What are cronuts, you ask? Well, really they’re just croissants cut into the shape of doughnuts and fried. And they’re amazing. Really. We made these a while ago, but because of a crazy busy summer we have not had time to post much.
We’ve been hearing about the cronut craze for a while now, but have never been to Dominique Ansel for a real one. We’re pretty sure these homemade, fresh out of the fryer ones are just as good though!
We woke up one morning and Stephanie said, “Hey, you know what we should make today? Cronuts!” So I took some butter out of the freezer and we got to work. A few hours later, we had the most decadent and delicious dessert we could think of!
We glazed the whole ones in a mixture of milk and powdered sugar and rolled the holes around in cinnamon sugar, but you can play around with lots of toppings. Chocolate ganache and sprinkles? Boston cream? Why not?
Cronuts, recipe adapted from our own croissant recipe:
Dough Block
- 1/2 cup warm whole milk
- 1 teaspoon + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup cold milk
Butter block
- 3 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
Egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon whole milk/cream
Directions:
1. Pour warm milk into bowl, whisk in 1 tsp sugar. Whisk in yeast, set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine flour, rest of the sugar, salt, and cold butter. Blend on medium with the paddle attachment until it resembled bread crumbs. Add yeast mixture and cold milk. Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes until the dough forms a very rough mass. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 to 5 times, wrap loosely and chill for 30-60 minutes.
3. Make the butter block. Cut butter into 1/2 inch pieces and toss with flour. Refrigerate for 20 minutes (we did this right after refrigerating the dough). Beat the butter with the paddle attachment for 1-2 minutes, wrap in parchment, and refrigerate while making the dough.
4. Dust work surface with flour, set dough on it, and sprinkle with flour. Roll into a 15×12 inch rectangle with sharp corners. The shorter side should be parallel to the edge of your work surface.
5. First turn of the dough: split the dough into three parts, putting dough on the top two. Do the letter fold*, pinch the seams, and roll it with a rolling pin 3 or 4 times to seal. Refrigerate one hour before the second turn.
6. Roll the dough into a 20×12 rectangle and do the book fold**. Seal the seams and roll with the rolling pin 3 or 4 times to seal. Refrigerate one hour before the third turn.
7. Roll the dough into a 20×12 rectangle. Do a letter fold*. Seal the seams. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24. This would be a good time to go to sleep. You can resume in the morning.
8. Fry in 350-degree oil for about 1 minute on each side. Let cool and ice, or roll around in cinnamon and sugar.
