After work today, I visited the Dominique Ansel Bakery to pick up a Thanksgiving Day pumpkin pie and to try one of their popular cronuts and hot chocolate. Dominique Ansel Bakery started in New York City and it is a young company and actually has not been in London very long; in fact, the London branch of Dominique Ansel Bakery opened in September 2016. Dominique Ansel is a French-born pastry chef who opened his first restaurant in New York City at the end of 2011, and the restaurant became very popular and successful and has contributed to the pastry and bakery world with some new creations, which I will discuss below. The London bakery is located near Victoria Station, and it is actually between Victoria and Sloane Square.
Dominiqie Ansel is credited with creating the cronut (a cross between a doughnut and croissant), the cookie shot (a cookie-shaped shot glass with warm milk inside), frozen S'mores, blossoming hot chocolate, and other unique pastries. He was won many awards and has been successful in a relatively short time and now has a branch of his bakery in London and Tokyo. The London bakery has taken on the very trend of decorating its cafe and storefront for the seasons and holidays. Currently, it is decorated for autumn, and this will probably switch right after Thanksgiving Day because it's just wrong to miss out on Thanksgiving and decorate for Christmas before that!
Dominique Ansel Bakery creates a different cronut flavour each month, and this is available to purchase. This month, to tie in with autumn and Thanksgiving, the November flavour is pumpkin and toffee. I've previously had the cronut (called the crodough in other places because of a copyright on the name 'cronut') from London's Rinkoff Bakery (also see Rinkoff Bakeries, London) and DumDum Doughnuts. I was not actually that keen on them, but I thought that I must give this one a try as it was from the creator of the pastry. This one tasted nice with a creamy pumpkin-toffee filling and a crispy sugar-coated crust, though I am still not won over by them.
The other unique item from Dominique Ansel that I tried was the blossoming hot chocolate. It is called this because the hot chocolate comes with a marshmallow, which is shaped like a closed flower bud. When placed into the hot chocolate, the flower blossoms and fills the top of the cup, and a small chocolate is revealed. The blossom expands because the outside contains a thin layer of white chocolate, which melts when the flower is placed into the hot chocolate. I found the hot chocolate much too sweet personally.
The main reason I went to visit the bakery was to pick up the Thanksgiving Day pumpkin pie that I had ordered. I am looking forward to trying this out. I will let you know what it is like, but it was described as having a silky pumpkin and custard consistency and a gingerbread crust. It does look very pretty with several dollups of whipped cream!
While I waited in the queue to pick up my pre-ordered pie, I looked at some of the other offerings from Dominique Ansel. They have afternoon tea on offer too, which is set in their private garden. There are also many different unique types of pastries available, many of which are for a limited time only. I am sure that there is something here for everyone. Oh, and I thought the eclair looked cute with the little corgis and queen on the side.
On a Friday early after work (I arrived at 4:00pm), the bakery was actually pretty busy. I am sure that it is even busier at the weekends, though there are quite a few areas to sit but visitors in groups may need to wait awhile to get a seat. Dominique Ansel Bakery is located at 17-21 Elizabeth Street in London's Victoria (Belgravia) area. The postcode is SW1W 9RP.
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