Today on Food on Fridays we look at a doughnut-related fad: the cronut.

Click here to read what the bakery that invented it in New York has to say about their   Cronut®. The pastry is a cross between a croissant and a donut. Here’s a bit of the description from the website:

To this date, Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York is the only place that sells the Cronut®, a specific product that is not to be confused with just any other croissant-doughnut hybrid. The Cronut® brand and product  is a registered trademark of Dominique Ansel Bakery both in the US and internationally. Please beware of imitation items claiming affiliation with the bakery.

The Makings of the Cronut®…
Taking 2 months and more than 10 recipes, Chef Dominique Ansel’s creation is not to be mistaken as simply croissant dough that has been fried. Made with a laminated dough which has been likened to a croissant (but uses a proprietary recipe), 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.

These are now turning up in Tübingen, both at Amy’s Donuts, as well as in regular bakeries. Perhaps to avoid the trademark issues with the name, the ones we tried from a German bakery here were labelled Cronoots.

They were dense, filled with creamy things — the purple filling tasted much like the yellow one.  I’ve included photos of the Cronoots we tried below.

I’d say enjoy, but we didn’t. Once was once more than enough. So this weekend — the final weekend before the start of Lent and the end of the doughnut season — if we go for a final doughnut treat, it definitely won’t be a cronoot.