Cronut Experiment

  

My beloved children are VERY GOOD about going into the Big City with Mommy to try new food.  We’ve done Donut Plant and fancy popsicles and crack pie even!  But with the people lining up at 5 a.m. and publicists shanking each other in alleyways, our chances of getting one of Dominique Ansels’ cronuts this year are slim. 

ShopRite!

ShopRite is getting into the cronut action --  “Croissant Donuts.” Not bad and pretty good for a grocery store.  Good for you, ShopRite. 

But Mummy can always cook….

I found this recipe for cronuts from the Daily Meal.  Looked pretty good.  However, the recipe was rather underwritten and thin in parts.  There were some steps I could’ve used some more information on  – I’m going to go over those points here.

 

You have to mash the butter into a block 8 x 8” between parchment sheets.  I had the bright idea of putting into the freezer so I could peel off the parchment.  It worked out great.

 

 

 

Pastry cream, not scambled eggs

Pastry Cream.  I don’t make pastry cream often.  Maybe every other year.  This recipe was a little underwritten for such a delicate emulsion.  I forgot all the tricks.  I threw out the first batch and used this recipe from Epicurious – after thoroughly reading the comments and remembering to temper the egg mixture first, etc.  Next time, I’ll probably dig out Julia Child’s recipe.

 

 

  

So after all the rises, the final roll out instructs “cut out 12 donuts” from a 6 x 8” rectangle.  Huh?  I really couldn’t picture how to do that.  So I used a small glass.  DIdn’t know what to do for the interior, because all my bottle caps, etc, were way too big for an interior hole.  So I threaded a straw through. 

THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE.

I also didn’t want to handle the dough too much at that point, so I didn’t want to mess with it too much.  (I should’ve messed with it a little)

They fried up beautifully.  I even measured the temperature of the oil and set a timer for each donut.  Also:  THIS is when you roll in sugar, not the end when they are cooled.

Put the pastry cream in, glazed the top, took a bite – and some were raw inside.  RAW INSIDES.  Hole not big enough.  Not the right size.   Dough too dense, and fries too quickly.  Aaaarrrgghh.

The taste?  The surviving parts and others?  Lovely.  I had some leftovers that I just shaped into circles and those fried up gorgeous.  The pastry cream was a little heavy for my taste.  It reminded me a little of Krispy Kremes with the icing – which always strikes me as a little much.  I think with a lighter cream or an orange glaze, we’d be a little closer to God with these.

I think if I made these again , I would invest in a proper donut cutter to get the dimensions exactly right.  And then an orange blossom cream.