By now, almost everyone has heard of the cronut, a hybrid between two of the world’s best pastries, doughnuts and croissants. The original cronut, started by French pastry chef Dominique Ansel at his namesake bakery in New York City, was an instant hit. Using a proprietary laminated dough recipe, Chef Ansel fries the dough in grapeseed oil and then rolls each cronut in sugar, fills it with cream, and finishes it with a glaze. There is one flavor offered each month and so far the flavors have been rose-vanilla, lemon-maple, coconut, blackberry, and fig-mascarpone. New Yorkers and tourists alike have been lining up every morning in an attempt to score one of the 300 cronuts available daily.
Of course, in the past few months there have been copycat cronuts across the world. From doissants in Washington DC to croissant-donuts in Asia, this pastry has become a global phenomenon.
Since the cronut, Chef Dominique Ansel has also debuted two more innovative pastries. The Magic Souffle is a portable soufflé made of toasted orange blossom brioche and light, fluffy chocolate. The Frozen Smores are crispy marshmallows stuffed with ice cream and served on a smoked willow branch. Chef Ansel’s other confections haven’t taken off like the cronut, but they still sound pretty amazing!