Dough Exchange

I’ve seen some reviews on here where people are really feelin some type of way about Dough Exchange. Daaaaaamn. Well, alright. Ok, I’ve had a food crush on Tyler since I had his donuts at Playground. I say food crush because I’ve never even seen the guy before. Anyway. This location is inside of Honor Roll which is the little overpriced market 4^th Street Market. I mean, we can agree that this market is slightly overpriced and I’m not talking about the artisan stuff.
My only gripe about this location is they don’t have nearly the variety the other location had. Now, it feels like when I go there are a few things to choose from whereas before there were lots of options. Does that make me sound greedy? Like, «Ummm there aren’t enough dessert options». #oink
Everything is still tasty, there just isn’t a whole lot of it.

I rarely give a one star to independent business establishments, but already have I given Dough Exchange thrice the chances in which they just did not meet up to the overly hyped and my highly expected standards. It just appears that they only bake a certain amount of breads and morning pastries that you must arrive at the break of dawn to truly try their selections, which is fine, but disappointing that the times that I have visited, barely anything was on display. I understand their marketing scheme; bake a number amount for high demands to achieve a substantial grossing average, but everything else left over were so poorly stale, it just makes me wish I never had them in the first place. My last visit had I tried one strawberry & pistachio bombolone, and a banana/​nutella bombolone, yet to my disappointment was the strawberry filling began to ripen that it was becoming slightly unbearable to consume. Also, I personally think it would have been ideal if the filling to bread ratio were on equally on the same level.
I wanted to be blown away by the amount of recognition Dough Exchange and the chef has received by OC and possibly LA natives, but I just cannot come to the conclusion that I would want to come back here again.

I went to the original location a few doors down from the Playground a few times, and I’m now a very happy regular at the relocated store inside the 4^th Street Market. While the two venues were only a few hundred feet apart, the relocation apparently has made all the difference — the new location seems to be doing a thriving business, where the original location seemed to be quite underutilized by comparison. That said:
Hi, I’m Glenn G., and I’m a Carboholic.
Carbs are my Kryptonite! I can’t get enough — pizza and fresh bread especially. Since I moved to SoCal from NorCal, it’s gotten tougher to feed my Jones. Exceptional pizza joints are much fewer and further between on this end of the state. Even worse, amazing bread bakeries are rarer than honest politicians :-(
In NorCal, Acme bread can be purchased everywhere, and for the pièce de résistance, a Carb junkie like moi simply needs to head to Tartine Bakery in SF’s Mission for the ultimate fix — Tartine’s Country Loaf!
Here in SoCal, while there’s fresh bread to be found everywhere, the quality is more than somewhat lacking. That was before Tyler Mosier from Team Playground (aka Baron of breads, Duke of doughnuts, Maestro of meat pies) arrived on the scene with his «Gangster Richard» sourdough starter!
While I’m sad to say I’m not really a fan of the donuts, Tyler’s breads and Fawn Mathers (Playground’s «Beast Mode» of baked goods) pastries are the real deal as far as I’m concerned. The Dough Exchange was completely out of bread when I got there on the day before Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d shoot for the day after. No dice! Tyler told me he was doing an experiment with his dough — picture Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein standing over The Creature in his lab yelling: «It’s Alive!» and you’ll be on the same mental page I was at that moment…
Tyler (a genius who’s creations don’t need to be chased down by angry villagers with torches and pitch forks) wasn’t sure that the quality would be high enough for him to be comfortable selling any bread that day, so I set my cap for Saturday. After talking to Tyler at length about the various breads he’s currently baking, I asked him to reserve me two loaves to try for that Saturday: Country Loaf, and Honey Whole Wheat.
I then went off with some of Fawn’s delicious pastries to enjoy at Thanksgiving:

All of the pastries were a hit the next day, but the real stand-​out for me was the IPA Lemon Bar. Nicely tart without being overpowering, it’s also perfectly sweet. I’m very pleased that I can now get an exceptional version of one of my favorite pastries without flying to SF and visiting Tartine Bakery.
As for Tyler’s bread, it’s the best I’ve found to date in Orange County — I think his Country Loaf is ready to go toe-​to-​toe with NorCal’s Acme Levane. The additional complexity I tasted in the Honey Whole Wheat also really worked for me — I enjoyed the slight taste of honey, and the rye flower added to both the richness and the chew — I ‘m a total fan!
Kudo’s to Jason Quinn for yet another inventive and uniquely original contribution to the Orange County food scene. This is one addiction I do NOT want to break :-)

These doughnuts are amazing! And the staff is super helpful and friendly. My only complaint and the reason they get 4 out of 5 stars is because they are always out of the doughnut «nuts» or they take them off the shelf after a couple hours and refuse to sell them. The last 5 times I’ve gone in they were out. They should put the ones they don’t sell (after a couple hours) off to the side with the day old bread and sell them for less instead of getting rid of them, such a waste! I’d buy them all at full price even a full day old, that’s how good they are!

Since DX moved from next door to Playground to where it is now, across the street inside the Honor Roll Market which is inside of the 4^th Street Market (that’s a lot of insides!), I’ve become an even «huger» fan. Pricing is more rational than it was before, and the selection is a bit more predictable.
The donuts are always tasty. When they have them, the To-​Go-​Nuts are my daughter’s favorite (the cronuts [?] in the cup with dipping sauce are no substitute!). There are lots of other sweet items, but we are not a sweets family, so no experience there. The lemon bars always look tasty, however.
The Cubano sandwich is delicious. They’ll heat it for you, then go to the Recess bar inside of 4^th Street Market, grab a beer, sit and eat and transport yourself to the Caribbean. Yum!
The spinach brioche is tasty. The ham, kale and cheese quiche is insanely good. For $ 3, quite a bargain. We ordered a whole quiche for Mother’s Day. It was huge. We got at least 12 slices from it. So, yeah, you can special order stuff. Just shoot an email to
, and ask.
DX now has cheeses available, too. I was happy to find Idiazábal, a Spanish sheep milk cheese, that none of the specialty cheese shops in the area was carrying. So, now, I pick up a new cheese every time I’m in. Prices are very good, and the cheese is pre-​packed by DX in ¼ to ¹⁄₃ pound packages, so there’s no waiting for cutting and wrapping.
There are breads, too, with the pillow bread being my favorite. I get the large loaf, and it is huge, and then when I get home I divide it into 3 packets and freeze two of them. It is soft, with a thin crust. I put slices on the griddle at home and heat them, add butter and drizzle with honey. Along with some cheese and a cup of coffee, a divine breakfast
Lots of good eats at DX. If you haven’t stopped here yet, you should. And then head down to Electic City Butcher at the other end of the Honor Roll Market for some incredible proteins!!!

Dough Exchange is DTSA Playground’s extended bakery. Known for being one of the best bakeries in Santa Ana, I have not yet actually purchased baked goods from their display showcase, but rather from their freezer. Any boy did I make a good choice (imo)!
I’m a big fan of mint and chip ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. If you are too, you can discover mint and chip ice cream and chocolate chip cookie GOLD in their freezer. Next to that are several other options as well:

Ice cream sandwiches are awesome in general, but this particular one takes it to the next level. Homemade icecream, made with real mint leaves in between two fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies… How does that sound?
There are a bunch of dessert options around the DTSA district, but I highly suggest trying one of these once in your life. I think you’ll be glad you at least tried it. Enjoy!

A small, but unique selection of hand made desserts located inside Honor Roll in the 4^th St Market.
The donuts, only 3 left, looked a bit small and dry which I was assured they are not, as they are baked fresh in small batches to avoid this, still I had by then set by eyes on the beautiful looking tarts, lemon or chocolate?
Taking the advice of the girl at the counter, who knew everything about all the items in the case and was super sweet and very patient, I went with chocolate.
It was amazing, rich, creamy, excellent chocolate flavor bit still not too dense or heavy, you can eat the whole thing and not feel guilty, at least I didn’t.
It was fantastic and I think still borderline fair in price at $ 5.
I will have to come back and try more next time, I have a feeling I will love all of their desserts, you can taste the love and passion going into the food, very important in my book!

Our two beautiful Lemon Meyer birthday cakes for my uncle were the hit of the party. They were delicious, not too sweet, didn’t have that gross icing we all scrape off and were very tall meaning the 9″ fed a lot of people. If you want a unique cake, get one from this place. Were going to try different cakes for different occasions just so we can sample everything they have!

I was so excited to try out dough exchange to order a few things for the teachers of my son’s daycare. I had read all the great things they were doing in the orange county register. I was greatly disappointed and maybe it was because I went on a weekday and not a weekend. There wasn’t much available or choices.
My son got the fruity pebble donut and I got the ham and cheese croissant. My son just picked the fruity pebble off and had one bit of the donut and was finished with it. My ham and cheese croissant seemed like one piece of deli ham with a cheese stick.
I can’t say it was worth all the excitement.

I tried the pastries that were sold out of Honor Roll located in the 4^th Street Market. All the pastries looked really good but I decided to try the croissants: ham and cheese, blueberry, and coconut.
The coconut croissant was HUGE both in size and in flavor. The croissant was flakey and crispy on the outside while still being fluffy on the inside. It was topped with a coconut glaze and toasted coconuts which give it a nice sweet almost nutty flavor. This was my favorite out of the bunch!
The blueberry croissant was a close second. This was more on the crispier side compared to the fluffiness of the coconut one but just as good. Filling was made up of a chunky blueberry jam with a nice side of creaminess to pair with it.
The ham and cheese was just ok for me, pretty standard.
I don’t understand why so many people are giving such negative reviews. I love the fact that this is a local, Santa Ana-​based bakery making fresh, flavorful pastries. You guys have my support! Definitely coming back for more.
I just wished that I visited your shop earlier when you were giving away pastries for research and development. I would’ve loved it!

Ok I love this place! This was my first time here. I tried the coffee glazed donut and it was delicious. The staff here are so sweet! I will definitely be back. Love! Love !

The ham and cheese croissant was more of just a croissant. Not a good one either, especially considering the $ 5 price tag.
The employee was nice, so you have that going for you… I didn’t really look around the rest of the shop to check out the gallery of items, we were just interested in dessert.

I feel awful for writing this but I just can’t see how so many people rave about this place. I wonder if the people here are just raving about it because this place is new and «hip».
I ordered the IPA lemon bar and I hated it, I love lemon bars but this was honestly the worst lemon bar I have ever had. Every bakery or pastry place I go to, if they have a lemon bar, I’ll be tasting it. This one had the texture of baby food/​applesauce that tastes like lemon. I ended up removing the custard portion of the bar and just ate the crust part. The crust was good but I am sorry, for 3 dollars that’s just not okay with me. Also my husband ordered a 5 dollar ham and cheese croissant and he was so disappointed also, very little ham and cheese and too much bread which wasn’t even buttery tasting or soft but rather just dry and too flaky.
So it seems like they make beautiful looking pastries and baked good but unfortunately this place is over priced and doesn’t really taste good.

I was very disappointed in what was my first visit to Dough Exchange and must admit I have no intention on returning. Two points of reasoning:
1.) WRONG ADDRESS! this establishment has failed to list their UPDATED address and so you’re left wandering and wondering where these «great» donuts are located. Am I crazy? Did they disappear? No, the place has MOVED and no one cares to inform you because of… REASON #2
2.) This «Dough» exchange has no DOUGH! They’re currently revising their donut recipe which they also fail to notify patrons of because they love making people drive out of their way, look for parking and then search for their location for no good reason but to mock us!
In conclusion, if the donuts were so fabulous, why would the entire dough recipe need revisions?! And they just recently moved with no time to update the address? Of course not because they’ve been carefully stacking overstocked merchandise in their beautiful new storefront which ironically had not one customer inside.

I buy doughnuts here often! more than i should to be honest. :p
These doughnuts are pretty amazing. Ive tried most their doughnuts. Flavors are great, my favorite are the fruity pebbles. Their glaze is really tasty!!!
If i could give more stars i would. Staff are always friendly and smile and greet you.
Doughnut exhange youre doughing it right!!! :p

My review will strictly be on what I ordered:
Passionfruit Doughnut: Where to even begin… the doughnut itself was very stale. It had absolutely no yeasty fluffiness about it either and was more dense if anything. The passionfruit glaze was not the greatest. I am a HUGE fan of passionfruit and this did not deliver in flavor. While we are aware that fresh passionfruit can be utterly tart, it also yields a nice and fruity sweetness… this glaze however, was just purely sour. The glaze did not have that tropical sweetness you would expect from a passionfruit. Very disappointed in this doughnut.
Chocolate Fever Tart: A chocolate cookie crust is one of my faves, however the crust to the tart I got was burned. Very unpleasant burnt taste. I tried the chocolate filling separately and it was very smooth, however was very subtle in flavor. Not much complexity or depth to the chocolate filling itself.
Coconut Croissant: Wow, total 180 of the other pastries I tried. AMAZING. If you were looking for a true french croissant, this would not be it, but oh boy is this yummy. The croissant was more on the dense and «only flaky on the exterior» side. The coconut had such great flavor– roasty, toasty, and nutty! First bite of this and it made me wish I had purchased a second.
OVERALL: I think this place has a lot of potential, but for now it seems as if they are going through a lot of trial and error. Despite the few pasties that I did not like, I would still encourage people to come check this place out.
Like I always say, YOU WON’T KNOW UNLESS YOU TRY IT FOR YOURSELF!

I came here once on a lunch break thinking I’d just get a coffee (they have Portola, HOLLA). Once I walked in and saw/​smelled the heaven that was baking I knew I had to give in and eat one of their donuts. I selected the fruity pebble donut and I can truthfully say it was the best donut I’ve had (believe me I’ve been a connoisseur of many donuts through the years). Maybe it’s the fact that they glaze it right when you order or that it was piping hot. But it was divine. Not to mention, it’s really cute inside and the neon blue sign outside the store is a nice touch too. Employees were really nice. I no longer work near dough exchange but I’ll be sure to make a visit in the future.

Not the best gourmet doughnut in town, but puts up a pretty good fight.
I tried the seasonal doughnut with dehydrated apples and a caramel glaze. The artistry and thoughtfulness behind each piece is very apparent in the toppings and glaze. As a recent cake doughnut convert, I think that it just won’t be something I crave on the reg, but I’ll likely be back to try out those fun funky flavors!

Dough Exchange opened up a storefront in the southwest end of the new 4^th Street Market. Their bakery where they make their desserts is across the street from it. I’ve never been to their other store so this was my first time encountering their company altogether.
My friend and I were immediately intrigued with their rhubarb cheesecake ($ 3.50). It looked so pretty and decadent behind the glass case! Also, I always wanted to try a rhubarb dessert so I thought today would be a fantastic opportunity to do so! Honestly, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan, but this rhubarb cheesecake was the probably best cheesecake I have ever had.
It was tart, sour and sweet, which reminded me of a key lime flavor. The balance was perfect! I liked how it was thinner than most other traditional cheesecakes. The crust was so good!
I definitely recommend you try the rhubarb cheesecake if you prefer more citrusy desserts. You won’t regret it! They have many other selections so I’m sure you’ll find something you would enjoy.
What a great way to end a meal :) I can’t wait to take my other friends here and try out more baked goods!

Sweet tooth for us and the kids? Yes please!
I actually made it here the first day they announced R+D. Though it was a Thursday (Or was it a Friday?) afternoon around 3:30pm, I was really disappointed when no one was around at the counter and there was no treats. Kids too.
So fast forward 3 weeks later, we come on the last day they had it. We pretty much got everything.
Spent Grain Cookie
Fruity Pepples Donut
Lime Custard Donut
Lemon Poppyseed Muffin
Chocolate Custard Donut
Chocolate Seasalt Cookie
The winners for me from this list was the Chocolate seasalt cookie. Crumbly, yet moist and chocolatey. Kids approved. Well, actually kids approved a lot of these items here but they didn’t like the Spent Grain Cookie. Thought that, like the playground was unique too on its own. The Lemon poppseed muffin was quite good too. Sorry donuts, you just weren’t light and fluffy and crispy enough on the outside.
Also got not on R+D list,
IPA Lemon Bar
Valentine’s Day Cookie
The IPA bar has great front end taste of your IPA beer and the backend was the tartness of the lemon bar. Holy mother, that was really good! Though, it was $ 6, I would probably order it again due to its uniqueness and contribute to my alcoholic diet. The Valentine’s day cookie was crisp, the frosting was light, the writing on the cookie was off the wall. The workers would write things like «MILF, Jerk, Tramp.»
Now that they moved across the street, known as the 4^th Street Market. Do check them out if you want something unique and tasty.