Cronuts: The Jon Snow of Pastries

Missy Bon Bon's Strawberry Frost Cronut

The Cronut is the Jon Snow of pastries, a bastard offspring of a croissant and a doughnut. The term cronut  itself being a portmanteau of croissant and doughnut. It is essentially a croissant shaped like a doughnut with frosting and either a cream of jelly filling.

Origins of the Cronut

The cronut originally came from New York, an invention of chef Dominique Ansel for his bakery. In fact, the term "cronut" has been trademarked by the bakery. Much of its appeal came from the limited quantities Ansel produces daily, only 200 to 250 pieces and limits 2 cronuts to a customer This created a demand for the pastry that could not be sated even as copycat versions arose all over the United States and has also opened a thriving black market for it.

The first cronut in the Philippines came from Wildflour, and said to have originated from a reversed engineered piece of the original New York cronut. Since cronut is a trademarked name, they sell it as "croissant donuts."  I actually asked for some from my folks who had business in Manila a few weeks back, but the inclement weather made it impossible for them to secure fresh cronuts for me. Luckily, at around the same time, Missy Bon Bon Breadshop in Cagayan de Oro introduced their own version of the cronut.

Cronuts in Cagayan de Oro

Missy Bon Bon markets their version as Cronut and its Strawberry Frost was the first I tasted and though I loved the texture of it, but I'm not really a big fan of jelly filled pastries.I wished it had more frosting and I'd rather that the first cronut I tasted was cream filled and not jelly, but that's just me.

It wasn't until the last Trivia Night of August, when Team 6 won first place that I had another chance to try a cronut. Team 6's prize box had a few cronuts and I think it included all the flavors Missy Bon Bon had. I had this custard filled cronut which they called the Sweet Missy. It was when I was biting into the flaky croissant like crust and tasting the custard explosion when I realized the basis of the hype behind this current craze has some substance. I enjoyed it and would like to try another one soon.

Team 6's prize box has some cronuts!

Team 6 enjoying the spoils of victories and cronuts.

Spoils of War: Brazo de Mercedes

Team 6 writes for CDOmnivore

Team 6 dominated the month of June in Missy Bon Bon's Trivia Night with three first place finishes out of a possible four. After sealing the deal with another win in the fourth week, we weren't able to get our monthly prize, but we did get a nice treat the week after. Our monthly prize was a customized Brazo de Mercedes roll with a nice message commemorating our achievement.

The kitchen was kind enough to include a note
etched in frosting congratulating Team 6
for another victorious outing.

Brazo de Mercedes (Arm of Mercy) is essentially a custard roll wrapped with a meringue covering. The lightness of the meringue is more than offset by the sweetness of the custard filling. This is a dessert that is truly sinfully delightful.

Missy Bon Bon's version doesn't deviate much from the classic brazo de mercedes recipe, except that it is well made. The meringue covering is done properly, light and airy, with a shadow of a crisp. No doubt this would have been even better if it was straight from the oven, but ours had already spent time in the fridge.

Still, it was a sweet dessert that matched the sweet taste of our victory.

Spoils of War: Mocha Custard Cake

Team 6 writes for CDOmnivore

Custard cake is a classic bakery item found in most bakeries and bread-shops around the Philippines. It is easy to identify at sight; it's the cake that has leche flan on top. Missy Bon Bon Breadshop takes this classic and turned it on its ear; they made it into a mocha cake with a thick layer of custard on top. They do offer the classic flavor, but this was what in Team 6's prize box when we won the June 27, 2013 Trivia Night at Missy Bon Bon, which cemented our domination for the whole month of June. 

Mocha Custard Cake

Missy Bon Bon has made their custard cake, THE custard cake. It would be hard to imagine eating another cake done by another shop. It is the topping the wins it for them. The thick layer of custard that goes so well with the mocha sponge cake. The sweet custard paired with the coffee-flavored cake and its hint of bitterness makes the custard stand out more.

That's a thick custard layer you got there.

This wasn't the first time we had custard cake in our prize pack. In fact, every time one is included, everyone on the team share in the cake as a post-game ritual debriefing of sorts.

The prize pack for first place.

Team 6's roster for June 27, 2013.

Spoils of War: Bacon and Cheese from Missy Bon Bon

Team 6 writes for CDOmnivore

Often, the most inspired food choices are combinations that draw upon the best qualities of the two individual food items and merging them into something that boggles the mind. Like, peanut butter and chocolate; chocolate and caramel; or bacon and ice cream.

Missy Bon Bon's Bacon and Cheese

Missy Bon Bon Breadshop (MBB) bakes the best pastries this side of Cagayan de Oro, the softest and puffiest of crumbs of their baked delights. What if that pastry is combined with something that provokes the most elemental reaction in men; that would be pure fried pork fat strips with all their grease. Yes, I'm talking about bacon as a topping to MBB's lates savory pastry, added with some cheese for good measure.

The Bacon and Cheese pastry is the scion of MBB's delightful pastry and bacon. It is both soft and crunchy at the same time, the pastry offering minimal resistance to one's bite and the fried bacon bits providing that crunch. It is a tad salty though; after all bacon is essentially salted pork fat fried to sinful perfection. The cheese add some flavor to keep it interesting, but still, bacon is bacon and some people just can't get enough of it.

We wouldn't mind getting more of this snack in our gift boxes Missy Bon Bon, that is if we win.

Spoils of War: Chocolate Coffee Cake from Missy Bon Bon

In the short brief span that our food blog has existed, our readers have seen columns that have fallen by the wayside as writers came and went. A few remain still, often released in alternate weeks, a change from its once weekly schedule. So in the tradition of Snacking Around XU, Uptown Cravings and Just Desserts, CDOmnivore is proud to present the Spoils of War by Team 6.

Team 6 is a collective of trivia night enthusiasts that have made the Trivia Night at Missy Bon Bon in Limketkai Drive their weekly ritual. More often than not they have placed consistently to win goodies from Trivia Night sponsor and host Missy Bon Bon and are usually the first to try some of the new products which they often include in the gift boxes for the winners. This gives Team 6 a unique opportunity to be the first to sample such products and share what they think of Missy Bon Bon's newest offerings.

Team 6 writes for CDOmnivore

Team 6 received a cake for being the monthly champions of May 2013. That was a memorable victory, which marked Team 6's third monthly prize for 2013. The cake given for that occasion was the Chocolate Coffee Cake.

Chocolate Coffee Cake

Despite the name, this dessert was not intended to be eaten with coffee. The name describes it truly, a blending of chocolate and coffee flavors in a cake. The bitterness of the coffee enhances the natural bitter taste of the raw chocolate and the sweetness of the processed milk chocolate at same time.

It is a rich dessert, a squad of six composed mostly of 5 perpetually hungry teenagers could barely finish it all. Still, it was a very nice addition to our prizes that night.

Just Desserts: Chocolate Panna Cotta from Missy Bon Bon

Just so all of CDOmnivore's followers would know, MJ won't be writing the Just Desserts segment of the blog but I will be picking up the slack. This is actually my second Just Desserts feature, I did one on Korean ice cream bars which you can check again by clicking here.

Missy Bon Bon Breadshop of Cagayan de Oro is known for its pastries and gelato, but it also serves chilled desserts in single serve containers. The feature dessert for this post is its Chocolate Panna Cotta. For this review, Team 6 provided two cups of the dessert from their first place prize haul from Trivia Night. Thanks guys!

Panna Cotta is an Italian gelatin dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar. The mixture is then blended with gelatin and allowed to cool. It usually topped by fruit, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit puree. Missy Bon Bon's version makes for a much richer dessert. The gelatin cream is actually set over chocolate gelatin with chocolate bits. It is then topped by whipped cream, dark chocolate, a piece of preserved orange and a cherry. I enjoy the texture of gelatin desserts but too much of this cloyingly rich concoction could be monotonous. The fruit pieces serve well to break that monotony of sweetness with a little fruity sourness; as does the small dark chocolate bar with a little bitterness.

I really like how Missy Bon Bon packaged this to sell. Set in its own cup and covered with a tamper-proof clear plastic dome to protect the dessert; it sure looks so tantalizing.

CdeO's Food Events: Trivia Night at Missy Bon Bon

Cagayan de Oro, located in Northern Mindanao region of the Philippines is that zone's largest city. Understandably, it is an ideal place for budding food lovers and bloggers like the CDOmnivore. The positive business environment has made it possible for a variety of restaurants and eateries to sprout and cater to the almost finicky tastes of the residents.

It is known that Kagayanons (as the residents are called) are wont to try anything new to satisfy their curiosities but it is rare that they become regulars. They appreciate good food but a restaurant has to constantly reinvent itself to capture their continued interest.

One of the latest establishments that has captured the imagination of the city, through its sweet and savory pastries and gelato is Missy Bon Bon Breadshop. It has its main restaurant at Limketkai Center with three satellite stalls at the other malls in the cities. It serves breakfast and other fare to go with their baked goodies and gelato. So of course CDOmnivore would want to try their goods out and did it one Thursday night.

Missy Bon Bon was packed, especially during Trivia Night on Thursdays.

It also happened that every Thursday night, Missy Bon Bon has its Trivia Night and the place was packed. People formed teams to answer trivia question of various interests and disciplines and the competition was intense. It was already a warm night out and the intensity only made the mercury rise. After four sets of topics with 7-8 questions each, the final score was as close as it could be with only a point separating the top three finishers.

The video scoreboard shows a final tally that was a close finish.

CDOmnivore came to try the food but was inevitably drawn to the electricity and excitement generated by joining a trivia contest. It followed one of the teams that night, the spartanly named Team 6, who incidentally were the last week's winners and the week before that. It was allowed a glimpse of the inner workings of one of the best, if not the best Trivia Night competitors. To join them was a fun experience, as part of Team 6, we lived and died with every question that we were able to answer to correctly.

The first place prize: A box of Missy Bon Bon goodies.

After several dozen questions, the Night ended with Team 6 coming out on top by a single point. The other teams didn't do badly it seemed. Every one of the top three finishers received a box of Missy Bon Bon baked goodies. The first place winner got the largest box. I guess it was still a night of food after all.

Thanks Team 6 for having CDOmnivore!

Pictures are courtesy of Team 6. Follow Team 6 and its exploits on its Facebook page here.