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Dominique Ansel, creator of the croissant-donut hybrid pastry we know today as the cronut, is trying to parlay his reign over the New York City pastry world into another dynasty—a dynasty that involves a $7 Frozen S'more™ with a "modified marshmallow" topping. Ansel unveiled his creation today, which I am dubbing the cold smore (after coming up with the ingenious moniker "cronut," Ansel has not created a snappy portmanteau for his new creation ... yet):
The scene to get these cold smores this morning was something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Ansel, according to The Epoch Times's Kristen Meriwether, handed out ten tickets describing the dessert to people in line. Then "he asked those who got a paper to pick a number between one and 10. Picking number five, I was the lucky winner," writes Violet Beauregarde Meriwether, who went on to describe the new dessert:
Each Frozen S’more is torched to order. Ansel’s latest treat is presented on an apple-wood smoked willow branch, giving it an authentic fire-side feel. Ansel warned me to eat the treat quickly, and I could see why—it was a race to eat it before it melted off the willow branch.
Yes, the phrases "apple-wood smoked willlow branch" and "torched to order" are apparently part of this dessert. With that, the cold smore is now officially more precious than the vanilla-rose cronuts Ansel was selling in May. The official description from Ansel himself reads, "a vanilla custard ice cream core coated with crispy chocolate wafers is then covered with a modified marshmallow."
Of course, the question is whether New Yorkers are willing to break their own jaws and pay people lots of money to get their hands on the cold smore. Maybe? Why not? People were still lining up last time we checked, and, for now, it looks like Ansel's business plan of cracking down on Cronut rations, only making a tiny amount of them per day (200-250) in order to drive up demand is working in what's now the third month of the cronut fad. And a cold dessert makes more sense and seems more satisfying in the hot and humid New York summer than a cronut.
The one drawback seems to be that the cold smore isn't all that strudy. "Ansel warned me to eat the treat quickly, and I could see why—it was a race to eat it before it melted off the willow branch," Meriweather explains. "Melted off the willow branch" is so deeply poetic. But is it tasty, too?
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