In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, let me tell you about the latest food craze in New York, on the interwebs and pretty much all around the world. Pastry Chef Dominique Ansel spent 2 months in his magical test kitchen and created the Cronut™, a half doughnut, half croissant pastry lovechild that somehow turned every living human on Earth into Homer Simpson and all they can think about is the Cronut™.
Cronuts Mania
Since it was first introduced on May 10th, 2013, people have gone nuts for it. For those lucky enough to actually be in New York, they start lining up at around 6 AM, and line up for hours waiting for the Soho bakery to open at 8 AM – and it actually sells out within 2 hours of opening, so if you’ve been in line and they run out? Tough luck. Then we have people selling Cronuts on the black market for Cronuts for 4x the price (Cronuts are $5 a pop at the bakery). People are so in love with the Cronut that they even use it as a tool to express their ultimate form of love, with Cronut proposals. Then of course, with anything that blows up so quickly, there are some Cronut copycats too.
With all this Cronut hype, did I hop on the bandwagon to get my fix? Well, if you knew anything about me, you’d know I really dislike long waits and also am not a huge sweets fan. So when I heard about the Cronut, I didn’t even bother.
Then, one magical day earlier this month, my coworker, E, was visiting from LA and decided to bring these beauties to the office…
 |
| In Cronut Heaven covered in Blackberry for July’s flavor, photo credit to E |
OMFG CRONUT!?!?! AHHHHHH! IT’S A CRONUT!
With a quick glimpse of these beauties, my interest level in a Cronut went from zero to a million. I mean, there it was sitting right in front of me… the thing that people line up for hours and hours for! Lucky for me, E was feeling generous and shared with all of us.
So, what’s the verdict? Without knowing much about the Cronut prior to my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised to find a cream filling inside my croissant & donut – the cream filling actually reminds me a lot of the filling inside my favorite creme brulee donut at Doughnut Plant.
The second thing that came to mind was how my Cronut had the texture of a few layers of sugared donuts that have been smashed together, and then layered on top of each other. Perhaps it was because I didn’t actually take a bite into the Cronut, rather we cut them into a few pieces for the sake of sharing. That said, I think I expected the Cronut to have the fluffiness and flakely layers of a croissant but alas, it wasn’t there.
The icing on top of the Cronut was just whatevers to me. I did like it because it was a bit tart and helped balance out the flavors, but overall, I would NOT wait in line for 2-3 hours for this Cronut, but if it was in front of me, I’d eat it. It’s a solid pastry.
How to get a Cronut without the wait
In case you were wondering about how E hooked us all up with Cronuts, it’s actually a LOT easier than you think. Seriously not sure why there haven’t been more reports about this, but did you know that you could actually get yourself on a Pre-order list for Cronuts?
E got herself on the list, and waltzed right into the Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho (with jealous glares burning through her back), grabbed her Cronuts and waltzed right out. Easy peasy. More info about that can be found on DA’s Cronuts 101.
Oh, and if you’re super hardcore, you can order 50 Cronuts as a large order – yes that’s $250 worth of baked goods for you.
The Battle of Cronuts and Dough’ssants, a “Cronut” by Chikalicious
As I mentioned earlier, there’s already quite a few Cronut copycats, and as of this week, even South Korean Dunkin’ Donuts dupes. However, since the term “Cronut™” has been trademarked, all the other pastry chefs looking to bank on the success of the Cronut has to call it something else.
Lucky for me, J has quite the sweet tooth and frequents one of my favorite cupcake shops in New York City, Chikalicious. Seriously, their Key Lime cupcakes are to DIE FOR and worth every calorie. But back to the dough’ssants – today, J went to Chickalicious Dessert Club earlier this evening and saw that they had dough’ssants for sale…
 |
| The Meyer Lemon Dough’ssant by Dessert Club Chikalicious |
So how does it compare to our beloved Cronut? Visually, it looks like we’re missing a tad of icing on top, but besides that, can you even tell the difference from my two picture?
Now as for the taste, I loved the lemon cream inside the doughnut and think it definitely rivals the creme inside the Cronut. The dough was as light and fluffy as I was hoping it to be, unlike the dense mess that was the Cronut. Full disclosure, this time, I bit into the Dough’ssant instead of cutting it apart like the Cronut…so it might be a tad different.
Overall, if you handed this Dough’ssant to me and told me it was a Cronut, I seriously would be none the wiser and to be COMPLETELY honest, I might even like the Dough’ssant a bit more than the Cronut.
So for those of you looking to try the Cronut without any of the craziness, I highly recommend you save yourself a few hours (and also 50 cents, since the Dough’ssant is only $4.50) and go get yourself a Dough’ssant at Dessert Club Chikalicious in East Village. You won’t regret it.
————————
Chikalicious Dessert Club | Yelp
204 E 10th St
(between 1st Ave & 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10003
Neighborhood: East Village
(212) 475-0929
