As Valentine’s Day fades slowly into a distant memory, along with the frantic phone calls to just about every somewhat decent Dallas restaurant resulted in a “sorry we’re booked” response, the floral companies’ continual raise in prices, and the general lack of originality that accompanies the effort of pleasing ones girlfriend or boyfriend. A new trend has hit Dallas for those lovers who aim to please outside of the holidays: a good old fashioned bakery.
Open only a short five months, Doughmonkey, the high-end bakery in Snider Plaza, will end the frantic search for gifts. Doughmonkey creates artistic and innovative desserts daily completely from scratch. Using only the finest ingredients, Award-winning pastry chef and co-owner Rhonda Ruckman bakes mouthwatering masterpieces, including Old Whiskey River pecan pies, chocolate banana peanut butter tarts, and espresso chocolate chip cookies.
Doughmonkey’s glass front allows each passerby to look in on Ruckman in action. Curious eyes can scan over the imaginative pastries, cakes, and cookies.
“Everything we put out there is good…we have no fillers,” second co-owner Michael Lima says of the sparkling dessert cases. Lima and Ruckman are not only co-owners but are dating as well.
“It was nothing like I had ever tasted” sophomore advertising major Hays Brandon said, finishing off Doughmonkey’s signature Valhrona chocolate mousse.
Whether stopping in to grab an after-school iced cookie snack, or searching for the perfect dessert for your best friend’s birthday, Doughmonkey has many options.
Lima and Ruckman explained that the bakery thrives on using all natural ingredients, and bakes 80 percent of their product line daily. Top of the line ingredients shipped in from all over the world add the imaginative voila to the desserts. Doughmonkey utilizes Valrhona chocolate, Tasmanian Leatherwood honey, Plugra butter, and their store-made Grey Goose Tahitian Vanilla extract.
For quite a reasonable price, Ruckman explained that she can create individual desserts that will trick your mate into thinking you had been planning an event for months. She learned her old-world techniques from her previous position as assistant pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, where she held a prominent clientele. Not only did she create Christian Slater’s wedding cake that People Magazine later featured, but you could also find Al Pacino, Mike Myers, and Rob Lowe indulging in her sweets.
