Cookie Dough, Doughnut Shops About To Make Freehold Even Sweeter

FREEHOLD, NJ — Everyone loves a sweet treat. And it looks like the Freehold area is about to become a haven for sweet-tooth fulfillment, with the announcement of two new stores opening soon.

Broad Street Dough, a doughnut shop in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township, and Dough Life, a dessert shop that specializes in edible cookie dough, both have recently announced plans to open stores in the area.

Dough Life was started in New York State by Joseph Francabandeiro, according to NJ.com. It serves up edible raw cookie dough like it's ice cream, in waffle cones or bowls, with toppings or straight up. It has flavor mixes such as Peanut Mother Butter (their signature dough mixed with Reece's Pieces and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups), the Tuxedo (their signature dough mixed with crushed Oreos) and King Caramel (their dough mixed with dark chocolate, topped with caramel and sea salt).

Dough Life has said it will be opening on May 5 at Freehold Raceway Mall, according to NJ.com. (So get ready to ignore what Mama said about eating raw cookie dough!)

For those of you who are doughnut lovers, Broad Street Dough Co., which opened in Oakhurst four years ago, will be opening a second location in Freehold Township this summer, owner Desdemona Dalia said.

"I get emails all the time saying 'You need to expand,' " she said, but it wasn't until the shop was featured on the Travel Channel that she really began to consider it. After discussing it with her kids, ages 11, 13 and 18, "because they know it means they won't see me much for the next two years," Dalia made the leap.

The new shop will be at 177 Elton Adelphia Road, across from the Park Nine Diner and just west of Route 9, in a strip mall. It's at the opposite end from Romeo's Pizza, Dalia said.

More importantly, it is a site in a very active area and one close to some of her current customer base, which comes from Freehold, Robbinsville and western Monmouth County. They come, she said, because she and her crew make a point of being invested in their customers.

"I thought about what I could do to make things different," said Dalia, who's originally from Montclair but now lives in Brick. To that end, they offer doughnuts for vegan customers, for those who are gluten-free, "and I can accommodate nut allergies," she said.

"I wanted to take a vested interest in really knowing our customers," she said. "With all of the big box stores, I think a lot of that is lost these days."

Broad Street Dough Co. offers the standard doughnuts — glazed, blueberry, cinnamon sugar — but it's the shop's the over-the-top doughnuts that get everyone's attention, she said. They are layered with gooey toppings, oozing with creamy goodness and hit a range of tastebuds with 35 "standard" offerings plus 10 to 15 specials daily.

Her favorites? "Every single day I have the Nantucket, which is caramel and sea salt," Dalia said, and her other is the Antonio and Ariana. It mimics a tradtional Italian cookie, with three layers of cake. The Antonio has two layers of cannoli filling, while the Ariana has a layer of raspberry and a layer of Nutella.

"Everyone in the crew has a different flavor palate, so it makes it fun every day," Dalia said. "We don't preplan the specials, it's whatever we are feeling."

And everything is made fresh to order, from the doughnuts going into the fryer to the final touches of toppings, she said. "You order and then you can watch the whole process," Dalia said.

At this point, she is just waiting for the developer to finish his work and "once it's done, it's a rapid build-out."

"Myself and the crew are really excited," Dalia said. "We work really hard, but we have fun. We're making doughnuts, not working in mergers and acquisitions."

So if you're a doughnut connoiesseur, keep an eye out. You can get your fix soon.

The Antonio and Ariana doughnut and banana split croissant offered by Broad Street Dough Co. Photos used with permission of Broad Street Dough