- This is the Cronut,
one of New York City's most legendary desserts.
This hands down might be
one of the best things
I've ever eaten in my life.
The doughnut-croissant hybrid was created
by world-renowned pastry chef Dominique Ansel in 2013.
Now if you aren't familiar with Chef Dominique's desserts
he is famous for his frozen s'mores,
his watermelon soft serve, his cookie shots,
his DKA, but really the famous one is the Cronut.
We're here at 7:00 a.m. to get in front of the line
so we can get a head start.
The Cronuts are extremely limited in quantity
and very very popular
and I want to see what all the hype is about.
Let's go!
- So, when I first launched the Cronut, it was in 2013
for Mother's Day in May.
- [Herrine] The team at Dominique Ansel Bakery
wanted to create a doughnut-shaped dessert
for the occasion but didn't have
any recipes for doughnuts
so chef Ansel made a laminated dough,
similar to a croissant, to fit the bill.
It took him over two months
to perfect his Cronut recipe.
A food reporter from Grub Street
tried the pastry by chance and it went viral.
People started lining up outside the next day
and traffic to the bakery's website went up 300%.
It's been six years now
and the Cronut obsession still isn't over.
- First in line this morning.
(laughing)
We really wanna try the Cronuts.
- We waited since 7 o'clock.
- One hour, yeah, we have to have
the whole New York experience
and that's why we're getting a Cronut today.
- [Herrine] So what makes the Cronut so iconic?
First of all it's limited in quantity.
You're not guaranteed one, hence the lines.
Every day by noon, all 500 to 600 of them are sold out.
This is partly because making the Cronut
is such a painstaking process.
It takes three days from start to finish.
Chef Ansel finally revealed the home-cooked version
of the recipe in his cookbook in 2014
and it proves just how much work goes into making them.
The proofing and ganache are the most time-consuming parts.
You're honestly better off just buying one.
At the bakery, each Cronut is proofed, then deep-fried.
It's filled with two different fillings.
Then it's rolled in sugar and glazed.
The team changes the Cronut flavor every month,
and no flavor is ever repeated.
- The reason why I keep limiting the quantities
just because I want to preserve the quality.
I always tell everyone that I don't want my creation
to kill my creativity.
- When we visited in July,
the Cronut of the month was
Meyer lemon and wildflower honey.
I've been wanting to try this since 2013
and here we are mid-2019, first bite of the Cronut.
It is so crunchy.
This hands down might be one of the best things
I've ever eaten in my life.
Wow, that's so good. That is so good.
It definitely for me tastes more like
a croissant than a doughnut.
It's denser than a doughnut
and it has these little very thin layers
like you get from a croissant and it's extremely buttery,
but still very light and airy.
Do I have powdered sugar like everywhere on my face?
- [Cameraman] Sort of.
- I can see why people line out the door
two hours before opening just to have this dessert now
because it's fluffy, it's airy, it's buttery,
it's crunchy, it's all of the adjectives that you want
in a dessert just embodied in this one,
one thing. One Cronut.
- [Cameraman] Nice.
- It is messy though.
This rightfully owns the title of
the best dessert in New York City.
- [Ansel] A lot of people ask me if I knew
that this was going to happen and, you know,
what I was expecting, of course I didn't know (chuckling)
of course, no one can plan for this.
- [Herrine] In a city where new food trends are popping up
almost every day there is still no signs
that the Cronut's popularity is slowing down.
The obsession has spread throughout the world
with copy-cat Cronuts and recipes found everywhere.
Even Dunkin' Doughnuts introduced it's version in 2014.
Imitation may be the best form of flattery,
but the best place to get the Cronut
is where it all started,
Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City.