Dominique Ansel releases cronut recipe for home bakers

Calling all home bakers – who's up for a challenge? The creator of the cronut has released the recipe for the colossal croissant-doughnut hybrid, and it's a monster. Cult New York pastry chef Dominique Ansel has adapted the recipe for his trademarked pastry creation for home cooks.

It turns out it's faster to fly to New York City from Australia and brave the early morning queue outside Ansel's eponymous bakery than make the pastry from scratch. If you're up for it, you'll need to stock up on butter and set aside a long weekend because the recipe takes three days to complete.

The pastry chef revealed his recipe to Good Morning America while promoting his upcoming cookbook, Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes.

Ansel said he developed the at-home version of the recipe over four months, and described it as "a three-day challenge" – which is something of an understatement. The technical and time-consuming recipe is worthy of a finale technical challenge on MasterChef, and would have Great Australian Bake-Off contestants shaking in their boots.

The intimidating recipe is an essay, topping 1500 words, with more than 30 steps. In a nutshell, the finished item comprises layer upon layer of butter-laminated pastry dough, which is cut into rounds, deep-fried, filled with ganache, rolled in flavoured sugar and topped with a circle of glossy glaze.

You'll need a whole lot of butter, a whole lot of equipment and a whole lot of time.

The recipe requires a stand mixer with all the bells and whistles, additional attachments (dough hook, whisk), ring cutters, a frying thermometer, piping bags and special nozzles.

The ingredients are simple enough - flour, sugar, yeast, butter, egg white, cream - did we mention butter? The recipe requires a "butter block" – basically a square moulded from 18 tablespoons of butter! This whopper "butter block" is plonked on the dough and forms the basis of the recipe's unique lamination technique.

Over the course of the three days, the cronut dough likes to relax – a lot. Roll, fold, refrigerate, relax, repeat. We think you'll need to relax too after all this effort!

The bakery changes its cronut flavour monthly, and Ansel has shared a few flavour options to get you started, including a decadent Champagne chocolate ganache, or a floral vanilla and rose pairing. Choose the ganache, glaze and flavoured sugar, from the three options of each, to create your own cronut combo.

If you're baulking at the recipe, and don't fancy flying to the US, you can get your hands on an unofficial pastry hybrid on home soil. Local bakers have put their spin on the pastry, such as Adriano Zumbo with his "Zonuts" and Sydney cafe Brewtown Newtown. While Melbourne bakery Lune Croissanterie's creative "cruffins" - croissant-muffin hybrids - draw an early morning pastry window queue to rival Ansel's.