Donuts
What Is a Long John? The Bar-Shaped Donut, Explained
15 September 2026 · 4 min read
A Long John is the rectangular one. Same raised dough as a traditional glazed, shaped into a bar instead of a ring, and topped along its whole length — maple or chocolate in our case. The shape is not decoration. It is the reason the thing exists.
The shape is the point
Think about what a ring donut does to topping. There is a hole in the middle, the sides curve away, and the top is a narrow band. Ice one and a good share of the surface either gets nothing or gets an uneven smear.
Now think about a flat bar. Every square inch of the top is usable, level, and easy to coat evenly. A Long John gives you dramatically more topping per bite than a ring of the same weight, and the topping is consistent from one end to the other rather than thick at the crown and thin on the flanks.
That is the entire design brief. If you are someone who orders a donut for the maple or for the chocolate, the bar is the shape built for you.
The dough is raised, not cake
This is where the most common mix-up happens, because the buttermilk bar is the same shape and a completely different animal.
A Long John is yeasted. The dough proves, fills with air, and fries light and almost hollow, with that pull you get from bread. A buttermilk bar is cake — batter, chemically leavened, dense and tender with a faint tang and a craggy surface.
Order a Long John if you want the topping to lead. Order a buttermilk bar if you want the dough to lead. Getting this backwards is the most avoidable disappointment on the whole board, and it happens every week.
And it is not an eclair
In a European bakery an eclair is choux pastry — a different dough entirely, piped and baked hollow, then filled with cream and glazed. In an American donut shop "eclair" usually means a Long John that has been filled.
Ours are unfilled: dough and topping. If you want the filled experience, order a Bismark or a Bavarian cream, which are built for it.
Maple or chocolate
Maple is the older of the two and the one people are sentimental about — it is the flavour most closely associated with the shape in North America, and plenty of customers have a specific childhood bakery in mind when they order it. Chocolate is the broader appeal, and the one to buy when you are filling a box for people whose preferences you do not know.
Both are specialty items: $2.75 each, $27.50 a dozen, dozen being buy ten get two free. Fried from 5:00am at Spanish Fork, Ogden and St. George.
One practical note
Long Johns are raised donuts, which means they are at their best within a few hours and noticeably softer by mid-afternoon. If you are buying for later in the day, a cake donut will serve you better. If you are buying for the next morning, buy cake — that is not a preference, it is just how the two doughs age.
Everything we make, with what it actually is, is listed on the Utah Donut Index.
Common questions
What is a Long John donut?
A Long John is raised yeast dough shaped into a rectangular bar rather than a ring, then topped along its length — usually with maple or chocolate. The dough is the same family as a traditional glazed: light, airy and pull-apart.
Why is it shaped like a bar?
Because a bar gives you far more topping per bite than a ring does. A ring has a hole in the middle and curved sides, so a lot of its surface is awkward to ice. A flat bar is all usable surface. The shape exists to carry topping.
What is the difference between a Long John and a buttermilk bar?
The dough, entirely. A Long John is raised and yeasted — light and airy. A buttermilk bar is a cake donut — dense, tender and faintly tangy, with craggy split edges. Same shape, opposite textures.
Is a Long John the same as an eclair?
Not quite. A bakery eclair is choux pastry filled with cream. A donut-shop eclair is usually a filled Long John. An unfilled Long John is just the dough and the topping, and that is what ours are.
Maple or chocolate?
Maple is the traditional one and the one most people have a childhood opinion about. Chocolate is the safer choice for a mixed group. Both are $2.75.
How much is a Long John?
It prices as a specialty donut: $2.75 each, $27.50 a dozen, and a dozen here is buy ten get two free.