Cronut recipe: The five most pretentious parts
Unless you've visited the聽Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City, you've聽probably not tried a Cronut. And based on the 鈥渁t-home鈥� recipe released by its creator, it鈥檚 likely you still won鈥檛 be trying the ganache-filled, fondant-glazed, croissant-doughnut crossbreed anytime soon.
Mr. Ansel, the French pastry chef credited with inventing the Cronut,聽toiled in his home kitchen for four months to whittle the trademarked brand Cronut recipe down to an allegedly more easily accessible 鈥淎t-Home Cronut.鈥�
The recipe is part of Ansel鈥檚 new cookbook, 鈥淒ominique Ansel: Secret Recipes,鈥� which comes out later this month, but Good Morning America exclusively .
鈥淚t took quite a lot of work in my small New York home kitchen to work out a version of the Cronut recipe for an at-home cook,鈥� Ansel told GMA.
Here鈥檚 the catch: This version still takes three days.
To his credit, Ansel offered this disclaimer: 鈥淭he book has some much simpler recipes, but this is definitely a three-day challenge for the real serious bakers out there," he says of the recipe that GMA labels "Difficulty: Extreme."
"I hope they have fun with it and make it for someone special,鈥� he added, apparently unaware that no sane person would spend three days making a doughnut just to hand it to someone else.
Don鈥檛 be fooled by the trendy flavors 鈥� tempting vanilla rose and seasonally appropriate pumpkin chai: This epic saga of a recipe reads more like a Cordon Bleu patisserie exam.
Pat yourself on the back if you take the time to even read through . If not, here are the five most pretentious parts:
- Deluxe prep gear: OK, so maybe you have a deep-frying thermometer. And maybe you have uncut piping bags. But you鈥檒l also need a Wilton #230 Bismarck metal tip and the Ateco #803 plain tip. Shame on you if you thought your Ateco #804 would suffice. More shame if you thought you could cut the corner off of a Ziploc baggie.
- Polynesian ingredients: The vanilla rose ganache calls for rose water, and 鈥�1 Vanilla bean (preferably Tahitian), split lengthwise, seeds scraped.鈥�
- No rest for the weary: After you finish splitting and scraping at that single Tahitian bean, don鈥檛 let your fingers rest because you鈥檝e been soaking a gelatin sheet in ice water for 20 minutes and now it鈥檚 blooming and you must whisk the bloomed gelatin into heavy cream until dissolved.
- Regular sugar won't cut it: The single Tahitian vanilla bean makes another appearance in the ingredients for the "flavored" sugars, as does 鈥済rated zest from one orange鈥� and 鈥済rated zest from one lemon.鈥�
- Proof positive?聽Now you鈥檝e been whisking ganaches for three days and before you can pipe fondant through your #803 plain tip, you鈥檝e got to proof the dough. 鈥淚t鈥檚 best to proof At-Home Cronut pastries in a warm, humid place,鈥� Ansel instructs in the recipe. And before you find a warm, humid place in your home, it helps to know what proofing is. A quick Google search reveals this is a fancy term for letting your dough rise. Apparently the way yeast works in an At-Home Cronut is on a different level than a pizza crust.
After that you鈥檒l be heating grapeseed oil in a large pot to 350 degrees and fervently checking it with your deep-frying thermometer because if it's too low, the pastries will be greasy; too high, the inside will be undercooked while the outside is burnt. So just fry those up, fill with ganache, pipe with fondant, and voila: an At-Home Cronut.
When did doughnuts get so fancy?
