Ricardo’s facebook page has been tantalisingly teasing me these last few weeks with the latest items on their menu.
Introducing the cronut.
What is a cronut? Described as a half croissant half donut filled with cream and glazed. Invented by Chef Dominique Ansel at his New York bakery and launched in May this year. The cronut craze has taken the world by storm!
Ricardo’s had two flavours of cronuts today – chocolate and salted caramel. I couldn’t pass up the chocolate. 
It looks just like a donut with a dusting of sugar except taller and with a flaky pastry. I also found out it is cut in half. When lifting the top you can see the small amount of chocolate cream. My initial thoughts were, ‘this isn’t enough cream,’ but changed my mind later on.
Biting into it, I heard the sweet sound of the soft crunch of the pastry. Mmm. It tasted just like a hybrid croissant and donut. Combining the lightness and flakiness of a croissant with the sweetness and icing/glaze of a donut. The small amount of chocolate cream and glaze was perfect, as it didn’t overbalance the cronut. Too much cream and it just wouldn’t have worked. The sweet, fluffy and light pastry layers are clearly meant to be the stand out element.
I loved it! Now wishing I’d gotten the salted caramel one as well. Adriano Zumbo has made his own version – the zonut. Read ‘From cronut to zonut, pastry fever comes to Sydney’
I also picked out a few other tasty treats while at Ricardo’s. Their new mousse range is very enticing.
I picked the Red Velvet – rose water and red velvet mousse, chocolate sponge and pop rock centre. The mousse was very light and all I could taste was rose water. It sat nicely on the moist chocolate sponge. I liked the dark chocolate ganache on top. Sadly, I couldn’t taste any pop rocks anywhere. An okay dessert but I guess I was expecting something similar to a red velvet cake.
Then the Magnum – vanilla bean mousse, salted caramel centre, coated with almonds, dipped in chocolate and sprayed gold. This has the same crunch/crack you get when biting into the Streets Magnum ice cream. The vanilla mousse was light and not too sweet. There was only a tiny portion of salted caramel in the centre and mostly stuck to the popsicle. I think a bit more salted caramel would’ve been nice. I really loved Ricardo’s version of the magnum YUM!
The black forest bombe with a sparkler – chocolate mousse, cherry centre, chocolate sponge and pop rocks. There was a lot of chocolate mousse, some cherries and cherry glaze in the middle, and a tiny layer of sponge for the ball to sit on at the bottom with bits of sponge in the middle. I thought there was too much mousse and too little sponge. I ate a tiny piece before I got slightly sick of it. And again, no pop rocks! (The menu card does say it comes with pop rocks inside). Although sparkly to look at for a few seconds, I don’t think I’d order this one again.
I always love trying out Ricardo’s cakes. I think they are so beautifully done and presented – like mini masterpieces. The staff there are very friendly and don’t mind if you take your time deciding on what you want (or taking photos). And now they have cronuts! Not sure where else you can get them in Canberra, but Ricardo’s have been bringing out all sorts of different flavours. Fusion sweets…gotta love it!
