Cronuts™ This is a real, honest to goodness cronut from Ansel’s SoHo
I mentioned that we indulged in Cronuts during Cousin Carla’s visit. Let me share the Chicago experience.
The legend of the Cronut: The Cronut is a hybrid of a doughnut and a croissant, brought to you by pastry chef Dominique Ansel and sold at his New York bakery, Ansel’s SoHo. Chef Ansel introduced the world to Cronuts on May 10, and the exclusive dessert has been making quite a name for itself.
Ansel’s SoHo has made it very clear that the Cronut is not simply half doughnut, half croissant. “The Cronut™ is first proofed and then fried in grapeseed oil at a specific temperature. Once cooked, each Cronut is flavored in three ways: 1. rolled in sugar; 2. filled with cream; and 3. topped with glaze. Cronuts are made fresh daily, and completely done in house. The entire process takes up to 3 days,” according to the pastry chef. The treats sell for a pretty penny—$5 apiece.
Cronuts are so popular that they’ve spawned a black market and a lottery. Copycats have been spotted in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., London, and Australia. In fact, an article in the Wall Street Journal explores the race to “reverse-engineer” Cronuts in Asia, where you can find a green-tea flavored one in Japan and a peanut-caramel version in China. Always one step ahead of his imitators, Ansel is debuting a “Croconut”—a cronut embellished with “coconut milk cream, coconut glaze, cinnamon sugar, and just a light sprinkling of toasted coconut on top.”
While I don’t think our Cronut experience was as genuine as you might find in New York, we did find Cronuts at a local Chicago bakery. They cost $5 apiece and the shop limited them to one Cronut per person. Cousin Carla, Cole and I snagged the last three.
Cole loved his Cronut. I enjoyed mine, despite not being crazy about donut filling, and Cousin Carla was not a fan, preferring the fried-in-Wesson, rolled-in-sugar, dumped-into-a-paper-sack donuts we devoured the day before at the discount mall. However, we all agreed our Cronut adventure was fun.
Here is a list of places where you can find knockoff Cronuts in Chicago. For your city, do a Cronut Google search. You might also want to search “doughssant,” since the name Cronut is officially trademarked. In any case, Chef Ansel is exploring the prospect of taking the product nationwide, so stay tuned for more about the Cronut craze.
El Morno will be posted soon, I just don’t want us to get into a rut….
Odd Loves Company!
I would like to try a Cronut..someone in El Paso will probably copy them soon..but are they worth $5 each ? 🙄
Maybe the “real thing” is worth $5.00, but I think our Cronuts were overpriced. Very doubtful that Chicago Cronuts take three days to make. They were $3.00 good. 😀
They charge $5.00 for Cronut? It’s a doughnut right? I’d like to try one, but they would have to be awfully good to bring me back for seconds. Very interesting.
Now, my really question is Sunday dinner?
Well….how does your sister feels about catfish for dessert? Plan B! Take a watermelon (yesterday food of the day)!
Wow! Those look really good. I would like the real and the knockoff just fine. I will have to google. They aren’t much more than a designer coffee drink which I guess isn’t saying much. I wonder how my hubby would feel about a quick trip to NYC?
Well, if you add in a trip to NYC the price goes up considerable but go for it!
no thanks! i’m not much of a croissant person. i’ll just take a donut then i guess. will need to google this.
Ours didn’t taste much like a croissant to me. Maybe because they did not have tons of flakey layers. A dependable donut is always good.
I went to a show n go this morning, and had a doughnut. Funny the only time I crave a doughnut is at dog shows. I’d like to try a cronut but agree with Mike, it would have to be better than good to bring me back to paying $5.00 for one.
TTFN
MJ
i think the ones Chef Ansel make are worth the $5.00 and from what I read the wait in line. I’m not sure about the knockoffs.