Croissant? Doughnut? No, it's a cronut

FORGET cupcakes and macarons. The "cronut", a cross between a buttery croissant and deep fried doughnut, is about to hit our shores.

Cronuts

FORGET cupcakes and macarons. The "cronut", a Frankenstein cross between a buttery croissant and deep fried doughnut, is about to hit our shores.

New York pastry chef Dominique Ansel created a delicacy of layers of pastry coated with crystallised sugar, Tahitian vanilla-flavored ganache, finished with a glaze of rose-flavoured frosting which has taken New York, and the rest of the US, by storm.

Queues have been a constant outside his Manhattan Bakery two hours before the shop opens, ever since he invented the croissant-doughnut cross-breed with one pair of scalpers marking up the $5 treat to enthusiastic buyers for $20. They intend to double the price.

The cronut is soon to hit Australia with croquembouche king Adriano Zumbo perfecting his own "zonut", which is due to be released this week - if he can get the recipe right.

"It would be hard for the average punter and even I am having problems creating the right level of fat content and the layers of the butter are a bit problem," he said.

"I'll start with flavours like chocolate and salted caramel but then, if I get a bit of a following, I'll start to push all the flavours I use in the macarons."

Past macaron flavours have included vegemite and hamburger.

And the name Zonut?

"Cronut has been trademarked so I can't use that," he said.

Expect queues outside Zumbo's Sydney bakeries from this Friday.

This June 3, 2013 photo shows chef Dominique Ansel making Cronuts, a croissant-donut hybrid, at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)