What pastry hybrid combines a croissant with a doughnut?

The pastry hybrid that combines a croissant with a doughnut is the Cronut.

The Cronut was created by French pastry chef Dominique Ansel and introduced in May 2013 at his bakery in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. Its name is a portmanteau of “croissant” and “doughnut,” reflecting its croissant-like laminated dough and doughnut-style frying and shape.

Unlike a standard baked croissant, a Cronut is fried, traditionally in grapeseed oil, then filled with flavored cream and finished with sugar or a glaze. Its layered interior gives it a flaky bite, while frying supplies the browned, rich exterior associated with doughnuts. The original pastry quickly became a food craze, with customers lining up and imitators appearing under other names.

“Cronut” is not a generic name for every croissant-doughnut hybrid. It is a trademark associated with Ansel’s creation, while similar pastries have been marketed as cruffins, doughssants, zonuts and other names. A cruffin, for example, combines a croissant-like dough with a muffin shape, so it is a related but different hybrid.