Like the seven heads of Hydra the specter of the fad that is the cronut (and several other spellings) continues unabated with new places releasing their knock-off versions to an unsuspecting world. I mean even the originator of the fad is moving on to other new and interesting dessert creations--milk and cookie shot glass anyone? While we await the arrival of our version of that, I continue to run across the variations of the cronut in unexpected places around town and elsewhere. On a recent jaunt to the Bayview District to hit up a soul food festival me and the SO stumbled across a corner restaurant called CDXX that I vaguely remember hearing about somewhere. We wandered in to just peruse the menu and on this weekend day they were only serving brunch which looked interesting but what caught my eye was the listing for a croughnut. Well, we weren't planning to eat here but we did decide to get a couple of the croughnuts to go to snack on while we walked around. Here it is......
It's a cinnamon sugar croughnut (their spelling) with a drizzle of caramel on top. They are made to order so that are hot and fresh out of the fryer--which I'll say in this case was not the best option. The biggest problem we had was it seemed the croughnut wasn't allowed to drain after being deep fried and the oil seemed to have gotten trapped in the layers causing everything to be squishy when you bit down on it--hot yes--crispy, crunchy--not at all. Then when add in the caramel it made the whole thing a big wet mess of soft oily dough. Since we got two of them we decided to let the other one rest and see if that might help firm it up or something, but alas, to no avail, it just remained one big hot mess.
My next encounter with a cronut happened at Safeway in Truckee, CA of all places. We decided to get away to Lake Tahoe for the weekend and stopped in to stock up on a few supplies when I saw the glazed cronut creation sitting in the donut showcase. I somehow felt drawn to it and thus compelled to get one, because, well, I've tried every one else around town, why not this one.
On this particular Friday night it was the last one in the case and I took realizing that it had probably been made that morning and sat in the case most of the day. But you know what? All things considered, it wasn't half bad. Not as good as the ones I had at Fillmore Bakeshop, but for something mass produced at a Safeway bakery I'd have to give it a good solid B/B+ as an okay substitute for some of the other ones I've had. It had a nice glaze covering, flaky layers that pulled apart and didn't have that greasy deep fried taste that can sometimes happen (see above). It was like a step up from a French cruller, a little more heft but not too much cake like a traditional donut and thus it pains me to say kudos to Safeway. Between this and that cinnamon roll with cream cheese icing they've somehow managed to bake out two winners in my dessert land, go figure. Though I have to wonder why I haven't ever seen these at a Safeway here in San Francisco. Of the three I've been to I haven't found it so either they've sold through before I get there or this is specific to Truckee Safeway which seems odd just to type. Either way I'll keep looking and if anyone finds them please note in comments where I can track them down at. Till then....well, I'm not sure, but it will probably involve something with sugar.
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