Winter 2025 has brought epic snow and new ownership for a ski-area favorite, North Country Donuts in downtown Morrisville. Founder Nicole Maddox sold her bakery at 73 Lower Main Street to Dan Gwaltney at the end of December for an undisclosed price.
Gwaltney, 43, a 20-year education professional, described the purchase as “a career pivot.” He and his wife, Jessica Palmer-Gwaltney, moved to Vermont from North Carolina in 2022 and currently live in Waterbury. As a serious hobby baker, Gwaltney said, he saw North Country Donuts as a “nice, established business, something I could walk into.”
North Country Donuts is open Friday through Sunday and sells as many as 600 doughnuts a day. Under the new ownership, the bakery team continues to produce yeasted and cake doughnut favorites, from filled Boston cream to old-fashioned glazed, along with its popular apple fritters and a few other baked goods.
Gwaltney said he doesn’t plan any major changes but does aim to reduce food waste. Hand-cut doughnuts, he said, yield a lot of dough scraps, which he’s working on repurposing into new products, such as cinnamon rolls. Trial batches will be tested during weekday pop-ups from which a percentage of sales will benefit local nonprofits.
The newly minted professional baker said he was a little worried about starting his day at 1 a.m. but has been energized by the community welcome. He’s also been surprised by the fervor of North Country Donuts’ apple fritter fans. “They have real opinions on the density, the fluffiness, the size and the ratio of apple to dough,” he said with a chuckle.
The original print version of this article was headlined “In Morrisville, North Country Donuts Changes Hands”
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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.
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