Location: Dotty's Pastries & Coffee, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.
Imagine a "cronut", a term used to describe a type of delicacy which is a hybrid between a croissant and a doughnut. Imagine not just mere plain cronut, but one topped with apam balik-flavoured cream (apam balik is a type of delicacy that looks like a pancake, folded over with fillings of sugar, crushed peanuts and sweet corn kernels).
Can't imagine how it will taste like? Try the Apam Balik Croissant Doughnut, which I recently discovered being served at Dotty's, a pastry and coffee house situated in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), Kuala Lumpur.
Upon entering the shop, I was greeted with rows of freshly-prepared cronuts of various flavours, arranged in a glass room and ready to be served to customers. The Apam Balik cronut grabbed my attention due to its name. How could a French pastry such as the croissant weds a local delicacy, the apam balik, and produce a hybrid?
The cronut is shaped like a squarish doughnut, but at one look you know it is not made of real dough like real doughnuts. Give it another look and you say it is a stack of filo pastries shaped like a doughnut, complete with holes. The cronut itself is crispy and tastes something between a croissant and fried filo pastry. The topping (and filling) of the cronut determines its overall taste.
For the Apam Balik one, the taste of crushed peanuts is overpowering, as any apam balik can be. Sweet corn cream tops the cronut and its filling. It is more of an apam balik taste rather than a croissant or doughnut taste.
The Apam Balik Cronut
The star at Dotty's, the Salted Egg Yolk Cronut
However, I was made to know that the Apam Balik Croissant Doughnut is not the star at Dotty's. It is the Salted Egg Yolk Croissant Doughnut: a cronut topped and filled with salted egg yolk cream. This one is fast-selling; you might have to wait for a new batch to be prepared if all had been ordered or sold to walk-in customers. As for the taste, I am not really sure how it is supposed to taste like. Is it supposed to be that salty, as when you eat a salted egg, or not? I can make out the eggy taste but for me there is no trace of saltiness.
Ah, and be prepared to smudge your face when you have a cronut: due to its thick creamy topping and creamy inside, you will be a creamy mess as you dive into one (or two, as I had it). Have the napkin at your side before beginning.
Speaking of salted egg yolk, I also tried the Salted Egg Yolk Spaghetti With Beef Bacon. It looks a bit like spaghetti carbonara, but it has a creamy, eggy taste. I can make out a moderate salty taste in this dish, but I suspected it to have been from the beef bacon.
Then I also tried the Red Velvet Funnel Cake. This one should be eaten with company; the serving is too big for one person. The funnel cake, velvety red in colour, is much more thin than the ones I found in America. But due to its thinness, there is this tasty crisp in your every bite. Sweet glaze is drizzled onto the cake, and there is a large dollop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream topped with chocolate sauce and crushed peanuts completing the whole dish.
The Red Velvet Funnel Cake
Dotty's is a place where you can have various pastries and light meals such as eclairs, pavlovas and sandwiches. I find the place usually busy and crowded. Come early if you plan to eat at the place. Otherwise you can just grab some treats and eat at the comfort of your own home.
