Peanut sticks are sticks of glazed donuts, coated in crushed peanuts. The food is a specialty of Buffalo, New York, where it was made at Freddies Doughnuts (1935-1989). They are a popular item at Paula’s Donuts in the Buffalo area, but peanut sticks are rarely found outside of Western New York.
 
A recipe for “peanut sticks” was published in a 1937 newspaper. “Peanut sticks” has been cited from the late 1800s and there are earlier recipes, but these are different types of peanut sticks.
 
The spelling “peanut stix” was cited in print in 1977, but is not generally used.
 
       
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
20 December 1937, Cohoes (NY) American, pg. 6, col. 6:
PEANUT STICKS—Four eggs, one cup sugar, four tablespoons cold water, one cup flour, sifted with one teaspoon baking powder, one-half teaspoon flavoring. Beat egg yolks, add sugar, then cold water, sifted flour, then extract. Fold in beaten egg whites. Pour into a pan about one inch deep. Bake 45 minutes in moderate oven. Make a thin butter cream frosting. Put large unsalted peanuts through food chopper, using medium knife. When cake is cold cut into slices about one and a half by four inches, cover each completely with a thin coating of frosting and roll in ground peanuts, covering thoroughly. Set aside until frosting has hardened. Makes about 24. Other unsalted nuts may be used.—Emma Schmiedt.
 
6 February 1947, The Evening Observer (Dunkirk, NY), pg. 5, col. 1 ad:
JIM-JO DOUGHNUT SHOP
63 East Third Street Dunkirk, New York
Exclusive Agents for
Freddie’s Doughnuts
PLAIN
JELLY
CREAM
PEANUT STICK
DOUGHNUTS
 
NYS Historic Newspapers
12 March 1952, The Post (Ellicottville, NY), pg. 4, col. 3 ad:
Whitmer’s Restaurant and Home Bakery
(...)
JELLY CREAM GLAZED
TWISTERS and PEANUT STICKS
 
NYS Historic Newspapers
28 March 1957, Cazenovia (NY) Republican, pg. 5, col. 5 ad:
Peanut Sticks
(...)
GAYLORD’S HOME BAKERY
15 LINKLAEN ST. 
 
NYS Historic Newspapers
24 July 1958, Republic-Democrat (Brockport, NY), pg. 8, col. 1:
BAKED GOODS—We always have a large variety of doughnuts, glazed, jelly, marshmallow, sugar twists, peanut sticks. Also plain, sugared, and cinnamon fried cakes. Shoff’s Home Bakery, 4630 South Lake Red. Brockport.
 
NYS Historic Newspapers
2 July 1959, Lake Shore News and Times (Silver Creek, NY), pg. 11, col. 5 ad:
MAY’S DONUT SHOP
OUR DONUT SELECTION:
Glazed, Jelly, Plain, Cocoanut, Peanut, Cinnamon, Chocolate, Peanut Sticks, Cream Sticks, Cocoanut Sticks, Tarts, Sugar and Cinnamon Rolls.
 
NYS Historic Newspapers
21 April 1966, The North Countryman (Rouses Point, NY), “From Day to Day with ‘The Rambler” by Herbert H. Dewey, pg. 12, col. 4:
Peanut stick candy was another of dad’s specialties—he never bought us kids any other kind.
   
NYS Historic Newspapers
16 March 1977, Webster (NY) Herald, pg. 13, col. 1 ad:
Peanut Stix & Glazed Treats
69c PKG.
(Star Markets.—ed.)
     
Google Groups: alt.culture.ny-upstate
Anyone from St. Lawrence
Sandy Kear
3/10/95
In article <3jqj5o$8…@pipe3.pipeline.com>

,
  .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Sue M. Ford) wrote:
>In alt.culture.ny-upstate .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (thomas serviss) said:
>
>
>>In Buffalo, there are peanut donuts, peanut sticks, and peanut creams.
>You
>>can’t get donuts in Buffalo without getting peanut something. Are peanut
>donuts
>>unique to Buffalo? 
>
>I don’t think so.  I could swear I’ve had ‘em at the DD in Utica.
>
 
They are also available at DDs in the Capital District/Saratoga region.
     
Google Groups: alt.culture.ny-upstate
Food you miss from Buffalo! Survey…
Harvey L. Slatin
10/30/99
A peanut doughnut was a cake doughnut, rolled in frosting/glaze (to make the chopped peanuts stick), then rolled in the chopped peanuts.  They were called Peanut Sticks, because they weren’t round.  Some Dunkin’ Donuts sell them (the regular round variety), but they’re not the same as Freddie’s.
 
Anne Slatin
 
Dawg
10/30/99
A peanut donut is basically a glazed frycake covered in chopped peanuts. They’re great, but the pieces of peanut tend to get all over everything.
 
31 October 2002, Buffalo (NY) News, “Buzz” by Mary Kunz, pg. C1:
No peanut sticks at Krispy Kreme! And they call themselves a hitdoughnut shop.
         
Buffalo (NY) News
Torn-Down Tuesday: Freddies Doughnuts, 1989
By Steve Cichon | Published March 8, 2016 | Updated April 20, 2017
(...)
Very quietly in 1989, 82-year-old Fred Maier — Freddie himself — closed up the shop and retired. The day he tacked a sign on the door that said that’d be the last day they were open, word spread quickly and somewhere between 300 and 500 dozen doughnuts were sold as fast as anyone had remembered in the more than 50 years the store was open. The last-ever batch of Freddie’s Doughnuts was wiped out by 10 a.m.
 
Born in Ukraine, Freddie came to Buffalo as a teen, opened his first bakery in 1924, and opened at Main and Michigan in 1935. Thirty years later, 25 million doughnuts a year were being churned out of the shop.
 
Buffalo (NY) News
Freddies Doughnuts coming back, by the half-dozen
By Andrew Z. Galarneau | Published April 20, 2017 | Updated April 20, 2017
(...)
Freddies Doughnuts closed in 1989, and the building at 1655 Main St. was demolished in 2009.
   
Buffalo (NY) News
New ‘Freddies Doughnuts’ an homage, not the original
By Andrew Z. Galarneau | Published April 28, 2017 | Updated April 28, 2017
Freddies Doughnuts are back in Buffalo, but their reappearance requires an asterisk.
 
Challenged by family members of Freddies founder Fred Maier, current Freddies proprietor Fred Frandina has clarified his relationship to the iconic Buffalo brand.
 
Frandina did not buy the recipe and rights to Freddies Doughnuts, he said, after being asked by a reporter to provide documentation of the purchase.
(...)
“The family started with the company in the 1930s. They never came up with the times and protected themselves in that way,” Frandina said.
       
YouTube
Here’s how Paula’s Donuts makes Buffalo’s favorite peanut sticks
WKBW TV | Buffalo, NY
Published on Feb 10, 2018
Here’s how Paula’s Donuts makes Buffalo’s favorite peanut sticks
 
Buffalo (NY) News
Buffalo Made: Paula’s peanut stick
By Danielle Ossher | April 27, 2018
(...)
Making the peanut stick
1. Make the cake dough
2. Work it
3. Cut it out
4. Line the rack
5. Drop in the fryer
6. Flip ‘em
7. Dunk in glaze
8. Ready for the case
 
Visit Buffalo-Niagara
9 Classic Buffalo Foods to Be Thankful For
By Brian Hayden
11/16/2018 | BARS AND NIGHTLIFE, FOOD & DRINK, WINGS
(...)
4. Peanut Sticks
I’ve yet to find these anywhere else: giant frycakes covered in chopped peanuts. I’ve heard stories from my parents about the legendary Freddie’s Donuts that made these back in the day. Now, Paula’s Donuts is a prime go-to spot for them.