Cronut™

Cronut™, fusion pastry

One single batch per day, several hours of queues, sold only in ones or twos (two per person at most)... The Cronut™ pastry has triggered a veritable frenzy on the other side of the Atlantic. This was all it took for a thriving "black market" to develop: a single pastry was snapped up on Ebay at an eye-watering $ 800 (note that the pastries have a maximum shelf life of ten hours)! These pastries, a cross between a laminated croissant-style dough and the characteristic round shape of a doughnut, are the creation of Dominique Ansel who opened his eponymous bakery in SoHo, New York in 2011 after having worked for seven years at Fauchon in Paris and eight years with master pastry chef Daniel Boulud. This round croissant is first fried in grapeseed oil, then rolled in maple sugar, filled with cream and covered with a sugar glaze. Launched in May 2013 with the ambition of rewriting the pastry-making rule book no less, the Cronut™ rapidly became the French Chef's signature pastry, winning him a citation in the 2013 list of top 25 inventions published by Time Magazine. To vary the pleasure, the Chef creates a new flavour every month to stay in tune with the seasons: rose-vanilla in May, lemon-maple syrup in June, fig-mascarpone in September, Valrhona chocolate-Champagne in December... not forgetting the exceedingly rich and delicious peanut butter rum caramel that gives January a warm, contented glow. Not content with stopping there, Dominique Ansel is continually buzzing with new ideas: a few months after the launch of the Cronut™, New-Yorkers were able to sample the delights of the Magic Soufflé (a soufflé that never falls) and the milk shot Cookie, a cake modelled on the Oreo. Is the mighty Cronut™ about to be dethroned?