Cronut Maker Rolls Out Google's Pi Day Doodle

Dominique Ansel makes a Salted Caramel Apple Pie.

By Ethan L. Johns
March 14, 2018

Image: Google

As… French… as apple pie?

Since its inauguration in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw, March 14th (3/14) has been celebrated as Pi Day. In honor of the 30th anniversary of this sacred occasion, the world awoke on Wednesday morning to find a Google Doodle of an apple pie, made by French pastry chef Dominique Ansel.

Ansel—inventor of the Cronut—developed a recipe for Salted Caramel Apple Pie, which can be found alongside a video produced for the holiday. The Doodle, pictured above, spells out “Google” using pie ingredients, but also signifies the formula used for arriving at the number pi: circumference (pie crust) divided by diameter (pie dough) equals (apple cores) pi (pie).

Fun with food? That’s just a sine of the times.

Obviously, Pi Day is the day where math lovers and food lovers unite in a shared joy for a very particular homophone—a connection which could be described as… irrational. On one hand, mathematicians celebrate the Greek letter π, which signifies the number that begins with 3.14159 and proceeds to go on for-freakin’-ever (it’s also essential for trigonometry, but we’re not math majors). On the other, food lovers see the day as an excuse to bake pies, which is both ingenious and delicious—and lucrative for food brands like Genius Kitchen (see our recipe for Surprise Rainbow Pi Day Cake). But, hey, we won’t go off on that tangent.

If you’re the kind of person who spends all their time memorizing the infinite digits of pi, you’ll be able to make quick work of Ansel’s pie recipe, which calls for less than 15 ingredients.

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About Ethan L. Johns

Ethan is the Food News Writer at Genius Kitchen. An expert on the Parisian bistrot, he likes bitters and salted butters, and is no fan of dessert unless it's made with fruit. His hobbies include reading up on the history of borscht and attempting to roll perfect couscous by hand. Twits & Instagram @EthanLJohns