Well, a Cronut is a new dessert; recipe by a baker in New York: Dominique Ansel Bakery.Earlier this year he invented this cross-over between a doughnut and a croissant. It is such a world wide hype, that it has been in newspapers all over the world. New Yorkers line up daily, hours before the shop opens, to buy their cronut.
I had read about it when I was in Holland.
Hong Kong would not be Hong Kong if they had not rapidly made their own cronuts.
I had just been talking to friends in Singapore about the hype around the cronut, so when I read this article in Hong Kong’s Time Out, I knew this was my chance to check out the famous cronut for myself!
Well, let me begin to clarify that there is no such thing as a Hong Kong Cronut;-).
Obviously the New York invention is copyrighted; recipe AND name. They are very well aware of that here, so they wisely don’t call their products cronuts. I however, will refer to them as such;-).
Let’s have a look at the ‘cronuts’ of the above three shops:
First I went to Petite Amanda, a teeny tiny shop in IFC Mall on Hong Kong Island.
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| As you can see they call theirs a Croissant Doughnut. |
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| And one with strawberry jam. |
Verdict: leaning towards a croissant, only in a doughnut shape.
Petite Amanda, by the way, is run by a Hong Kong model, who is featured in one of the magazines I came across:
Then I went to the Mandarin Cake Shop at the Mandarin Hotel on Hong Kong Island.
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| Also here they do not call it a cronut. The saleslady explicitly told me: “That is not allowed, ma’m.” |
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| This cronut is a lot higher than the ones from Petite Amanda. |
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| As you can see, the structure of the one from the Mandarin (on the left) is also very different then the one from Petite Amanda (on the right) |
Verdict: wow, this one really tasts as a cross-over between a croissant and a doughnut. NICE! I like!
The third shop I went to was Swissbeck on Hollywood Road, also on Hong Kong Island.
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| They call theirs Rohnuts;-). |
Verdict: the Swissbeck cronut or Rohnut leans a bit more towards a doughnut.
For me the winner is the Mandarin’s cronut. Swissbeck comes in second and Petite Amanda closes the ranks.
Ofcourse I cannot compare any of them with The Real Thing. Maybe one day I will, although I do not see it happening any day soon. Probably a good thing, since I could seriously fall for The Cronut. Not only would I get fat, but it is bad, bad, bad for a diabetic like me!
For this investigation and this blogpost, I sacrificed myself and ate half of the four cronuts;-). The other halves were for my other half.
Have you tried a cronut already? Which one and what was your verdict? Would you cue up on the street from 5.30 a.m. to 8.00 a.m. for your cronut?
Thanks for the information!
Didn’t know about it.
Glad to bring something new to such an experienced world traveller!;-)