One of the most common recommended spots when planning a vacation to Hawaii’s Big Island is the Punalu’u Bake Shop. It seems that Punalu’u Bake Shop, located near the entrance to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has quite a reputation. So, on our recent trip, we stopped by to check it out and enjoy the malasadas.
Punalu’u Bake Shop is a small place, but it has sweet breads and also a few small lunch items. The most popular item in the bakery is a malasada. We learned that these were super soft donuts without a hole that had been brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants. Judging by the line at the bake shop, we knew they would be good!
We bought around 15 malasadas, from mango to strawberry, from vanilla cream to coconut, from chocolate to plain sugar. They were unbelievably soft and almost cloudy on your tongue. Somehow, they were even better than donuts. The five us ate 13 out of 15 of those malasadas right on the spot. A few of our favorites were apple, which was a bit like a fritter, but oh, so soft. We also loved strawberry, and just plain sugar.
The Punalu’u Bake shop is also famous for being the southernmost bakery. It isn’t too far from the southern most point of the United States here in Hawaii. We drove down to this spot so we could say we had been to the southernmost places.
If you find yourself near Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, or near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, make sure to stop for some malasadas at the Punalu’u Bake Shop. They were the number one thing recommended to us by our instagram followers, and as usual, the followers were exactly right! Check out their hours and location on their website.
