Being awake at 5 a.m. is very similar to being awake at 5 p.m. during the winter. It’s pitch black and you’re not quite sure what you’re doing awake.

Luckily, the Harold’s Doughnuts workers are used to it.

At 5:30 a.m., the kitchen was already busy with activity. Five people worked at different stations, intently focused on their tasks. They had to have 16 different kinds of donuts ready by 6 a.m., so there was no time to lose. No one talked but it wasn’t quiet. A pop radio station played over the speaker system, filling the space with the sounds of Maroon 5’s “Sugar” (funnily enough) and mixing with the whirring of machines in the kitchen.

One of Harold’s’ defining features is that they make everything from scratch, or, at least everything they can without impeding the process too much. The doughnuts are made fresh every morning starting at 1 a.m. They make their own sprinkles and once made their own Butterfingers as well. When the doughnut of the month was Mexican Hot Chocolate, they made the marshmallows themselves.

That’s why the people in the kitchen never really stop. When someone is done with decorating, they’ll move on to displaying things. When they are done with the display, they’ll start working on packaging orders.

Katlyn Garrett, who is in charge of rolling and cutting the dough, had already been working for 5 hours. Her day started when I had fallen asleep. Her shift started at 1 a.m. and everyone else trickled in after her.

Garrett worked at a station right in front of the window, facing the street. A white hat kept blonde hair out of her face as she worked with the dough, rolling it out and cutting it into the familiar doughnut shape.

Harold’s uses two types of dough: yeast dough and cake dough. The yeast dough is what everyone thinks of when they think of a doughnut. It’s not easy to work with. You can roll it out as much as you want but until it’s ready, it won’t work for you, Amy Winschel, the general manager, says. You have to work for it.

After Garrett is done cutting the doughnuts, the dough goes into the proof box, a place for the yeast to make the dough rise. As the dough sits, the yeast and salt fight back and forth, which gives the doughnut its airiness.

Scott Jost, dressed casually in an orange shirt and striped beanie, came in at 2 a.m. His job is to work the fryer. He takes the doughnuts that are ready from the proof box and puts them into the fryer.

Frying yeast dough is pretty straightforward. The way to fry cake dough, though, is an interesting process. There’s a contraption that looks like a mixing bowl hanging over the boiling oil in the fryer. Jost pours the cake dough mix in, and uses a lever to drop it into the fryer in a doughnut shape.

Joey Kopp dressed in a blue baseball cap was the next one to come in at 3:30 a.m. He helps decorate and does the early morning deliveries, like the one to Columbia Regional Airport. There’s a little shop there that sells coffee and Harold’s Doughnuts. At 4 a.m., Nick Meyer comes in and joins the decorating team.

The last person to come in at 5 a.m. was Winschel. She normally comes in whenever extra help is needed. This day in particular, she was helping decorate and set up displays while simultaneously answering my questions.

I tried my best to stay out of their way as they were prepping for open at 6 a.m. Right at 6, two construction workers in bright yellow safety vests walked in, ordered doughnuts then left.

It’s almost as if someone hit a switch at 6 a.m. People started appearing in the streets and walking by Harold’s as the first hints of light began to appear. A group of four runners came into the shop next. The man who ordered the doughnuts for the group chatted with Winschel behind the counter, and left with two small boxes and a bag.

“You bought the whole store!” his friend joked as they turned to leave.

Waking up at 5 wasn’t going to be worth it unless I got a doughnut too. At 6:32 a.m. the kitchen behind Winschel was empty and quiet for the first time since I’d arrived. The counters were cleaned off, the machines weren’t whirring and no one was by their stations.

The break didn’t last for long. It was 6:38 a.m. when the kitchen in Harold’s was just starting to come back to life.

_Edited by Katie Rosso | krosso@themaneater.com_