As the cronut craze has become mainstream, more and more bakeries across the country have tried their hand at their own non-copyrighted versions. You can make your own with Pillsbury's recipe and even Dunkin' Donuts in South Korea has a cronut attempt, the New York Pie Donut. In the Bay Area, Posh was reported to be the first and only cronut counterfeiter.

But, it turns out a small bakery in Marin County was already churning our croissant-donuts; they were just keeping it quiet. On a Twitter tip from a friend, before hitting up Lee's, I showed up bright and early at Beth's Community Kitchen in Mill Valley. Beth's is a small bakery tucked in between other shops and I nearly walked past it at first. What they make may not be the original cronut -- "it's our own take," said the baker -- and you may have to ask for it specifically from the back, but the cinnamon-sugar (cream-filled or sans cream) pastries have all the makings of a croissant combined with a donut.

Beth's Community Kitchen's cronuts were flakier and lighter than the CroNot variety. Photo: Kelly O'Mara

Fully-loaded with five different cronuts, I began my taste testing.

The Beth's cronuts are more croissant-like than donut. The pastries are flaky and light, tasting like a chewy croissant that simply has a cinnamon-sugar shell. The cream in the cream-filled cronut from Beth's was similar to icing, sweet and slightly lemon-flavored.

The cinnamon-sugar CroNot, though heavier, still shows off the tell-tale croissant-like layers of dough. Photo: Kelly O'Mara

By comparison, the Posh Bakery CroNot is more donut than croissant. The cinnamon-sugar options from each of the two bakeries offered the cleanest taste test comparison, since icing and flavors couldn't confuse the senses. Posh's version was heavier and more cake-like -- though both bakeries made their cronuts with layers of dough that flake away as you eat (making the sweets challenging to cut apart).

The iced CroNots tasted even more similar to donuts than the cinnamon-sugar version, with the sweetness of the icing making it difficult to tell what exactly you were eating. Is it a croissant? Is a donut? The strawberry-frosted CroNut was by far the sweetest of the five -- and bore only a passing resemblance to the breakfast meal.

Whether you'll prefer the more donut-like or the more croissant-like of the cronuts is really a question of what you're looking for in a morning dessert. I preferred the plain cinnamon-sugar from Beth's, as it tasted like a morning bun or some other unique, light pastry concoction. Eating a strawberry-iced layered cake thing before 9 a.m. just felt a little rough, so perhaps the Posh's CroNots are more of an evening breakfast dessert.

But, no matter which you choose, they're all intensely sweet.

Beth's offering costs $3.50 for the non-filled and $5 for the filled. Posh's variety (bought from Lee's) are just $2.50. Buy all the different kinds and compare -- though be forewarned it may be safer on your stomach to just eat one donut and one croissant separately.

Cronuts: combining the best (or worst?) of the donut and croissant since May 2013.

If you go:

Lee's Deli
multiple locations
www.leesdeli.com
Most locations open Mon-Fri: 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. (hours vary)

Java Trading Company
100 5th St, San Francisco
415-243-9723
Mon-Fri: 6:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Beth's Community Kitchen
34 Miller Ave., Mill Valley
415-383-3991
www.beths.com
Weekdays: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Tuesday
Weekends: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The five cronuts after sampling. Photo: Kelly O'Mara

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