One of the food sensations of 2013 was undoubtedly the Cronut: the half-croissant, half-doughnut hybrid concocted by Dominique Ansel, formerly the head pastry chef at Manhattan’s Daniel. Ansel’s creation went viral and created a frenzy—he limits production to 250 per day, and prospective customers begin lining up before dawn at his SoHo bakery. They cost $5 apiece and have been known to hit $100 on the black market.
Given the scarcity and runaway demand, a wave of knockoffs was inevitable—even though Ansel filed a trademark application for his brainchild. Chocolate Crust in Washington, D.C. and Circle City Sweets in Indianapolis are selling Doissants. Doughssants are rising in Chicago’s West Town Bakery, and a Connecticut supermarket named Stew Leonard’s sells Cro-Dos.
Last summer, pseudo-cronuts were sighted in Jacksonville and Sanibel and even briefly invaded Palm Beach County: The Kronut Kruller made an appearance on the dessert menu of Boca Raton’s Red the Steakhouse, only to disappear again. Looks like the rest of us will just have to fly north and get in line.
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