Astons Bread

Just when we thought we were coming to the end of the crawl, but then we heard about Astons Bread down in Brockley Market thanks to @wethefoodsnobs. Well that meant we just had to go down and try it out! Brockley Market has grown up since the last time I made my way down there and it’s a pretty sweet place to go eat on a Saturday morning. MotherFlipper, Van Dough Pizza, Ruby Violets — they were all in residence and just waiting to be eaten. But first, it was cronut time!
We stopped by Astons Bread’s stall and the very friendly lady guessed we were the ones tweeting constantly about visiting. She gave us the rundown on the two cronuts they had to offer, both fairly sizeable beasts sliced in half and then cemented back together. We got one of each: a chocolate cream with a rose water icing, and a homemade lemon curd drizzled with a coffee icing.
The base cronut is crispy but the taste and texture is a little more cornish pasty than flaky breakfast treat. I’d guess that the dough mix is super absorbent which soaks up oil like a sponge. While you do get the crispiness, you also are flooded with oil with each bite. The chocolate cream filling is a bit light and could benefit from a richer, darker chocolate to give it a bolder flavour. The rose water icing is delicious with a light floral taste that dances on the tongue. On the other side, the homemade lemon curd is fantastic and by far one of best I’ve ever tasted. If I could combine the lemon curd with the rosewater icing and knock down the oil a peg or two, I think we’d have a winner here.
I’d also like to go back and try some of their delicious breads — just brilliant stuff!