Sconuts are the new Cronuts.
When the cronut craze hit last year, Merrill Johnston of West Chester’s Delightful Desserts and Culinary Creations started thinking about how her popular scones could be modified.
“After reading about the cronut, I thought, how about a sconut?,” Merrill said with a laugh. This is how she and her staff began experimenting. For the past 15 years, Merrill has baked scones and desserts that are served at several Chester County coffee shops and restaurants. She also caters weddings and private parties. Merrill’s scones have been popular because they are soft and moist, and now she has made them even better.
Merrill and her team first experimented with deep-frying sconuts, but eventually decided the best sconut is made by shaping her traditional scone dough into a donut pattern and baking. She then glazes them with toppings such as chocolate swirl, vanilla, powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar. They are also making both jelly sconuts and peanut butter and jelly sconuts.
“We’ll be making some custard scones too—the possibilities are endless,” Merrill said.
I stopped by Merrill’s kitchen to sample a few sconuts and they reminded me of the best cake donuts you find—they were moist, full of flavor and big. I also didn’t feel the guilt of eating something deep fried. The toppings are decadent. Personally, I really liked the chocolate chip and chocolate drizzled sconut and the cinnamon sugar sconut, which Merrill explained was dipped in butter, then sugar and cinnamon. These are the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee.
So far, sconuts are available at Fennario’s in West Chester, the new Foxy Loxy Ice Cream Parlour and Ice Cream Shoppe in Unionville and Artisans Gallery and Cafe in Phoenixville. Merrill will also make custom orders directly through Delightful Desserts and Culinary Creations.
Call (610) 692-5551 to place an order.
Sconut photos credited to Jim Breslin. Merrill image credited to Nina Lea Photography.
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