Dominique Ansel Unleashes Pinecone Pastries on NYC

Pastry chef and Cronut inventor Dominique Ansel has unveiled his latest pastry creation: the Gingerbread Pinecone. According to reps from his NYC bakery, the new pastry is "a moist nutmeg cake filled with speculoos mousse and ginger caramel cream," and judging from the picture above, it is a beauty.

Regarding his inspiration for the pinecone, Ansel tells Eater: "I was working on a different idea using super-thin pieces of chocolate with cream and cake in between. It just wasn't working out right, so instead of layering the thin pieces of chocolate in a stack, I started building them around the cake, and it looked like a pinecone. There's not often an 'ah ha' moment for the creations, but this one definitely had it." Aside from the mania-inducing Cronut, recent Ansel hits include the Magic Soufflé and a one-day only Cronut Hole Concrete which was served by Shake Shack. (And yes, the line was epic). Are pinecones the new Cronut?

· dominiqueansel [Instagram]
· All Dominique Ansel Coverage on Eater [-E-]