FINALLY, THE UWS GETS ITS CRONUT SPINOFF

We had been waiting for months to see if an Upper West Side bakery would catch onto the Cronut craze that has compelled people to wait in line for two hours to get into one West Village bakery. And now it appears that a local chain has seized the moment! The “crumbnut,” a cream filled croissant-doughnut is being sold at Crumbs locations for $2.95; an employee at the Amsterdam Avenue and 77th street location said that the pastries tend to sell out early. There are other Crumbs locations on 92nd and Broadway, 97th and Columbus and 109th and Broadway. You can buy them with or without the cream in the center.

It’s unlikely the crumbnut is made with quite the same painstaking care as the Cronut, whose creation was described by chef Dominique Ansel like this: “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.”

But the crumbnuts earned high praise from Midtown Lunch: “If you’re like me and desperately want to try a real cronut but you aren’t willing to expend the effort to get your hands on one, swallow your pride and get a Crumbnut. It’s one heck of a good doughnut.”

Zagat was slightly less enthusiastic: “The plain version is more along the lines of a glazed doughnut with the signature ‘Cronut’ layers, while the Bavarian cream is covered with powdered sugar and seeps with sweet custard. In our opinion, neither hold up to the original because they’re both a bit dry, not-so-buttery and lack flavor. One eager customer told us that while he’d never been to Dominique Ansel Bakery, ‘I’d rather just have a regular glazed doughnut than this.’ He took a few bites of both flavors and said he preferred the Bavarian.  His conclusion: ‘This Crumbnut is not worth waiting in line for.'”

To learn about another special local treat, check out our piece on the bread pudding at One Cup Two Cupcakes on 107th. Or sink your teeth into one of the famous cookies at Levain on 74th.