Take a look at Fonuts, set to open next month

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Get ready for fōnuts. Will the unfried doughnut take L.A. by storm? There will be cake fōnuts and raised (yeasted) fōnuts, in vegan and/or gluten-free incarnations. Four-star pastry chef Waylynn Lucas (Jose Andres’ Bazaar, Patina) and her partner, voice actor Nancy Truman, will be selling fōnuts from their West 3rd Street location hopefully in the next few weeks.

Lucas and Truman say they have scoured doughnut shops across Los Angeles, examined the fried rings, tweaked recipes in 5-gram increments and adjusted cooking times and temperatures to perfect their take on classic glazed, strawberry buttermilk, peanut-butter-and-jelly filled and more. There is a rosemary-olive-oil fōnut that might -- and I don’t say this lightly -- blow you away.

The cake doughnuts are vegan or both vegan and gluten-free, based on recipes concocted by Truman, who says she discovered she was wheat intolerant a couple of years ago but couldn’t give up baked goods.

Lucas uses a combination of steaming and convection heat to create the raised fōnuts (which are not vegan) and brings to bear her pastry chef skills, resulting in a fluffy, light-textured baked doughnut that, with proofing time, takes two days to prepare. Flavors are winners, too: from the familiar -- cinnamon-sugar, peanut-butter-chocolate -- to the less so -- chorizo cheddar. Crack seed fans, look for a Hawaiian fōnut filled with coconut custard and sprinkled with li hing mui powder.

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-- Betty Hallock

See more photos after the jump.

Photo credits: Betty Hallock