Dunkin Day 1: Strawberry Shortcake Croissant Donut – The Perils of Adaptation

Battling Back Our Fondest Memories

The short review of Dunkin’s new Strawberry Shortcake Croissant Donut would be to say that it’s light and tasty and leave it there.   But we can't settle on that simple truth without first batting away our neuroses, not about what this donut is, but what we may think it should be, and what it can’t ever be.

Can This Off-the-Shelf Item Somehow Deliver the Taste of Real Strawberry Shortcake

This all goes back our own memories of the original dessert.  If we’ve ever had true Strawberry Shortcake, then we remember the ripe strawberries, their juices brought glistening to their surface by a sprinkling of sugar, the same way salt draws life-juice out of a slug (the same slugs that victimized and made hopeless a strawberry patch adjacent the house in which I grew up).  We remember freshly-whipped real cream, sweetened with cane sugar and maybe flavored with just a touch of Grand Marnier or Cointreau.  And we know the velvety things, and the toothsomely juicy things, were folded together and sandwiched between buttery biscuits made sweet by two tablespoons of sugar in the dough rather than two teaspoons, and made light by pea-sized bits of butter pressed into flat proto-flakes by the intrepid fingers that worked the dough.  And even if we did none of this and used Cool Whip and spongecake dessert shells in place of whipped cream and biscuits, we remember when and where we ate them; probably outside on a summer evening when honeysuckles added via their scent an extra flavor note that resided outside the dish itself.

Ambition, the Mother of Invention

Throw all this gross sentimentality out the window, for we’re talking about what can be accomplished when you have to make the donuts at 4AM to last through the mid-day rush, whether you’re in Sonoma, CA or Dover, Delaware.   You can’t put real whipped cream in a donut that you’re holding at room temperature, for if it doesn’t spoil, it will certainly collapse and separate.  There’s no reliable supply of fresh strawberries from coast to coast that can be sourced at a consistently low day-to-day cost.  Modern food operations are modular, with all items consisting of interchangeable parts so if Dunkin doesn’t already make biscuits, and it doesn’t, it’s not going to change that to somehow magically transform  strawberry shortcake into a cheap convenience item.  Compromises will have to be made along the way, and innovations devised.

At it's Best, Dunkin's Croissant Donut Combines the Adult Taste of a Flaky Croissant with the Sweet, Childish Fun of a Glazed Donut.  But Will the Pink Creme Spoil the Party?

That said, there are some interesting choices that Dunkin perhaps could have attempted in translating the dessert to the donut.  They might have taken freeze-dried strawberries, the kind you see a lot in breakfast cereals these days, and tried to combine them with some whipped filling until dried berries plumped by mingling with the moist filling.  Or they might have gotten real strawberry taste into the mix by creating a layer of strawberry preserves and then adding some sort of “crème” to that.  After all, there’s nothing nicer than a good croissant with strawberry jam.  But nobody’s calling me to give them ideas, so let’s see what approach they actually took.

When the Real Seems Unreal

In reality, Dunkin took the unusual step of converting the whipped cream and strawberries into one integrated creamy filling to create the primary strawberry flavoring element, then enhanced the effect with a strawberry-icing drizzle laid over a thin neutral glaze.  These additions were applied to their standard croissant donut modeled after, though not truly replicating, the original New York Cronut ® 

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Does it work?  That depends, as we’ll see, but the strawberry flavor is pretty convincing, probably because, shockingly enough (as a visit to the Dunkin Website reveals) the filling actually contains real strawberry puree mixed into a buttercream base.  If you look closely as the filling stuffed inside, you can actually see specks of real strawberry.  That doesn’t necessarily translate into a fresh and fruity taste – the intense sweetness reminded me more of strawberry bubble gum, but it’s still a bright, pleasant, distinct berry flavor.

Among the Other 100+ Ingredients...Real Strawberry Puree!

Inconstancy

This surprisingly authentic strawberry filling, combined with Dunkin’s light, airy, yet rich and buttery croissant donut can indeed have delightful results.  In fact, after trying this for the first time, I was prepared to write a glowing review that would emphasize how harmoniously the light glaze, the understed filling, and the fluffy donut base combined for a surprisingly sophisticated treat.  But, unsatisfied with some of the original product photos, I bought another donut this morning, and found just how variable the results can be.

 

When the Croissant to Strawberry Creme Ratios are Right, Like in this Section, this Donut Works.  And Note the Specks of Real Strawberry! But Beware a Version with Excess Pink Goop.

In the mass-produced food world, consistency is extremely important, particularly in terms of the ratio of one ingredient to another, and we see why here.  Whereas the first donut, purchased last Sunday, had just enough strawberry crème to add flavor and a bit of moisture, the version purchased this Thursday morning had enough to make clear just how goopy it really is.  Nobody likes a mouthful of buttercream, and this version in some places had buttercream oozing into every crevice, completely overwhelming the airiness that a croissant is supposed to bring.  Similarly, the first version had just the right amount of glaze, like (to quote the great M.F.K. fisher) a single layer of porcelain that cracks so tinily, so ultimately at the first bite.  But today’s version was a sticky crust reminiscent of the ice shell we hack off of our windshields on January mornings.  These little variances spell the difference between a mature confection you would serve with, say, English Breakfast tea and a sodden lump of glazed starch that you keep needing to wash down with office coffee.

Conclusions:

It’s worth your while to try it, but at $2.49 (it’s one of their special “deluxe” donuts) there is some considerable risk involved.