CRONUT
RECIPE BY @NUTORIOUS_
MAKES: 14 – 16 medium sized cronuts
PREPARATION: 40 to 50 MIN
Setting / proving: 6+ HOURS
Cooking: 10 MIN
WHAT'S IN IT?
60 ml (1/4 cup) luke warm water
65mls luke warm milk
1 satchet (7g) dry active yeast
150 g cold butter, diced
125g plain flour
125g bakers flour
30g (1/8 cup) caster sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup (115g) caster sugar (extra for dusting)
1 vanilla bean
1 cup nutella
1 cup of oreo/ chocolate
1 litre flavourless frying oil (see notes)
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
Start by combining the luke warm water with the milk and stir. Add the yeast to the mixture, stir and set aside.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse a few times so that there are lumps of butter still present in the mixture. The mixture should be crumbly with clumps of butter throughout.
Combine the flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir until dough is almost formed. Place on a floured workbench and gently bring together. Be sure to not over knead as you still want lumps of butter throughout the mixture.
Place in a floured bowl, cover in clingwrap and allow to rest in the fridge for two hours.
Once rested roll out evenly on a floured workbench to a thickness of about 1cm trying to keep a rectangular shape. Fold the dough in thirds on top of each other to form a sandwich structure, turn the dough 90 degrees roll out again and repeat this process three times finishing with the dough folded in thirds.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and return to the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Roll out the rested dough to the size of an A4 sheet and a thickness of 1cm. Cut out the donuts using two different sized circular cookie cutter rings, one large outer ring and one smaller size for the hole in the middle.
Place the cut out donuts on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and cover with a towel, set aside and allow to rest for an hour.
About 45 minutes into the resting period start to slowly heat a heavy bottomed medium size saucepan filled half way with flavourless oil until it reaches 175 degrees celsius.
On a separate plate place the extra caster sugar and scrap the seeds of one vanilla pod into the sugar and mix. Set aside to coat the cronuts once they have been fried.
After an hour of resting fry each cronut for 2-3 minutes each side. Have the side that was face down when proving face up to start frying.
Remove each cronut from the oil and place on paper towel to drain.
Place in the vanilla sugar and coat completely before placing on a wired rack.
Inject with your desired filling with chocolate ganache* in four to five separate places around the cronut and top with toppings.
NOTES AND TIPS:
*I prefer to use grapeseed oil for frying, alternatively vegetable oil or rice bran oil are good substitutes.
*Top and fill the cronuts with whatever flavours you prefer. Good fillings include lemon curd, chocolate ganache or jam.
*Topping recommendations include nutella, glaze or icing, ganache, or salted caramel.
*If you cannot find bakers flour, double the quantity of plain flour.
*For the chocolate ganache recipe refer to the espresso chocolate ganache tart recipe.