Bread Lounge,
Ground Floor, GTower,
199, Jalan Tun Razak,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2168 1919
Business hours: 7.00am to 8.00pm (Monday to Saturday),
8.00am to 8.00pm (Sunday and public holidays).
A NEW dessert is making its presence felt on our shores. Born in New York, the cronut craze has spread across several continents and has reached us with local bakeries and chefs already putting their own spin on the famed dessert.
During a recent media tasting session at GTower in Jalan Tun Razak, bakery chef Md Kamal Yahya or Chef Kamal, dished out the famous dessert at the Bread Lounge.
With a texture similar to a croissant but fried like a doughnut, the dessert can be glazed, dusted with icing sugar or filled with custard, cream and jelly.
Labour of love: Chef Kamal with his creations at Bread Lounge.
According to chef Kamal, the dessert took him two days to make. On the first day, he made the dough and allowed it to rest for four hours. The folding process takes two hours before the dough is cut and fried the following day.
The frying process is the biggest challenge, according to chef Kamal.
“Each cronut has approximately 20 layers which makes frying the dough very difficult,” he said, adding that it is fried for approximately five minutes.
At first bite, the cronut tasted almost exactly like a doughnut, but is lighter and fluffier.
It was not heavily drizzled with glaze or sugary toppings, or weightily filled with cream, creating a good balance between the savouriness of the dough and the sweetness of its toppings or fillings.
It was also not very oily and chef Kamal explained the desserts at the Bread Lounge are usually healthier as the chefs try to reduce the amount of sugar and oil.
A bold step for pastry chefs: Making ‘cronuts’ is challenging as they contain several layers that separate easily while frying.
Chef Kamal said the Bread Lounge had also applied for halal certification.
GTower executive chef Johnny Fua said they were testing the market, and if response was good, they planned to supply the dessert to kiosks, bakeries and other food and beverage outlets.
They currently offer four flavours, namely chocolate, apple, custard and their bestseller, blueberry.
There are plans to incorporate local flavours such as kaya, sambal, rendang or curry.
Apart from cronuts, Bread Lounge also has a variety of freshly baked breads and coffee.
“All the breads in the hotel are made by us,” said Fua, adding that most of their ingredients are imported. No dough improvers, conditioners or preservatives are added.
The Bread Lounge also offers Foldover Pizzas, which differ from the conventional round pizza.
Longer in shape, it is crunchier and thinner than a regular pizza but equally tasty. It comes with toppings such as turkey, mushroom, smoked chicken and margherita.
“We do not use machines,” said Chef Kamal, adding that the dough is made by hand. A conventional oven is used to bake the pizzas.
They also offer a variety of mini sandwiches such as tuna melt, salmon, turkey and roast beef. Their croissants are bestsellers and only butter is used.
The Bread Lounge also serves medium to dark roast coffee, made from Sumatra coffee beans called Mandheling. The coffee, which is rich in flavour, is a must-try.
RAWcoffee barista, Michael Tan, who supplies coffee beans and trains baristas at GTower, explained that they try to do a darker roast here.
This is the writer’s personal observation and not an endorsement by StarMetro.
