All Hail the Croughnut

For the past year or so the word “croughnut” has been resounding in my brain.  When I first read of this miraculous anomaly I felt my taste buds go into overdrive.  The idea behind the croughnut is an exquisite blend of doughnut and croissant.  It holds true to the size and shape and sweetness of a doughnut, but infuses the buttery, flaky, fluffy goodness of a croissant.  Heavenly, right?  The problem with these angelic pastries was that they were only being created in New York?  Ex-SQUEEZE me?  I would continuously ask people, “WHEN is the croughnut coming to L.A. ? I mean something that comes from the heavens should reside in the city of angels, am I right?”  But no one could answer this question and my heart remained heavy.  For a year I have been continually teased and tempted and mocked by food diaries, blogs, articles and even tweets about the almighty croughnut. Until today.  Today I logged onto twitter and saw the words I’ve been anxiously awaiting.  Croughnut comes to Los Angeles!  What’s that I hear?  Angels singing??  To make the situation even more beautiful, the shop that is selling croughnuts is exactly 1.8 miles from the humble Los Feliz studio in which I’m currently dwelling.  I immediately hopped in my car and high tailed it to Kettle Glazed Doughnuts at 6211 Franklin Avenue.  My heart was literally racing as I was speeding along Franklin.  For a moment I thought that perhaps I should reassess just HOW excited I was about this croughnut.  Maybe it was a bit excessive.  But the truth is, there aren’t many things we have to wait for anymore.  We live in a time where we can get almost anything we want on the ready.  We can google something if we don’t know it, we can buy something on credit if we don’t have the cash, and we have access to transportation to take us just about anywhere.  We don’t get the gut wrenching pleasure and thrill of anticipation all that often anymore.  So I think the thrill of awaiting the croughnut for an entire year made the ability to go get one that much sweeter.  Plus, I knew it was going to be good.  How good?  Boy was I in for a shock.

Kettle Glazed is in a modest strip mall on Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles.  They have only been open for three days and the shop had a crisp clean feel upon entering.  A friendly employee welcomed me and I proceeded to quickly scan the gorgeous pastries looking for my precious croughnut. I ordered two, along with an iced coffee.  They sell Coffee Bean coffee, along with an assortment of other beverages.  I paid for my fare ($3.75 per croughnut), snapped a few pictures and left quickly.  The anticipation was starting to make me drool.  I’m just going to warn you now...what I’m about to tell you next isn’t pretty.  I jumped back into my car and tore into that first croughnut as though I was seeing a morsel of food for the first time after a sixty day fast.  Did I care that the man from the liquor store was staring at me through the window, mouth ajar?  Did I care that crumbs were falling all over my freshly washed car?  Nope.  Not even a little.  The supple sugary party that was commencing in my mouth took me to a place beyond reason.  Nirvana was dancing on my tongue.  The thing I usually don’t like about doughnuts is that they are too sweet and dense and leave me feeling sick.  But the croughnut, oh the croughnut.  It was the most perfect blend of sweet, flaky, airy awesomeness and it far exceeded my expectations.  It was genuinely amazing.  To have waited to try something for a year, and then have it exceed my expectations....well, I think I just might be smiling for the next year! I guess some things truly are worth the wait. If you are even remotely local, get yourself to Kettle Glazed Doughnuts, buy a croughnut or three, hop in your car, abandon all sense of propriety and enjoy!