Monday, July 15, 2013

The Cronut variation in Singapore: Gnut and Crodos

With the world so connected, food craze in other countries reach Singapore quite fast. A few weeks ago, I saw the instagram photos of the real Cronut from a friend who have traveled to New York to try it. Another friend who lives in NYC says it's worth the queue to try.

Just the other day, I was scrolling my Instagram feed and had the urge for Cronut. I think it was also when the Lady of Substance from our local papers wrote a piece about cronuts too. OK, no way I can fly to New York to try it, so I had the following for breakfast!

Keropokman the Nut! :

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore
Croissant from DeliFrance and a colourful donut from Four Leaves.
The most laughable version I know, but at least I did not think about it anymore.

There are I think 3 places that sells their own interpretation of Cronuts in Singapore. Since Cronut is a trademark, everyone else is giving their version their own name.

Gnut:

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

Patisserie G, which is near KopiKosongGirl's office started selling their version today. They call it Gnut. She knew I was a bit crazy about it and when she walked pass it during lunch today, she walked in and saw 3 chocolate Gnut and 8 lemon Gnut left. It's the first day selling Gnut today!

When KopiKosongGirl said it was to pack away, the staff there had a mini horror face. Then they gave her strict instructions: Please eat it within the hour and do not refrigerate! I think they would wanted her to have it straight away!

The wife called and say told me: Hey, taking a cab down to her office is cheaper than flying to NYC. Come now if you want to try it! I took a cab and met her to eat it!

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

The Chocolate Cream Gnut. ($5)

Looks really fragile and it's quite small. Nicely blistered too!
The Gnut is quite crispy and when you hold it harder, you hear the cracks.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

Moved the wrapper off a bit to show you how it looks. If you compare it to the lemon version, the chocolate one is a bit flat.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

This was taken outdoors very quickly so that I can bite it as fresh. Smaller than the size of my palm.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

After two bites, I remembered, I have not taken photo of the inside!
This, the Chocolate cream filled version. The cold chocolate cream oozes out as you bite into it.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore
The Lemon Cream Gnut. ($5)
You can see that it's much taller than the chocolate one.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

The lemon cream is sour enough and it goes well with the fried croissant / donut like texture of the Gnut. It's like how my sis makes her very lemony lemon squares. I prefer this lemon version of it. So did KopiKosongGirl. It's quite a nice treat that I had!



Crodos:


The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

The last time I was at Da Paolo, I was told come around 10 am, it would be sold out around 11 am or earlier. The above was taken at the Pasarbella branch a few days ago.

I thought I will try my luck by detouring to Holland Village's Da Paolo Gastronomia to see if I can get myself some Crodos to compare. It was almost 2 pm, and they still had a tray of Crodos!

Bought 2 of it and hop on a cab back to office!

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore
The Choc Crodo ($4.90)

The layers can be seen and it's filled with a different kind of chocolate cream.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

They are slightly bigger than Pat G's version. The chocolate layer on top reminds me of Chocolate Eclairs. Taste about the same like the chocolate on top eclairs too.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

If you still like your donuts that still taste like donuts but more of a layered feel, Crodos taste like that. It's not as flaky and crispy like the Gnut.

The chocolate filling in Crodos is nicer than Gnut's though for me.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore
The Cream Crodo ($4.90)

The cream version has a slight sugar coating over it.

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

From the side view, you can see the layers as well. Nicely risen and puffed.  I wish I could try the NYC version of it!

The NY Donut Craze in Singapore

The cream had been 'injected' with custard cream. Cream was not too sweet.
Looks tempting to you?


So people who saw my photos on Instragram and Facebook asked, which is nicer? It depends on your taste!

  • If you like crispy thinner layers, a bit like how croissants taste in Paris (Singapore croissants are usually very limp) then you would like Gnut's texture.
  • If you like donuts to taste more like donuts with the softer feel, you would like Crodos.
Both are a little oily, because they are deep fried. (duh!) Both Crodos and Gnuts taste very different.

Personally, of the 4 that is above, I like the Lemon Gnut because of the lemon tart/refreshing taste of it with a crispy of the dough. I like the chocolate of crodos more though, because I like dark chocolate.



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice meh?

Unknown said...

OMG! i must go and try!

Anonymous said...

Where's the 3rd place?

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