Pictured: The decadent and delicious cronookie at Five-O Donut Co. Photo by Laura Paquette.

Say bonjour to the cronookie, a mouthwatering combination of chocolate chip cookies and croissants, at local favorite Five-O Donut Co. Christine Nordstrom, the company’s owner and founder, has conjured up many tempting treats during her time running both Five-O and Sift Bakehouse, and with the fun and fresh cronookie, she’s combining her passion for baking donuts and cookies into the ultimate indulgent bite.

“We’re launching a new line of croissant-focused specialties. This is the first one, and it’s the cronookie. It’s basically like a half-baked chocolate chip cookie inside our croissant donut, and we bake it with our crispy chocolate chip on top with a touch of sea salt. I travel a lot and I always see things here and there. I take inspiration from a lot of different things I’ve seen, but this is more a marrying of the two things that I do well,” Nordstrom says. “There’s a Parisian bakery doing these. They bake croissants, and then they cut them, and bake the chocolate chip cookie dough inside of them. It started in Paris, and I saw it a couple of weeks ago.” For Five-O’s cronookies, Nordstrom starts with the shop’s beloved croissant donut, also known as Le Five-O. “The croissant donut is super popular and is probably one of the number one things we sell,” she adds. “It just makes sense for what we do with croissants because nobody’s doing it with a donut. We actually do fry the donut. It’s a fried croissant donut and then we take it and manipulate it again and bake it. Ours is deep-fried and glazed with our vanilla bean glaze. Then we process them and fill them with the cookie dough and rebake them, so it’s a little bit more of a process.”

Both crunchy and gooey, the cronookie is a versatile dessert and can feature a myriad of flavors. Nordstrom plans to roll out exciting new varieties like an Ohio buckeye cronookie and a 4/20-themed version with potato chip and candy bar elements. For now, stop by and try the original cronookie. “It’s a really good juxtaposition of sea salt, chocolate, butter and vanilla,” she says. “We recommend people buy them and warm them slightly at home.”

Five-O Donut Co., Various locations in Siesta Row, University Town Center, Ringling Boulevard, Bradenton and Ellenton, fiveodonutco.com.

Pictured: The decadent and delicious cronookie at Five-O Donut Co. Photo by Laura Paquette.

Five-O Donut