Seven Snippets: Dominique Ansel Bakery

Since it was such an amazing experience our visit to the Dominique Ansel Bakery needed its own snippets.

 

1. My Foodie Friend Kathryn first told me about the bakery and I started following Dominique Ansel on instagram. He is the original creator of the cronut and his baking and theme that time is an ingredient makes me miss the days when I baked a lot and knew my stuff. We woke up at 4.30am to drive into the city so that we could park and be in line by 7:00. The bakery opens at 8:00, we were 7th in line and it felt so nice to know that we were in line for a cronut and would get a cronut not just a standby cronut coupon.

 

2. How sweetly amazing that while standing in line on a chilly morning friendly bakers walked through the line cheerfully handing out insanely delicious hot chocolate and sweet little lemony madelines.

 

I can still hear my friend squealing in delight and saying "it's still warm!!" as she bit into the cookie and I snapped the picture.

 

3. I think its a magical sight seeing all these beautiful and perfect pastries lined up in the display case. I understood why Kathryn urged me to go online and read about all the tasty treats so that we could be prepared to order. 

 

4. The Kouign Amann. In my opinion the best thing in the bakery. These little rows are layer and layers of flaky yet chewy goodness. the outsides are encrusted with a caramelized sugar layer that is divine. They are amazing! When you bite into the texture is light and a little crunchy but chewy and kind of flaky. They are a little sweet and buttery but nothing is overpowering. It is delightful. There is a place in Utah, Les Madelines that is rumored to have the best kouign amann outside of Europe, okay I added the outside of Europe part, but I will be trying it out next time I am there.

 

5. There is a lot going on on this Frozen Smore stick. A cube of ice cream dipped in chocolate that had such a unique and amazing texture, engulfed by house made marshmallow that is hot and toasty and gooey. It was awesome and we gobbled it right up.

 

6. Here we are with all our spoils. Two Cronuts each, 2 macarons, a cannelli, a frozen smore, a giant chocolate chip cookie and 4 kouign amanns. We sat in the bakery for nearly an hour savoring and studying our treats. We sat right across from the window that looked into the cronut making station and it was so fun to watch. This was an eating adventure I will always remember and I am so glad I was able to go and appreciate it all with Kathryn

 

7. Behold the cronut! A cronut is a donut made from croissant dough, after it is fried a pastry cream is piped inside filling all the flaky layers. Then it is rolled in sugar and topped with a fondant/ganache type icingThere is only one flavor each month. I was not excited about the March flavor but April was Strawberry Rhubarb with a Thyme ganache. It was so good, initially I thought the thyme was a little strong but when I ate the rest of it a few hours later the flavors were wonderful together.

I knew New York was going to be a food adventure and this was definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip!