Cronuts - How to give your arteries a good workout.
I used to live with a guy who worked in the new world bakery, when they started making cronuts i snagged the recipe from him.
Fair warning, it is a little bit involved but the end result is well worth the effort.
The measurements are key here as we're dealing pastry so make sure you've got scales handy.
For the cronuts
milk 60ml
warm water 65ml
yeast 6g
cold, diced butter 150g
plain flour 125g
strong flour (also called cake flour, easy to find at most supermarkets, no you can't omit it) 125g
caster sugar 30g
1/2 tsp salt
For the filling (Creme patissiere)
4 egg yolks
caster sugar 100g
plain flour, sifted 25g
1 vanilla pod, with a line scored down the side, or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
milk 350 ml
For the cronuts themselves, add the milk, water and yeast to a bowl and whisk. Leave to sit to bloom.
Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a couple of times, you do not i repeat DO NOT want the butter totally combined, you want some chunks left in there or the dough won't rise.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently combine, don't work it too much, put it in the fridge for an hour to relax the gluten.
Roll it out to the size of an a4 sheet of paper, take each end of the dough and fold it to the center, and then roll out to a4 size again, repeat this step 3 times.
Wrap in clingfilm and put the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Roll it out to a half inch thickness or there abouts, and use 2 cookie cutters to make the doughnut shape.
Leave to rise on a baking sheet, covered for 2 hours before frying.
Heat up some oil to 170 degrees and deep fry each for about 4-6 minutes, turning after each minute. they will puff up substantially.
Dust with cinnamon/vanilla sugar or glaze them, up to you.
For the filling
Whisk yolks and sugar in a bowel until light in colour and thick then add the flour.
Put the vanilla pod or essence in a pot with the milk and bring it slowly up to the boil As soon as it boils take it off the heat, you NEED to use full fat milk here, even richer stuff like silver or gold top is even better otherwise boiling it will split it.
Spoon some of the hot milk into the egg and whisk vigorously before adding the rest of the milk to the eggs to avoid curdling.
Return to the heat and bring it to a boil, whisking THE WHOLE TIME. It should take around 2 minutes to thicken.
Quickly remove it from the heat and put the pot in a bowl full of ice to stop it cooking.
Cool it completely, put in a syringe and inject it into your cronuts.
Done!
I am not responsible for any heart failure whilst eating these :D
