The Cronut and Its Imitators

I have a confession.... I have become "slightly" addicted to Cronuts. I put the "slightly" in quotation marks because its only a monthly indulgence.

      Invented by Dominique Ansel pastry chef & bakery owner, the Cronut was named as the biggest food invention/story of 2013. This creation has garnered worldwide media attention and had foodies in a frenzy. Now there are plenty of articles about this creation of Dominique Ansel, the origin and what gave him the idea to come up with this in the first place. I am not going to delve into that. I want to discuss my thoughts on why, almost a year after its debut, there is still a desire for people to wait for hours just to purchase this. 
     I have expertise on this subject because I am one of the "crazies" who go to the bakery monthly and wait just to get my hands on it. For the past eight months I have tried each flavor and have been successful in getting on line at the right time before it gets sold out. 

The infamous line around the block for Cronuts

Freshly baked Madelines for people waiting on line 

   There are a couple of reasons why I return monthly. The Cronut itself satisfies my need for a dessert. The outside is crisp and sweet because it fried and tossed with sugar after leaving the hot oil. This makes a crunchy crust that is the opposite of the interior. The croissant like interior is layered with butter pastry which has the flavor of the month cream nestled between the layers. When you take a bite of the Cronut you have an experience of different textures. The crunchiness of the outside with the crystallized sugar then the chewy butteriness of the inside with bursts of flavored cream. I like to go and try the inventive flavors of the month. The cronut serves as a delicate canvas that allows the fruit & cream combinations to shine. From coconut cream, fig mascarpone to caramelized apple creme fraiche just hearing the new upcoming flavor gets me salivating.  

Salted Dulce de Leche- Novembers flavor

                                               

Whole Foods Doughssant

Crumbs Crumbnut

You know you have something great when there are countless duplications. Dominique Ansel copy-wrote Cronut so there is only one. However, many bakeries & restaurants have tried to re-create this using a different moniker. Doughssants, Crumbnut, Doussants are all creative names that are used for a Cronut copycat. I have tried a couple of these copycats just to compare. Whole Foods has a chocolate covered Doughssant which is filled with vanilla cream. It was extremely dry, no layers, not fried on the outside and the icing & cream tasted artificial. I have also tried Crumbs version called the Crumbnut. Though better than the Whole Foods version, the Crumbnut reminded me of a week old croissant with a dusting of powdered sugar. It had the layers like a Cronut, it was just really dry and had an after taste. All copy-cats have not been just pastry. I have also tried the Cragel from The Bagel Store in Williamsburg Brooklyn. A cragel is a bagel that has croissant dough rolled into it and baked. The cragel was more of a sweet bagel to me. It was not cohesive because the croissant dough pieces did not expand due to the weight of the heavier bagel dough. 

The Bagel Store's Cragel

      Now if you want to snag a Cronut there are a couple of things you need to know to be successful. You can pre-order them from the bakery (if you can get through) or wait on line. If you are going to go, here are some quick tips:1) Go Monday-Wednesday because they are the slowest days. 2) Arrive at the bakery by 7 am to wait on line. This arrive time will need to be earlier during the warmer months. ( In July I arrived at 6:00 am) 3) If the weather looks gloomy, better chances of a shorter line = you getting one. If you arrive to the bakery and the line is around the corner, count the people. The bakery makes roughly 300 cronuts/day and being that there is a 2 per person limit, count the people in front of you to avoid wasting time in waiting. If you are within the first 120 people your golden. Good Luck! 

My happy face about to eat Decembers flavor- Chocolate Valrohna Champagne

PieCaken- From The What, Why, How to Yum!

     Every now and then I browse the internet searching for new and unique recipes. I was in a mode where all I could think of is baking pies. While searching for new pie ideas I came across something that I never heard or seen before. Piecaken- a genius idea and kudos to whomever thought of it.  Piecaken is when a pie is baked within a cake. The outside it looks like a typical cake but when you slice a piece you get pie within it.

     There were all sorts of pie/cake combinations that I immediately thought of. In my search the most popular ones were lemon blueberry piecaken, chocolate cherry piecaken and vanilla apple piecaken. I thought of many other combinations and the time was perfect because I had to make my best friends birthday cake. Being that it was late fall I thought it would be fitting to bake something seasonal. So I made a pumpkin pie baked into a spice cake with a maple buttercream frosting, coated in pecans. (Spice Cake Recipe I used http://southernfood.about.com/od/spicecakerecipes/r/bl31221g.htm)

Beginning to assemble

Half of the cake batter followed by the pie 

Cake flipped upside down

Decorated cake

                                                        

Cross section view

     Reading the blogs I was already aware of the process of making a piecaken. First you have to make the pie. Like the recommendations said I baked the pie the day before I was to bake the entire cake because the pie has to be completely cool. The next day I made a spice cake batter and was ready for assembly. In a greased 9 inch springform pan I poured half of the batter. Carefully, I placed the pie on top of the batter- upside down. You need to put the pie in upside down because once the cake is done you flip it over to frost & serve. On top of the pie, pour remaining batter making sure it is fully covered. Now its time to bake. I baked my piecaken at 350 degrees for about 1 hour & 20 minutes. Baking times vary so I recommend testing the cake after 50 minutes in 15 minute increments. Also, the perimeter of the cake cooks faster so halfway through I wrapped it with foil to protect it from over cooking while the middle finishes. Once it was completely cool, I frosted and decorated it. 

Chocolate Cherry PieCaken ready to be baked

Foil to protect outside from over-cooking

Finished product in half the time

      Now if you don't have the time here are some tips to make a piecaken within a couple of hours. For thanksgiving this year I had many dishes to make so my time was limited. I still wanted to make a piecaken but didn't want to go through the whole process. I bought a box chocolate cake mix, a ready to bake cherry pie and chocolate frosting. I know I cheated being that I usually bake from scratch but time was of the essence. I followed the same steps as above and had a baked and frosted piecaken within hours. So if you want to wow your family and friends, this is a great dessert thats intricate but can take minimal effort. Now go ahead and try to make one!! Let me know your results. Its as easy as pie...cake.. :) 

Cross Section View