Crosstown really seem to be raising those vegan standards because we vegans are really being spoilt for choice with their current range. It would not be a trip into London if I didn’t pick up at least one sweet treat for the evening, and Crosstown is just hitting all the right spots lately. I truly think the sourdough doughnut base is becoming very hard to beat, and lately I am really enjoying the slightly more savoury treats compared to the very sickly sweet treats. No doubt once summer hits I’ll be back to being obsessed with very fruity treats, but for now the slightly more savoury foods are really healing my soul.
I find it is quite hard to get a good chocolate doughnut. I guess on the one hand it is quite a plain doughnut, so I think some places either go overboard on how much chocolate they give you (to the point of it just makes a total mess whilst trying to eat) or they just pump it full of sugar to try and make it taste more impressive. This very rarely works in my opinion. Then on the other hand, dark chocolate is used which I find to be a very acquired taste. Personally, I am not a fan of very dark chocolate (like the 70%+ options) as I find the chocolate is just far too bitter to actually enjoy. I know that dark chocolate is meant to be quite good for you, with its high antioxidants and serotonin boost, and it is also recommended for those of us with low iron as it has a good amount of iron per gram.
Now the chocolate that is used for this Crosstown doughnut is really quite bitter. It is also very rich, so I was pleased to see that there is quite a thin layer of the dark chocolate ganache that is used on the top of the doughnut. The doughnut also has a very small amount of the ganache (at least I am assuming they used the same thing) to pipe through the actual ring doughnut, which I thought was quite a cool touch. Don’t tend to see very many filled ring doughnuts. But as I say, this chocolate is very dark and is really rather bitter, so if you’re not a fan of that then you probably won’t enjoy this.
The doughnut base, the sourdough, I found did a good job of helping to offset some of the bitterness, but it wasn’t a sweet doughnut at all. I would even say that this doughnut was definitely a savoury treat, as there was no sweetness to it at all in my opinion. Which isn’t a bad thing though! The chocolate may be very bitter, but when slightly offset by the sourdough of the doughnut it is a really lovely little treat. It would pair perfectly with a strong coffee or a big pot of tea in my opinion. I also think that one doughnut is more than enough for one person. It was a satisfying treat, but I know if I tried to eat more than one in one sitting I’d just start to feel a but queasy, but this time from just how bitter the chocolate can get. By the end of this doughnut, I was very much done with chocolate.
Crosstown doughnuts again all seem to cost around £5 (some are £4.50, others are £5.50, depends on the type of doughnut and whether it’s a specialist or limited edition one) and as a once in a while treat, I think £5 is a very fair price for such a different treat. The sourdough especially I feel sets it above the sweet style of doughnuts, because the sourdough versions are so much rarer to find. You can also buy multipacks, which does lower the cost of the doughnuts overall, but I still think £5 for a doughnut of this quality is very reasonable.
Taylor Talks Vegan 