Madsen Donuts: Fresh, filled and frosted in South Fayette

Doughnuts made from scratch daily before dawn

Madsen Donuts continues 84-year tradition in South Fayette

Story & photos by Andrea Iglar

The only thing frozen at Madsen Donuts is the ice cream. The doughnuts are made from scratch every morning, well before daybreak.

Peanut, sprinkle, chocolate and powdered sugar doughnuts are some of the 13 varieties served at Madsen Donuts in the Cuddy neighborhood of South Fayette.

Christian Bergsma, manager of the new South Fayette shop, wakes at 2 a.m. weekdays and drives from Weirton, West Virginia, to the Cuddy neighborhood to start making dough at 3 a.m.

“I love it,” he said. “My best hours are early in the morning.”

Store manager Christian Bergsma fills a box with a dozen assorted doughnuts.

In September, Mt. Lebanon residents Brian and Milica Peltz, owners of the Madsen Donuts in Castle Shannon, opened their second location in South Fayette.

“We’ve been really welcomed by the community,” Brian Peltz said.

Fresh doughnuts, Nicholas coffee and Miller’s Creamery ice cream are available seven days a week at the corner of Battle Ridge Road and Millers Run Road.

The Pittsburgh-area shops are franchises of the original Madsen Donuts, established in 1938 at Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio, a resort town on the Lake Erie shoreline.

Alex Peltz, 22, said his family goes on vacation there every summer, and his father’s family had visited since 1964.

“We know the donuts very well,” he said. “A lot of Pittsburghers go up there, and people love the donuts so much.”

Brian Peltz, left, and his son, Alex Peltz, display trays of cream sticks and glazed doughnuts on the patio of Madsen Donuts in South Fayette.

Madsen Donuts Pittsburgh offers 13 varieties of raised-dough and cake doughnuts. That’s one extra type than in Ohio because the Peltz family offers jelly sticks coated with powdered sugar, in addition to the ones traditionally coated with fine sugar.

The most popular varieties are the cream stick and cinnamon stick, but everyone has their favorite.

Gary Danley likes the cinnamon sugar. He stopped into the South Fayette shop Oct. 6 for an assortment of doughnuts.

“They’re awesome,” he said. “And I like to support local.”

Madsen partners with Nicholas Coffee & Tea Co. of Pittsburgh to supply coffee—including Madsen’s signature blend chosen by Milica Peltz.

The shop also offers about 15 flavors of super-premium ice cream from Miller’s Creamery of Dover, Ohio.

The South Fayette shop, including indoor and outdoor seating areas, is the largest of the three Madsen Donuts locations.

Glazed, sugar, cream and jelly doughnuts await customers behind the glass display case.

Employees make roughly 1,000 doughnuts each weekday and 2,000 on Saturdays and Sundays. With advance notice, they can make additional for parties and special events.

The daily process of making doughnuts starts with flour, eggs, cocoa, milk and other ingredients, some of which are part of secret recipes.

With the aid of special kitchen appliances, workers make the dough, roll it into sheets and cut it into shapes—circles, sticks or holes.

Yeast doughnuts are placed onto screens and put in a proofer, which uses heat and humidity to help the dough rise.

All doughnuts are cooked in a fryer and then placed on cooling racks. Finally, they are filled, frosted and topped.

Jayne Laskey uses a filling machine to inject two doughnut sticks with black raspberry-apple jelly.

The homemade chocolate frosting and marshmallow cream filling follow the original recipes of founder Carl Madsen.

“We’ve been keeping to a lot of the traditional ways,” Alex Peltz said. “If it works, why fix it?”

Madsen Donuts is open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekends. Call to preorder larger quantities or doughnut holes.

Madsen Donuts, 4097 Battle Ridge Road, South Fayette: 412-385-5491; Facebook, Instagram; madsendonuts.com.