Cronut Recipe Unveiled, Involves 26 Tablespoons Of Butter

Dominique Ansel has finally revealed the recipe for his world-famous cronut, in anticipation of his upcoming cookbook, Dominique Ansel: Secret Recipes, which comes out on October 28. But here's the catch: the recipe is pages long and requires three days to make. No wonder why this delicious concoction is only made in small batches.  It also, perhaps unsurprisingly so, contains 26 tablespoons of butter per batch. That's more than three tablespoons of butter per cronut! You would have to consume 11 homemade chocolate chip cookies to have roughly the equivalent amount of butter.

The recipe was unveiled on ABC's Good Morning America, and apparently it was tough to simplify the recipe enough so that a home pastry cook might be able to whip up a batch. (For instance a different flour that isn't commercially available was suggested). We're still pretty amazed that three days of preparation and baking is considered an altered recipe, but Ansel does warn bakers that the recipe is an extremely tough one.

"It took quite a lot of work in my small New York home kitchen to work out a version of the Cronut recipe for an at-home cook," Ansel told ABC. "The book has some much simpler recipes, but this is definitely a three-day challenge for the real serious bakers out there. I hope they have fun with it and make it for someone special."

In case you're feeling particularly ambitious, here's the cronut recipe, including three different fillings: whipped lemon, champagne chocolate, and vanilla rose ganache. But if you don't have three days of time, or unlimited resources, you can check out The Daily Meal's imitation recipe, which turns out just as tasty.

For the latest happenings in the food and drink world, visit our Food News page.

Joanna Fantozzi is an Associate Editor with The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter@JoannaFantozzi