The Cronut Flavor Dominique Ansel Is Dying To Make

Everyone associates the buttery and flaky greatness of a croissant with France, but it actually descended from Austrian bakers in the 13th century. As for Homer Simpson's dessert of choice, the donut, its origins harken back to Ancient Greece and Rome, but it got its fun portmanteau name around the late 18th century. While both pastries have been enjoyed at bakeries in the modern age, it took until 2013 for a perfect union of the two to form the Cronut. The genius behind the viral pastry, which marries laminated dough, sugar, cream, and glaze, is Dominique Ansel. Rose Vanilla was the very first flavor he conjured up and introduced to the world. Every month since, a new, non-repeating flavor of Cronut has risen up at his namesake bakeries in New York City, Los Angeles, and London.

With over 130 flavors of the Cronut in the books, we were curious if there was ever a single flavor that proved elusive to its creator. Luckily, Chowhound got a chance to talk with Ansel and posed this very question while he was playing co-host to the Sweet Dreams event as part of the 2024 New York City Wine & Food Festival. Ansel relayed there were a few flavors circling in his mind, but there was one in particular that tops the list. He admitted, "I would love to work with açaí. I haven't worked with it yet."

Dominique Ansel has run quite the gamut on flavors with his Cronut, from Valrhona Dark Chocolate Raspberry Chambord to Banoffe: Caramelized Banana With Dulce de Leche. The chef has even made a vegan one that served as a canvas for Sherwin-Williams's 2024 Color of the Year, Upward SW 6239. Sometimes, he even has doubts about his own flavor experiments. Ansel revealed, "Strangely, we did a pear and sage, which I thought was pushing a little bit the flavor profile, but people actually loved it. I was happy to be surprised."

Knowing that Ansel would love to use açaí as a Cronut flavor, it leads one to imagine what taste sensations could be tapped from the ingredient that makes up the underrated breakfast bowl. It also leads one to ponder, what's holding him back? Açaí is a nutritionally rich berry grown in the Amazon Rainforest. It's known as "purple gold," but is regarded as a fruit with a short shelf life, which is why one often encounters it in a frozen state. Cronuts are sold at room temperature, so one can see why that açaí feature might not work in the fruit's favor. Perhaps another drawback is the strong tartness of its flavor, or maybe it's just too purple in color to make it attractive to look at. Whatever the reasoning, it remains quite the elusive flavor of Cronut to this day. However, whenever Ansel does finally figure it out, we'll be ready to try it immediately.