No Cronuts for You! Yes, Cronuts for You!

A pastry invention called the cronut has taken Manhattan by storm and a world-wide frenzy seems eminent.

Invented and trademarked by baker Dominique Ansel, the cronut was first sold on May 10, 2013. Available only at Ansel's bakery, the cronut is a combination of that French pastry of perfection, the donut, and the American pastry of perfection, the croissant. I wrote that backwards. Did you catch it? No sleeping here! This is pastry science! PASTRY SCIENCE!

Ansel makes only 200 to 250 cronuts daily. Lines form hours before the bakery opens at 8 am. When the doors open the cronuts sell out quickly-- at five dollars apiece. Just getting one can be a traumatic experience, to which this great article by Alexander Abad-Santos attests.

Almost immediately scalpers were buying the maximum number (3) of cronuts and selling them outside the stores for forty of fifty dollars apiece. A jackleg cronut delivery service is now delivering them for $100 apiece or $1500 for ten (apparently they're not good at math at http://www.croissantdoughnut.com/).

The black market delivery site will soon be gone, which is why the link just above isn't hooked up, but you'll find a screenshot of their order page below the fold.

But wait! Did you know you can get an esoteric blend of the delectable donut and the captivating croissant less than a mile from your Pine Lake home?

NOW you can click READ MORE!

A couple of years ago, without fanfare, an item known as the donut croissant began to show up in the pastry display case at Ingles supermarket.

Fat Marc Holding an Ingles Donut Croissant

 I tried one, and OMG! But let Fat Marc describe his experience. I've edited it a bit so it will look as if he understands English. Click the link just above to see what I mean:

Recently I discovered a donut I've not seen anywhere except at the bakery at the grocery across the street from work-- the croissant donut. This donut is shaped like a croissant-- light, airy and flaky like the croissant, but somehow sweeter and tastier. It's larger in size and weighs more than the traditional donut, but is smaller than the apple fritter, making it more filling [more filling than what, Marc? A regular donut or an apple fritter? Give your editor a break!], but not too filling. Lately this has been my donut of choice. I also believe, because I haven’t seen this product at any other bakery, that this donut is that much more special. I like to imagine it's the creation of a mad grocery baker. Has anyone seen these anywhere else?

Let's give Marc a big hand, shall we, folks?

Clearly, I wasn't the only one who loved the donut croissants at Ingles. I quickly discovered that if I didn't get the the store before noon I would find only a flat pastry tray with a few traces of sugar glaze.

The Ingles donut croissant isn't as frou-frou as the official cronut, which is fried in grapeseed oil, then filled with cream and topped with goo and doubtless undergoes all sorts of special trademarked manipulations at the hands of Dominique Ansel's specially-trained-and-sworn-to-secrecy band of bakers. The donut croissant is simpler than the cronut, more essential. Unlike Ansel's cronut, it's not too much. It's just right.

Try one.

p.s. For a hint of my feelings about pastries, see this post on my blog about Second Life. That dog and that donut inspired a ridiculous 38-part arc about--- well, the beignet separatist movement, English throwing scones, the Queen's Own Rakehell, Fashionista bandits, and pastry-related government conspiracies.