Savitha's Kitchen: Kronuts - A combination of doughnuts and croissants

When Swathi of "Zesty South Indian Kitchen" announced this month's challenge, I was so impressed with the recipe. Actually these kronuts was first introduced by "Cronut 101 " bakery in NY. People used to stand in big queue to have a bite.This is a cross over product of croissants and doughnuts. The use of pastry sheet and yeast is the result of these beautiful kronuts. These kronuts are prepared in 3 days. The first day , the dough is prepared.T he second day butter is incorporated in the dough. And the final day it is punched out and fried. The kronuts are then tossed in cinnamon sugar blend ,frosted with chocolate glaze and then filled with pastry cream. The process is bit lengthy ,but the outcome is so yumm.

Recipe source : Bootleg `cronut

Yield : 16 kronuts

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1.All purpose flour - 510g / 3.75 cups ( more for dusting the work table)

2.salt -7g / 1teaspoon

3.sugar - 100g / 1/2cup

4.milk -150g /1/2 cup+2 tablespoon

5.Rapid rise yeast - 1 packet / active dry yeast/ instant yeast/ 2 ¼ teaspoon

6.jumbo eggs - 2 (If you are using large eggs use 3)

7.Unsalted butter - 50g / 3.5 tablespoon

For butter layer :

1.unsalted butter 295g/1 1/4cup+1/2 tablespoon (2 sticks and little more than a ½ stick) (if you can find European style butter like plugra that will be good)

For frying :

1.Canola oil - 2-4 cup

2.Water - 200 g for brushing on the top

3.Cinnamon sugar - (400g sugar and 100 g cinnamon)

For the Pastry cream

Whole milk - 3 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons or Vanilla Crush; or 1/2 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise

Cornstarch - 1/4 cup

King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour - 1 tablespoon

Egg yolks - 4 large

Butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 stick)

Heavy cream - 1 cup whipped to soft peaks

For chocolate glaze:
1.semisweet chocolate chips - 1/2 cup
2. butter - 2 tablespoons

3. light corn syrup - 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon

4.vanilla extract - 1/4 teaspoon

Method:

The process is carried out over three days. irst day,we are preparing the dough, second day ,we incorporate the butter and third day the kronuts are fried.First day,start the process in the evening.Bring the eggs and butter to room temperature. Take a microwave safe bowl, add milk and heat it for 30 seconds.Now add the butter to the milk.This way the butter is melted in the milk.Take a mixing bowl ,add flour,salt,rapid rise yeast and sugar.Mix them well.Now add the eggs( it shold be whisked) to the mixing bowl.Now slowly add the milk- butter mixture to the mixing bowl.Start kneading the dough.At first,the dough will be sticky ( don't try to add anything like flour or oil now).Knead for atleast 15 minutes, by now the butter will be incorporated in the the dough and it will not be sticky now.It will be shiny.

Now transfer the dough to a greased bowl and cover it with a cling wrap.Slit the cling wrap in the middle for the dough to breath.Let it rise for an hour in a warm place. Now it would have doubled in size. Refrigerate the dough covered overnight.

Second day :

Now its time to prepare the pastry cream. In a pan, add 2 1/2 cups of milk,sugar and salt.Bring it to simmer over medium heat untill the sugar is dissolved.In a separate bowl,add remaining 1/2 cup milk,cornstorch,flour and egg yolks.Whisk them to get a smooth batter.Now add some hot milk mixture to the bowl and mix it well.This prevents the egg from scraambling.Pour the egg mixture back to the simmering milk.Constantly stir ,untill it thickens like custard.Add vanilla extract to the mix.

Now grase a cling wrap with butter and cover the surface of the custard .This way ,the skin is not formed.Cool it completely.Now whisk the heavy cream to soft peak and whisk it to the cooled custard mixture.Now our pastry cream is ready for filling.We can keep it refrigerated,untill needed.

Preparing the butter layer:

The next day, cut the cold butter 295g lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slabs. Arrange the pieces on a piece of parchment or waxed paper to form a 5- to 6-inch square, cutting the butter crosswise as necessary to fit. Top with another piece of parchment or waxed paper. With a rolling pin, pound the butter with light, even strokes. As the pieces begin to adhere, use more force. Pound the butter until it’s about 4 x 6 inches square and then trim the edges of the butter. Put the trimmings on top of the square and pound them in lightly with the rolling pin. Place in refrigerator to cool for at least 2 hours.

Unwrap and lay the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 10-1/2-inch square. Brush excess flour off the dough. Remove the butter from the refrigerator. If not, refrigerate a bit longer.

Unwrap and place the butter on the dough so that the points of the butter square are centered along the sides of the dough. Fold one flap of dough over the butter toward you, stretching it slightly so that the point just reaches the center of the butter. Repeat with the other flaps. Then press the edges together to completely seal the butter inside the dough. (A complete seal ensures butter won’t escape.).

Now fold the dough from left to right till the centre. Again fold it like a book.Now similarly, fold the dough again for 4 turns ,for every turn, refigerate the dough for atleast for 1 hour. This way the butter is incorporated in the butter very well. While doing your turns, if the dough becomes sticky, then immediately refrigerate .Use lot of flour for dusting .The fourth or final turn will be difficult,as the dough will become too big.But don't skip it,because this is essential in getting flaky layers. When we are done with the 4 turns,wrap the dough on a clear wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Third day :

On the third day , Unwrap the dough and roll it into a rectangle of 1/2 inch thickness . If the dough starts to stick ,then refigerate it . Now take cookie cutter or a bottle cap and punch out a big circle of 3 1/2 inch thickness and punch a innercircle using a smaller cookie cutter of 1 1/2 inch and punch out the inner circle. I used a pepper shaker's cap.

Now place the punched out doughnuts and doughnuts's holes on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Always punch the doughnuts ,when the dough is cold ,if not the kronuts will not fry straight.Brush the top of the kronuts with water.At this point, the original recipe calls for pasting 2 kronuts together ,one above the other.But I didn't do that.The kronuts should be thick,if not it will become too crisp while frying. The ultimate goal is to make thick kronuts. Now place the cookie sheet in a warm place for proofing for 30 minutes.Once the kronuts are proofed,pop it in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in freezer for 15 minutes.

Now take a pan and oil upto 3 inch.Bring the oil to high heat and now turn it to medium low.We can test the oil ,by throwing a pinch of dough ,it should foam now. Now slowly drop the kronuts 1 or 2 at a time. Cook slowly ,by truning around to get a evenly coloured kronut.Strain it on a hand towel ,untill it shreds all the excess oil. Let the kronuts cool completely. In a mixing bowl,add cinnamon powder and sugar and shake it. Once the kronuts are cooled completely, toss them in .

Preparing chocolate glaze:
Mean while,we can preapre the choclate glaze.Take a microwave safe bowl,add chocolate chip,butter and corn syrup.Pop it in the microwave and heat it for 30 seconds.Mix it well, to get a shiny glaze.If the chocolate is not melted, then we can heat it for another 10 seconds.

Now take the prepared pastry cream out of the fridge to attain room temperature.Arrange the fried kronuts on a tray.Dip the kronuts in the chocolate glaze and sprinkle coloured sprinklers.Now take a piping bag with round tip (wilton tip number 3), fill the pastry cream ,by poking holes around the kronuts.

Initially, the kronuts will be bit crisp after frying.But when we inject pastry cream,it will become soft.The inner will be chewy and the outer layer will be bit crispy.On the whole its worth the effort ,we put for preparing the kronuts.Rohith completely enjoyed the kronuts.