Are Cronuts Croissants Or Doughnuts? Both Method, Dominique Ansel Simply Made Them Vegan.

James Beard Award-winning French pastry chef Dominique Ansel—who invented the Cronut—has created his first-ever vegan model of the favored croissant-doughnut hybrid. 

The all-vegan model of Ansel’s iconic “half croissant, half doughnut” creation is crammed with coconut rice pudding infused with naturally flavored Butterfly Pea Flower Tea and topped with a hand-glazed fondant. The limited-edition vegan Cronut is on the market at Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York Metropolis from September 21 by means of September 24 till bought out each day.

Uniquely, Ansel partnered with paint model Sherwin-Williams to create the vegan Cronut impressed by the model’s 2024 Coloration of the Yr—a relaxed blue hue known as Upward SW 6239. 

“This collaboration represented a problem, to alter the best way we expect and experiment with totally different elements we haven’t fairly used earlier than,” Ansel tells VegNews. “We’ve examined totally different variations of the Cronut prior to now, whether or not it’s vegetarian or vegan or utilizing different elements, however this enables us to push ahead for that last stretch and produce it to life. I’m excited for everybody to attempt it.” 

Dominique Ansel

To create the vegan model of his iconic pastry, Ansel says he and his staff began by brainstorming totally different taste mixtures and testing with elements they don’t usually use, resembling vegan butter and non-dairy milk. 

“Whereas the lamination methods (the method of folding the dough and ‘butter’ to create all these flaky layers) is much like our unique course of, utilizing these new elements modified up the feel a bit so we realized to adapt as a way to nonetheless obtain that mild and ethereal texture balanced with a clean and creamy butterfly pea flower and coconut riz au lait filling,” Ansel explains. 

Incorporating the Coloration of the Yr

As for Sherwin-Williams’ Coloration of the Yr, Upward SW 6239 is supposed to be a breezy and blissful shade of blue that evokes the ever-present sense of peace discovered when slowing down, taking a breath, and permitting the thoughts to clear.

“Upward SW 6239 represents the light ahead momentum in all of our lives,” Sue Wadden, Director of Coloration Advertising at Sherwin-Williams, stated in a press release. “It brings to life that carefree, sunny day power that elicits a notion of contentment and peace. With this shade, we invite our customers to take a pause and infuse a brand new sense of ease and risk into their areas–one which doesn’t overwhelm, however fairly establishes meditation and tranquility.”

Dominique Ansel

And in terms of including the problem of incorporating a comfortable blue hue into the vegan pastry, Ansel says it was a singular problem. “I cherished that the Upward shade represents steadiness and transferring ahead, one thing peaceable and provoking,” Ansel says. 

To include this calming hue into the Cronut, Ansel used the Butterfly Pea Flower Tea. This vibrantly hued Southeast Asian flower, when gently steeped as a tea, mirrors the shade and spirit of Upward SW 6239. 

“Blue isn’t one thing that happens in culinary elements fairly often, and we had been in a position to make use of the pure hue that butterfly pea flower creates when it’s steeped as a tea to imitate that comfortable and light-weight blue coloring,” Ansel says.

Finally, the entire course of took a couple of months of testing and improvement. In distinction, when Ansel created the unique Cronut greater than a decade in the past, it took about two months and 10 totally different iterations to get it proper. 

“Individuals thought it was simply croissant dough that’s fried, but it surely was way more intricate and sophisticated than that,” Ansel says. “The identical goes with this vegan model, as we experimented with totally different ‘butters’ and elements till we felt that the textures and flavors had been comparable and one thing we could possibly be happy with.”

The Cronut craze

Along with bringing the world the Cronut®, the chef and cookbook writer has been liable for creating a few of the most fêted pastries on the earth, together with The Cookie Shot, Frozen S’extra, Blossoming Sizzling Chocolate, and plenty of extra. In 2011, Ansel opened his first store, the eponymous Dominique Ansel Bakery in NYC’s Soho neighborhood, which has since grown to further places in NYC’s Flatiron neighborhood, Hong Kong, and Las Vegas.

Dominique Ansel

Ever since Ansel began the massive Cronut craze in 2013, different bakeries throughout the nation have tried their hand at making their very own variation of the croissant-doughnut hybrid. In reality, vegan doughnut outlets have additionally tried the feat, creating flavors from cinnamon sugar to glazed crème brûlée.