Cronuts, the New Carb on the Block

I’m a little late in learning about the cronut craze, but now that I know about cronuts, I hate diabetes a little more than usual. 

If you haven’t been following, in May the Dominique Ansel Bakery in NYC created a pastry that is part croissant and part doughnut.  The Cronut.  The bakery produces 200 cronuts a day, and sells out immediately.  Fans line up as much as two hours before opening in order to get a cronut.  There is even a cronut blackmarket.  Yep, cronut scalpers.  

In this day and age of obesity and epidemic levels of diabetes, we should all be cringing about the fact that there’s a new carb on the block and it’s considerably more popular than spinach.  And this carb is not just on the block anymore.  Dunkin Donuts has launched its own version of the cronut in South Korea .  

But, I’m having a hard time getting upset about the cronut.  It sounds like the most delicious combination of carbs and I can’t help but admire the genius of Dominique Ansel.  Out of curiosity, I visited Ansel’s website and checked out his online store (boutique, I mean).  There’s a special joke in there for people with diabetes – a baked good aptly named DKA.  There’s even an Extra Large DKA in case you want to die twice.  The cronut, thankfully, lacks the initials that spell out death to diabetics.  I might be reading too much into the cronut craze, but its popularity seems to represent a sort of rebellion, a broccoli backlash.  After years of being bombarded with top ten lists exalting kale, the stress of the NYC soda ban, and those preachy Meatless Mondays folks, someone has finally given us what we want: really sweet carbs. 

Though I haven’t tasted a cronut, I’m guessing it’s the best new carb since Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. What I’m saying is, although I’m against the cronut in principle, if you offered me one I wouldn’t say no thanks.  I’d smile and bolus. 

[youtube]http://youtu.be/_mvM_5N0f7U[/youtube]

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

View Author Blog

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)