About
Cronuts[1] are a hybrid pastry made of half croissant and half doughnut. Since being introduced by New York City chef Dominique Ansel in May 2013, the $5 pastries have caused a frenzy in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, even leading to a black market on Craigslist where they’re being sold for $30 – $80 dollars each.
History
On March 9th, 2013, Grub Street[3] and flood blogger Kathy YL Chen[4] announced the launch of chef Dominique Ansel[2]’s Cronut, a pastry made of croissant dough, shaped and fried like a doughnut. After two months and 10 different recipes, Ansel had finally found a successful combination that was ready to debut on March 10th at his bakery in the South Village of New York City. On launch day, the bakery had sold out of their first batch of 50 cronuts within 20 minutes.[5]
Reception
On March 10th, cronuts were featured on Thrillist[6], Eater[7], the Village Voice[8] and Fox News.[9] The same day, Ansel posted a cronut photo taken by Niko Triantafillou to his bakery’s Tumblr[10], where it gained nearly 600 notes and was featured on the Food curated tag. Also on the 10th, a different cronut photo was shared on the /r/Pics subreddit[11] where it hit the front page with 3,071 upvotes, 1,788 points overall and 83 comments. Within a week, the bakery began making up to 200 cronuts per day[12] as people began waiting on line for the pastry for hours prior to the shop’s opening each morning.
5 minutes after doors opened today #gocronutz#workingonsaturdaypic.twitter.com/9gfZVuv5vy
— Dominique Ansel (@DominiqueAnsel) May 18, 2013
Online Presence
On March 15th, the single serving site Cronut.org[13] was created, pulling images tagged #cronut from Instagram.[14]Between their launch and June 13th, cronuts were mentioned on Twitter[15] more than 16,000 times according to Topsy Analytics.[16] The cronut tag on Tumblr[17] also became a place for fans to share photos as well as for people to bemoan their inabilities to access the pastry.
Impact
Black Market
By the end of March, food blog The Bad Deal[18] reported that cronuts were being sold on Craigslist[43] for a minimum of $20 each, depending where in New York they were delivered. The cronut “black market” was covered on a number of blogs and news sites that week including Fox News[19], Betabeat[20], Business Insider[21], Refinery29[22], Time Newsfeed[27] and Freakonomics.[23] On June 5th, the Huffington Post[26] did a special report on the people who had been scalping the pastries. Two days later, a journalist from The New Yorker[24] purchased four cronuts from Craigslist for $80.
Cronut sales began to take place outside of Craigslist, with sites like Premium Cronut Delivery[29] charging $100 per cronut. By the end of June the Craigslist ads for cronuts began to escalate, with one person offering cronuts in exchange for oral sex.[25] However, Ansel himself had become concerned with the amount of scalping taking place, causing him to personally remove people attempting to purchase the pastries for resale from the line.[28] In early July, Fast Company[31] compiled a number of photos shared on Twitter of the line for cronuts around the bakery, showing hundreds of people waiting for the pastries.
The #cronut line from above in soho: this must end pic.twitter.com/KzRgjKrwkb
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) July 3, 2013
Knockoffs
As cronuts gained traction in New York City, bakers from around North America attempted to recreate the recipe. As early as May 30th, Los Angeles Magazine[32] reported that local pastry artists were attempting to recreate the recipe. Shops in Texas[33], Florida[34] (shown below, left), Vancouver[35], Washington D.C.[36] (shown below, right) and Pittsburgh[37] have since begun to offer similar pastries. However, because Ansel has trademarked the term “cronut,” these other renditions have been referred to as “doissants”[38] or “doughsants.”[39]
Additionally, recipes for cronuts have been shared online as early as June 3rd, when winner of 2010’s The Great British Bakeoff Edd Kimber posted his recipe to his personal site.[40] Throughout june, a number of “hacked” cronut recipes began to circulate online, using canned croissant and biscuit dough[41] (shown below). On July 12th, chef Beth Hillson shared a gluten-free cronut recipe with the Gothamist.[42]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Dominique Ansel Bakery – Cronut 101
[2]Dominique Ansel Bakery – The Chef
[3]Grub Street – Introducing the Cronut, a Doughnut-Croissant Hybrid That May Very Well Change Your Life
[4]Kathy YL Chen – The Cronut from Dominique Ansel
[5]Dominique Ansel Bakery – Chef Dominique Ansel Invents the CRONUT (croissant x doughnut hybrid)
[6]Thrillist – Taste-testing the amazingly delicious croissant-donut hybrid you must try now
[7]Eater – CRONUTS = CROISSANTS X DOUGHNUTS
[8]Village Voice – The Cronut Is a Doughnut-Croissant Love Child
[9]Fox News – What the heck is a cronut?
[10]Tumblr – dominiqueansel: Introducing, the “cronut" – half croissant, half doughnut.
[11]Reddit – /r/pics: Behold… a croissant-doughnut hybrid. I give to you: The Cronut.
[12]Village Voice – New York’s Serious Case of Cronut Fever, and How to Cope
[14]Statigr.am – Photos tagged #cronut
[15]Twitter – Tweet Results for “cronut”
[16]Topsy – Tweet Statistics for “cronut”
[17]Tumblr – Posts Tagged #cronut
[18]The Bad Deal – Cronut Scalping Has Begun!
[19]Fox News – Cronut craze has sparked $40-a-pop black market for the pastry
[20]Betabeat – Thriving Cronut Black Market Emerges On Craigslist
[21]Business Insider – There’s A Growing Black Market For ‘Cronuts’ On Craigslist
[22]Refinery29 – Cronuts Hit The Black Market: See The Crazy Craigslist Ads
[23]Freakonomics – Why Are There Cronut Scalpers?
[24]The New Yorker – Peak Cronut
[25]The Daily Dot – Guy offers cronuts for sex as pastry madness escalates
[26]The Huffington Post – Here’s Who’s Really Buying Cronuts
[27]Time Newsfeed – ‘Cronut’ Craze Creates Black Market for Tasty New Treat
[28]Time Newsfeed – Baker Cracks Down on ‘Cronut Scalpers’
[29]Premium Cronut Delivery – Home
[30]The New Yorker – CRONUTS ON THEBACKBURNER: THEFROZEN S’MORE
[31]Fast Company – THECRONUTINDEX: TRACKINGURBANLIVABILITY
[32]Los Angeles Magazine – The Cronuts Are Coming! The Cronuts Are Coming!
[33]Pegasus News – Cronut craze: 3 local shops where you can find them
[34]Twitter – @PiquantHydePark: By popular demand, a glance at the croissant donut and its yummy layers!
[35]CBC News – Vancouver’s very own cronut: the frissant
[36]The Atlantic Wire – D.C.‘s ’Doissant’ Has Killed This Cronut Thing Dead
[37]CBS Pittsburgh – Local Bakeries Joining The “Cronut” Craze
[38]Twitter – Tweet Results for “doissant”
[39]Twitter – Tweet Results for “doughsant”
[40]The Boy Who Bakes – My Take on Cronuts
[41]The Daily Dot – The ultimate guide to making your own cronuts
[42]The Gothamist – How To Make A Gluten-Free Cronut
[43]Craigslist NYC– Search Results for “cronut”