Home Maid Bakery

The Home Maid Bakery in Wailuku has built a reputation on baking and frying excellence since 1960. It specializes in things Hawaiian, but like most aspects of Hawaiian cuisine, these are products of cultural exchange.

The French gave Louisiana the beignet, and the Portuguese brought malasadas to Hawaii. Their origin on these islands goes back to plantation times when Portuguese laborers recreated this treat, originally from Madeira. Malasadas resemble beignets, but they taste different. The dough is eggier and denser, something like deep-fried brioche. At the Home Maid Bakery they are always fried-to-order, which is crucial. Two kinds are offered: plain, which are rolled in a coarse sugar that really doesn’t stick to them well, andcream-filled, which receives a more effective coat of powdered sugar. The cream inside is very good, not too sweet, and served very cold inside the hot donuts. They are quite refreshing and beg for coffee. Unless you really can’t stand cream fillings, we recommend getting them this way.

You should expect a few minutes wait. The reason they make these fresh for every customer is that they really taste much better hot. Even just a few minutes of cooling and steaming in the paper bags degrades their quality precipitously.

The malasadas are the most famous product of the bakery, but it also specializes in two other Hawaiian sweets, these from Japanese origins. Manju and mochi are both stuffed rice flour treats. Manju is baked crisp while mochi is squishy. Unlike malasadas, these last a few days and are made in pre-packed containers that are perfect for sharing with friends or taking on the road. Many kinds of manju are baked up with starchy fillings like bean. We got ours filled with sweetened, shredded coconut, which makes for a crispy, and very Hawaiian bite. Mochi are just dumplings rolled out from rice dough and stuffed with fillings. To finish, they are dusted in a starchy powdered sugar. We got the “Maui Mochi,” which are filled with slightly-sweetened azuki beans. These reddish-black beans pack a lot of earthy flavor and sweeten well.  They make for a sweet filling rice and bean snack with real local flavor.

Self-caterers take note, the bakery also offers the usual selection of Hawaiian bento boxes, as well as fluffy Hawaiian sandwich bread to take out on beach picnics.