One time, I ate a cronut.

On a scale from 1 to patient, I'm probably a zero. One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting on a line. As a child, I thought water parks were the stupidest thing ever, because you'd stand on line for 30 minutes to scoot down a water slide for five seconds. Is this really the best use of time? Absolutely not. I could be eating funnel cake, for crying out loud! Also, I'm a terrible swimmer.  Especially after eating funnel cake. 

So, in the beginning, I was not all that excited about this cronut hype.  My friend convinced me to visit the Dominique Ansel Bakery on a recent trip to NYC (as a local, she'd been waiting for the hype to die down a bit before embarking on the cronut adventure. Spoiler alert: the hype hasn't really died down). 

My enthusiasm waned drastically when I arrived an hour before the bakery opened to this: 

So cold. So raining on me. Apparently the line is much shorter if it's raining, but you definitely pay the price in personal misery.  I have to say that the bakery employees were pretty awesome about it. They came around with hot chocolates for everyone and mini lemon madelines. I almost forgot how cold my feet were! Almost.

 

There were very explicit rules about the cronut procedure.  ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS.

They let people in the bakery in batches, and my friend and I just missed the first batch so we had to wait another twenty minutes at the front of the line.  Some random guy walking down the street tried to do the old "chat and cut" maneuver. That did NOT go over well with the shivering minions. 

Once we got in, I was determined to get my money's worth. I got two cronuts (the maximum), and a variety of pastries and desserts. They had quite a selection to choose from: 

 

The seasonal cronut flavor was passion fruit with a Caramelia chocolate mousse filling. (Caramelia is a milk chocolate that tastes like caramel - it's basically the most delicious thing ever). 

Please excuse this gross, half-bitten photo. I just wanted to show you the layers of pastry cream/chocoalte mousse and cronut.  I imagine they have a big syringe of chocolate mousse and inject the pastry in between the layers. 

Look at those flaky layers. And that ring of passion fruit goodness. Le sigh. 

 

Another high pint was the mini-me chocolate cake. This was a delicious chocolate ganache-y tart with chocolate marshmallows on top. Sugarhusband LOVED this one, as he is a fan of all things fudgy and chocolate. 

My personal favorite was the Paris-New York. It's an interpretation of the traditional French pastry Paris-Brest, which is named after a famous biking route (it is a ring of pate a choux with delicious cream inside). This interpretation tasted like a snickers bar, with caramel, peanuts, and chocolate.

So. Good.   At this point, I had sufficiently given myself a sugar hangover. I would TOTALLY go back to this bakery the next time I'm in the city. I think, though, that since I've tasted my cronut (ok, my two cronuts), I might skip the massive line and just buy some of the other delicious treats. I REALLY want to get a milk and cookie shot (they make a shot glass out of a chocolate chip cookie and fill it with milk.  GENIUS!) but it's only offered in the afternoon.  

In conclusion, it was an amazing field trip! Totally worth the hype. And as the bakery itself says, ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS!