Cocomaya's Cronut

Ah, the cronut. Anyone who reads my blog has probably already heard about the cronut from a much more respected source, but who among us in London can say that they've tried one yet?

Probably a few, yes, but not that many! After all, I've only seen them available at Duck & Waffle for one day only last Sunday, and Cocomaya a bit more regularly in the last week. They were selling out very quickly, but through the grace of a very compassionate Cocomaya employee one was set aside for me on Sunday morning.

I've never been to Cocomaya before as all of their locations happen to be out of my way, but I was impressed by the prettiness of the surrounding street and the interior of the bakery was charming as well. Seemed like it was a small neighborhood place, with a kind of communal table to sit on inside and lots of seating outside, as well. The bakery is next door to the chocolate shop, but I didn't even peak in there so I can't say what was going on...presumably some sort of chocolatier-ing.

When we arrived, the cronut was bagged. We decided to take a seat and split the cronut with a couple coffees, so we took it out.

...and it was massive. It was like some kind of obelisk, I felt like dancing around it and throwing a tree branch at it. At first I had been thinking, "what a shame, why did I agree to share this cronut?" but upon looking, there was no way I could eat an entire one. And listen, I'm not trying to be demure and feminine, I can easily eat any burger, any giant brownie, and wash it down with a bunch of fries - for example, we ate at Honest Burger a few hours later and I happily ate my entire meal without even flinching. This, however, this cronut was ridiculously gigantic.

I foolishly didn't take any comparison photos, but imagine two fists pressed together topped with ganache and filled with chocolate cream.

Seriously, it was like two flaky doughnuts stacked together, sandwiched by chocolate custard-cream. The St. John's doughnut I had ages ago had a very similar filling, except the Cocomaya filling was chocolate flavored, and perhaps denser. It was like a cross between custard and whipped cream, with the density of custard but a bit of the bounce of cream.

This picture better illustrates the flaky layers:

Well, kinda! It really is a lot like a cross between a doughnut and a croissant - there is a sort of crispiness to the outermost layer, and on the inside it is layered like a croissant, but more dense & soft, like a doughnut. After I ate half, I felt super full and satisfied, unlike the way I feel after a doughnut OR a croissant. This is like the best bits of each of them, with cream inside.

I really recommend going to Cocomaya soon to try one of these - they're quite massive, so it might be best to split one...with me.

I think a new flavor is out soon, the one that I tried was chocolate cream and chocolate fondant with sprinkle stars. Who knows what's next? I'm hoping for something vanilla or white chocolate, myself.

Soon, I hope to try the Duck & Waffle dosant, and any and all other comers to the world of cronuts here in London. My first experience was very positive.