Baking Up Success

Award-winning pastry chef’s Vegas location keeps the surprises coming

The pastry scene on the Las Vegas Strip just became whole lot sweeter with the arrival of Dominique Ansel The bake shop, named after its James Beard Award-winning pastry chef, serves up some simply delectable versions of some of your favorites, as well as Ansel’s unique creation, the Cronut, a combination of a doughnut and a croissant.

As Ansel told Las Vegas Magazine upon the opening of his bakery at Caesars Palace, the Cronut came out of a labor of love. “We wanted to create something special for Mother’s Day back in 2013, and my wife had suggested a doughnut, but I didn’t have any recipes for a doughnut—I’m French! We decided to create something that resembled the shape of a doughnut but using a laminated dough that’s similar to a croissant with those flaky layers and textures.”

Ansel spent two months perfecting the recipe, and the Cronut’s success is unquestioned. In fact, Ansel creates a new item each month. Other creations include the Cookie Shot, a warm chocolate chip cookie shaped like a shot glass, served warm and filled to order with vanilla-infused milk, and the Frozen S’More, a ice cream version with a center of Madagascan vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate feuilletine, wrapped in honey marshmallow and torched on a smoked willow wood branch. Hungry yet? –Ken Miller

Caesars Palace, 702.731.7865