The name might suggest steak frites and duck rillettes, but Bistro Morgan is all about the healing power of the doughnut, courtesy of baking wunderkind Morgan Hipworth, who discovered his passion watching MasterChef as a kid. He’s still only barely out of short pants, which might explain why the core range conveys a child’s sense of sugar-fuelled wonder, including the Cookie Monster (brioche with cake batter innards and topped with couverture white chocolate, Oreos and sprinkles) to the Naughty Tella (no explanation needed). Half the fun of visiting is watching the indecision on customer’s faces as they struggle with temptation. bistromorgan.com.au

Tell me you’re in Melbourne without telling me you’re in Melbourne? A pic in front of the American Doughnut Kitchen van will do nicely, thanks. Plying its trade from the flagship ADK van at the Queen Vic Market since 1950, the family-run business has perfected the doughnut formula: fried, yeasty and hot, with a rigorous sugar dusting and lava-like jam innards ready to burn unsuspecting fingers. They’re a rite of passage for any local kid and a nostalgic fever dream for the rest of us. You can also now catch them in a bricks and mortar operation at Prahran market. adk1950.com.au

The good folks at Hector’s Deli aren’t exactly new to the doughnut game – their doorstopper-sized maple-glazed numbers have long been cemented in Melbourne’s affections – but it warms the cockles of our hearts to see them embrace the potential of a dedicated bakery. Opened in March, the ritzy Richmond premises gleaming with marble and mood lighting are a place to eat your doughnut in style. The maple-glazed and cinnamon-dusted are the bomb, but you might also have your head turned by the pain au chocolat or the cinnamon buns – the operation’s early breakout star that sells out in hours each day. 33 Stewart St, Richmond | hectorsdeli.com.au/

Take your mouth on a Roman holiday with these dreamy custard-filled bomboloni, served as nature intended, right in the heart of Melbourne’s Little Italy. At his super-slick Faraday Street digs, artisan baker Daniel Chirico has cemented his reputation as one of Melbourne’s best with a fail-safe combination of smooshy innards flecked with real vanilla bean, girt by the lightest, fluffiest doughnut shell and a final sprinkle of citrussy sugar. Gosh they’re good. For that matter, so are the cannoli. And the bread? It’s among the best you’ll find anywhere. Here is the perfect excuse for the ultimate polyamorous carbohydrate relationship. 178 Faraday St, Carlton | bakerdchirico.com.au/

You could argue a cruller is just a doughnut with a PR agent. Whatever your attitude to their membership of the doughnut pantheon, it’s a very fine thing that Kate Reid of Lune Croissanterie fame has turned her sights to these fried rings of multi-layered choux pastry. Sticking to her mantra of doing one thing well, Reid’s Moon Cruller delivers a smorgasbord of regularly changing flavours. The thick passionfruit or raspberry glaze will make you think longingly of summer, while the merits of the classic cinnamon sugar sprinkled version are unimpeachable. Get your cruller fix on Saturdays and Sundays only. 50 Rose St, Fitzroy | mooncruller.com/

Riding the doughnut new wave with devil-may-care abandon, Shortstop’s yeasted doughnuts rock the road of flavoured glazes less travelled, including Thai milk tea and triple matcha. Inject some sunshine into winter with the cayenne-spiked Mexican chocolate number and join the hordes abandoning their self-respect on Thursdays and Saturdays in favour of the maple syrup and brown sugar glazed ‘Long John’ topped with a lusty rasher of maple-smoked, candied bacon. Find them at the tiny city shopfront tucked in the Elizabeth Street and Latrobe Street-bounded block. Melbourne Star Apartment, 12 Sutherland St, Melbourne | short-stop.com.au/

Take your doughnut fetish on a Mediterranean road trip with a swing by this loukoumades specialist. A roving food truck and a bricks-and-mortar shopfront in the outer south-east extol the virtues of Greek-style doughnuts: fried balls of yeasty puff, drizzled as tradition dictates with honey and a scattering of crushed walnut and cinnamon. Homer didn’t mention St Gerry’s cookies and cream loukoumades in The Odyssey, but he should have – and as for the Ferrero Rocher topping, that’s an epic story in itself. 1196 Centre Rd, Clarinda | stgerrys.com.au/

These dough bros have been putting a ring on it for well over a decade, amassing a loyal following at their Bourke Street carbohydrates-and-coffee stop. The open kitchen pumps out quality yeasted numbers with on-trend flavour mash-ups – hello, banana-spiked banoffee and French toast with cinnamon crumble – and keep the interest factor high with their regular menu turnover. There’s plenty of merit in the classics, too. The chocolate fudge number floats many a city worker’s boat, while the macadamia coffee doughnut is a surefire way to stop falling asleep at your desk after lunch. 535 Bourke St, Melbourne | doughboysdoughnuts.com.au/

When life gives All Day Donuts owner Raph Rashid lemons, he makes a lemon meringue doughnut that’ll knock your socks off. Co-desking a backstreet Brunswick warehouse with hot-chicken-slash-Mexican-joint Juanita Peaches, the All Day selection mixes seasonality with a side order of misty-eyed nostalgia. To wit: cookies and cream with a rugged coating of biscuity rubble clinging onto the glaze for dear life, and a bittersweet chocolate ganache glaze and sweet vanilla custard cream combo tipping its hat to the classic American doughnut. As for the Don Homer – the sprinkle-covered vivid raspberry-glazed tribute to The Simpsons speaks for itself. 12 Edward St, Brunswick | alldaydonuts.com/

The craze for splicing the DNA of popular baked goods reaches its apotheosis with Candied Bakery’s vanilla slice doughnuts. The bastard love-child of the ‘snot block’ and the doughnut has been a menu fixture for a decade; we can attest that the combo of airy vanilla cream inside a doughnut casing, dipped in vanilla glaze and topped with a jaunty puff pastry hat is a Frankenstein in name only. In more good news, the bakery hero of the west has upped sticks from its OG location for bigger digs close by, where you can eat in-house for the first time. 136 Hall St, Spotswood | candiedbakery.com.au/