cronuts

A box of cronuts from The Marker Hotel in Dublin. Every Monday the chef introduces two new flavors. I suggest never eating them; they’re too addicting.

It started May 10^th when pastry chef Dominique Ansel introduced a Frankenstein pastry he perfectly named a “cronut” in his New York bakery, Ansel’s SoHo. It took only a day or so before people were lining up at 5am to make sure that, for $5 each, they could get a cronut before they sold out. Then the scalpers appeared, re-selling cronuts for $30 each. Then $40. Soon a third-party delivery service promised to deliver a cronut to your home or office for $100—each.

So what is a cronut? According to Ansel’s bakery web site, it’s “a half croissant, half doughnut.” But it’s more complicated than that. Ansel says the creation took more than 2 months and “is not to be mistaken as simply croissant dough that has been fried.” In fact, he says, the “entire process takes up to 3 days.”

Oh, my.

So why am I mentioning cronuts? Because they have come to Dublin. To The Marker Hotel, where I am staying. A little over a week ago, executive chef Gareth Mullins began making and selling cronuts. And people here are just as crazy about them. So much so that the hotel has had to limit distribution.

“I would advise people to get in early as when they are gone, they are gone!”

Mullins sells boxes of cronuts (4 to a box) for 10 Euros or about $13. A bargain over the New York version.

And are they worth that much?

Oh. My. God.