Knockoff Cronuts Now Available at Pena's in Pearland

Yesterday, Pena's Donut Heaven & Grill in Pearland announced that they'd developed their own version of New York pastry chef Dominique Ansel's cronut: the hybrid croissant/doughnut that's lead to long lines and obsessive comprehensive coverage by Eater New York. Since Ansel has trademarked the word cronut, Pena's is calling their version a "dossant."

Owner Raymond Pena tells Eater that his motivation is simple. "Pena's is always trying to do new stuff. I heard about the cronut. I heard about the craze." He worked to develop the pastry seen in the picture to the right. It has a strawberry cream cheese filling and is topped with strawberry icing. Although Pena expects to introduce more flavors as word spreads, he says "we're starting off real slow right now" with one. He calls the $3.50 price "real competitive" and notes that it's cheaper than the $5 Ansel charges for the original.

Although Houston may just be waking up to cronut mania, Pena's copycatting is part of a worldwide trend. Expect more Houston bakeries to follow suit.

· Pena's Donut Heaven & Grill [Official Site]
· Pena's Donut Heaven & Grill [Twitter]
· All Cronut Coverage on Eater New York [-ENY-]
· 11 More Shameless Cronut Knockoffs Around the World [-EN-]