The Cronut (a portmanteau of croissant and doughnut) is a pastry created and trademarked in 2013 by the French pastry chef Dominique Ansel. [1] [2] It resembles a doughnut and is made from croissant-like dough filled with flavored cream and fried in grapeseed oil.
In 2013, the French bakery owner Dominique Ansel created the pastry out of dough similar to that of a croissant (a pastry that he had been more familiar with) with flavored cream inside. [3] [4] It took Ansel two months to perfect the recipe. [5]
Ansel introduced the Cronut on May 10, 2013, at Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York's SoHo neighborhood. That night, a blogger from Grub Street, the online restaurant blog from New York magazine, reported on the new pastry. [3] [1] The post resulted in much interest and online circulation, and by the third day, a line of over 100 people had formed outside the shop to buy it. [4]
Within nine days of introducing the pastry, Ansel filed for a trademark for the name "Cronut" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, [6] which was approved. [7] [8]
After the release of the Cronut, similar products have sprung up throughout the world including some with different names such as the Kelownut, [9] Doughssant, [10] Crullant, [11] zonut, [12] and others. [13] [14] [15]
Dominique Ansel released an at-home Cronut recipe in his cookbook, Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes, in 2015, for bakers to attempt in their own homes. Like the original pastry made at Ansel's bakeries, the process takes three days. [16]
Writing for the Village Voice in May 2013, Tejal Rao proclaimed the Cronut Ansel's "masterpiece". [17] Time magazine named the Cronut one of the best inventions of 2013. [18]
A doughnut or donut is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
A croissant is a French pastry made from puff pastry in a crescent shape.
Beignet is a type of fritter, or deep-fried pastry, made from pâte à choux, but may also be made from other types of dough, including yeast dough. In France there are at least 20 different versions. They can vary in shape, the flour used for the dough, and the filling. They are popular in French, Italian, and French-American cuisines.
A cruller is a deep-fried pastry popular in Europe and in parts of North America. Regarded as a form of cake doughnut in the latter, it is typically either made of a string of dough that is folded over and twisted twice to create its signature shape, or formed from a rectangle of dough with a cut in the center allowing it to be pulled over and through itself to produce distinctive twists in the sides of the pastry.
Kouign-amann is a sweet Breton cake made with laminated dough. It is a round multi-layered cake, originally made with bread dough, containing layers of butter and incorporated sugar, similar in fashion to puff pastry albeit with fewer layers. The cake is slowly baked until the sugar caramelizes and the butter expands the dough, resulting in its layered structure. A smaller version, kouignette, is similar to a muffin-shaped, caramelized croissant.
Sufganiyah is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The doughnut is deep-fried, injected with jam or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar. The doughnut recipe originated in Europe in the 16th century, and by the 19th century was known as a Berliner in Germany. Polish Jews, who called it a ponchik, fried the doughnut in schmaltz rather than lard due to kashrut laws. The ponchik was brought to Israel by Polish Jewish immigrants, where it was renamed the sufganiyah based on the Talmud's description of a "spongy dough".
An éclair is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard, whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée. The icing is sometimes caramel, in which case the dessert may be called a bâton de Jacob. A similar pastry in a round rather than oblong shape is called a religieuse.
Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.
The coconut doughnut is a variety of doughnut in the United States and Canada that is usually covered or topped with shredded or flaked coconut topping. It is often toasted or broiled, and there are variations made with chocolate and, in a 1959 recipe, orange juice in the dough and icing.
Mandazi is a form of fried bread that originated on the Swahili Coast. It is also known as bofrot or puff puff in Western African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria. It is one of the principal dishes in the cuisine of the Swahili people who inhabit the Coastal Region of Kenya and Tanzania. The dish is popular in the region, as it is convenient to make, can be eaten with almost any food or dips or just as a snack by itself, and can be saved and reheated for later consumption.
Dominique Ansel is a French pastry chef and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. He is best known for his invention of the Cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid.
A cruffin is a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin. The pastry is made by proofing and baking laminated dough in a muffin mould. The cruffin is then filled with a variety of creams, jams, crème pâtissières or curds, and then garnished.
The old-fashioned doughnut is a term used for a variety of cake doughnut prepared in the shape of a ring with a cracked surface and tapered edges around it. While many early cookbooks included recipes for "old-fashioned donuts" that were made with yeast, the distinctive cake doughnuts sold in doughnut shops are made with chemical leavener and may have crisper texture compared to other styles of cake doughnuts. The cracked surface is usually glazed or coated with sugar.
Five Daughters Bakery is a family-owned bakery with six locations owned by Isaac and Stephanie Meek. Founded in 2015, the bakery is known for making donuts. They are known for making the 100-layer doughnut which takes three days to make. The signature donut is a cross between a donut and a croissant: a cronut.
Twisted Croissant is a bakery with two locations in Portland, Oregon. Owner Kurt Goddard began selling pastries at farmers' markets in the Portland metropolitan area before opening the first brick and mortar bakery in northeast Portland's Irvington neighborhood in 2019. A second bakery opened in southeast Portland's Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood.
Mochi donuts, also known as poi mochi, are a fusion pastry crossing traditional American doughnuts and Japanese mochi. The mochi donuts' "hybrid batter makes for a doughnut that is fluffy and moist, with a satisfying chew". An early iteration can be traced to Hawaii in the early 1990s, however, the mochi donut was popularized by Mister Donut's "Pon de Ring" iteration in the early 2000s. Mochi donuts are now most commonly shaped into eight small balls connected into a circular shape that is easy to pull apart and are made out of glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour.
The croffle is a hybrid of a croissant and waffle. It was popularized in South Korea and then spread throughout the world. The concept is reminiscent of another pastry, the Cronut, which is a croissant and donut hybrid created by Dominique Ansel.