Cranky Al's
About us
In 2006, Susie and Al set up shop here in East Tosa as a homegrown coffee and doughnut shop. After fine-tuning their morning offering (and winning accolades for their cruellers, Hoytie Toyties, and sprinkly dinklies), they followed the natural progression of things, and expanded their business to pizza.
Their pizzas became an instant favorite in the area from The Cranky, featuring sausage and pepperoni, to the Freshtable and Susie Special.
What connects their food from predawn to dusk is the quality. From the care and attention put into hand cranking each and every doughnut to the dedication of using only the highest quality ingredients in all our food, Cranky's offers only the best to its customers.
The Cranky Team
Susie
Owner and Founder of Cranky's, Susie is the reigning mama bear. It is Susie's life mission to feed you good food and make you feel at home. If it isn't Susie Approved, it isn't getting across that counter and to your table. Susie believes in serving up delicious homemade food with a side of friendship and community. Catch her without a hat on – we double dare you!
Al
Alongside Susie, Al is an original founder of Cranky's. He spent years fine-tuning his pizza recipes, hand cranking doughnuts and perfecting the art of exuding supreme crankiness.
The Joey Factor
Like his aunt, Joey is dedicated to providing the highest quality food with great customer service. Oh…and for fun, buy a Hoytie Toytie to see what happens.
The Team
Cranky’s employs a team of bakers, cooks, and fancy counter and service staff. Our team strives to deliver great food with just a hint of the Cranky element.
OUR PROCESS
Let us start by explaining that this process is executed with a great deal of love, affection and dedication. Every doughnut is made by hand with local fresh, ingredients every day. In order to do this, our days starts long before most of you wake up and, for some, before you even go to sleep. Following this 7-step process, it takes between 6 to 12 hours for us to make and present a fresh, hand-made doughnut to delight your taste buds.
Mixing
The base for our raised doughnuts is yeast. If you have worked with breads before, you will know that yeast can be tricky, so we take our time and monitor the temperature throughout the process to ensure a good yield. If the core temperature is too cold, the doughnuts will not proof properly. Timing is crucial as it contributes to the density and consistency of the doughnut.
First proof
After mixing, we wrap the dough in plastic to prevent a crust forming during the 1st proof. We proof the dough for 30 to 90 minutes, all the while monitoring the temperature.
Punch, Roll and Cut
After proofing, we punch down the dough to deflate and rid it of bubbles. Next, we ball the dough using a smooth surface to ensure there are no seams. Then, using the high tech equipment of a rolling pin and our steely arm muscles, we roll the dough out. Using hand cutters, we individually cut out each doughnut. This process takes roughly 45-60 minutes depending on the size of each batch.
Second proof
We tray up and wrap the cut doughnuts and set them aside for a second proof. The second proof takes between 15-30 minutes depending on that tricky yeast and the weather. When the tray of cut doughnuts is perfectly proofed, we remove the plastic so the doughnuts can air dry for several minutes before being moved to the fryer. This creates a smooth surface and allows the dough to rest slightly.
Frying
Frying can take hours depending on the day. We use the best 100% vegetable oil and fry at high temperatures to ensure a fluffy, delicious doughnut.
Toppings
The second to last stage of doughnut creation is the toppings. If we are doing a glaze, we do this right away when removed from the fryer. Our filled doughnuts have to be cooled first so the filling doesn't melt. Our toppings range from glazes with sprinkles to maple and bacon or chocolate, caramel, pretzels, and MORE!
Consumption
The consumption process is the least time-consuming and most fun. We have top eaters (those who eat the glazing off the doughnut before eating the rest), filling suckers (those who create a hole at the end of their doughnut to suck out the filling), bottom eaters (those who eat the bottom to reserve the topping for last) and ring eaters (those who put the doughnut over a finger and eat the doughnut in an inward moving circle. Regardless of your doughnut consumption method, we hope you taste the love and devotion put into each and every hand-made Cranky's doughnut.