bakery is located right next to Great Harvest Bread Co., which is convenient for the Sengs who have also owned that business for the past six years.
But one of the items not on the Great Harvest Bread Co. menu is donuts. The Sengs noticed a lack of donut shops in Maple Grove and thought they could help fill a need.
Operating Great Harvest Bread Co. gave the Sengs the confidence to add a donut shop to their portfolio. “We love to be baking and making,” Mary Seng says. “We’re good at it.”
With a focus on making donuts fresh daily with the best quality ingredients, the Sengs opened Uffda Donuts. “Everything is natural and fresh with no preservatives,” Seng says. “You may pay more, but the quality is better.”
Each day, Uffda Donuts cranks out dozens of varieties of donuts from the classic raised, old-fashioned and cake donuts to specialty donuts filled with jelly or cream or topped with unexpected ingredients, like cereal. It also offers cinnamon rolls, apple fritters, croissants and the donut-croissant hybrid cronut, along with a curated selection of beverages.
On Wednesdays, it has gluten-free donuts on the menu while Thursdays feature vegan donuts. “We want everyone to have a donut and enjoy it,” Seng says.
Mary Seng
For special occasions, Uffda Donuts offers a selection of giant donuts. With a few days’ notice, the bakery can crank out oversized letter and number donuts or even a three-tiered donut cake.
It frequently changes out offerings to highlight seasonal flavors and new creations. “We hope to have … summer fruits that we can incorporate with our donut recipes,” Seng says. In the fall, Uffda Donuts offered pumpkin pie and apple pie flavored donuts. As the weather got colder, there were peppermint, hot cocoa and s’mores donuts on the menu. January brought Champagne-themed donuts as well as a Purple Rain creation in honor of the Minnesota Vikings.
Uffda Donuts aims to be a quintessential Minnesota donut shop, whether it’s paying homage to the home team, taking flavor suggestions from customers or borrowing a uniquely Minnesota phrase to serve as its name. “My husband came up with the name,” Seng says. “I really like that word. It feels like true Minnesota.”
So far, Maple Grove seems to be giving its approval. Seng says the shop has been buzzing with activity since its opening last fall. “We have a lot of regulars,” she says. “We recognize a lot of them.”
Uffda Donuts
13716 Grove Drive; 763.202.4009
Facebook: Uffda Donuts
Instagram: @uffda_donuts
