Chocolate cream filled, chocolate glazed Kronuts - Croissant and doughnut in one

Whew! I am relieved to have got these kronuts done with. Kronuts, a doughnut-croissant hybrid, the invention of a New York bakery and apparently a phenomenon in New York was this month’s baking partners challenge. Baking Partners challenge obviously is called that for a reason. What was I thinking! Swathi, why this Kolaveri? Swathi and the rest of the baking partners have beautifully replicated these kronuts and most of them with stepwise photos! I don’t want to shock people with my stepwise photos. Torn dough, oozing butter, rolled out cronuts on bamboo moram (not parchment lined sheet pan). But I have to say the kronuts do taste delicious. 

This recipe is done in 3 days and there are multiple components to it – the doughnut (sorry the kronut, we can’t spell that with a “C” because it’s trademarked), the pastry cream filling and the chocolate glaze. There’s a very important technique in this recipe where we laminate the butter within the dough. It looks easy but is difficult as hell especially for an amateur like me. The butter needs to be cold but not rock hard for you to do this. If it gets too warm, shove it in the refrigerator and continue again after some time. These Kronuts are extremely sensitive to temperature as they have butter layered within. So anytime it gets warm, while rolling out the dough, cutting out the Kronuts or frying them, place them in the refrigerator till firm and then use.  

I am generally intimidated by pastry and piping bags. They torment me. I made the cake for my son’s birthday this year – a teddy bear cake but I couldn’t finish it fully the night before. I remember having nightmares of runny frosting, ugly lettering and botched filling the whole night. I’d been postponing these Kronuts till the last moment because they involved lots of time and patience and with my kids I never seem to have either. You wouldn’t believe how many interruptions and hurdles I had to cross to get this one decent Kronut clicked. Ayyayayo! But it is a great lesson in patience and I would definitely make these again when my kids are in college.

Prep time: 3 hours
Cooking time: 30 mins
Makes: 4


Ingredients – Kronut Dough

All purpose Flour – 250 gm
Salt – ½ tsp
Sugar – 50 gm
Milk – ¼ cup
Instant Yeast – 1-1/2 tsp
Egg – 1
Butter – 25 gm
Butter – 150 gm for the layering

Ingredients – Chocolate Pastry Cream

Milk – 250 ml
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 50 gm
Custard powder – 3 tbsp
All purpose flour – 1 tsp
Milk Chocolate – 60 gm

Ingredients – Chocolate Glaze

Melted chocolate – 100 gm

Ingredients – Frying & Rolling

Water – for brushing the tops
Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 5 tbsp
Oil as required for deep frying

Method

Day 1

1.      Place the 150 gm butter in between 2 layers of parchment paper or butter paper and roll with a heavy rolling pin till the butter is a rectangle of about 4*6 inches. Wrap the butter paper around the butter and refrigerate overnight.

2.      Remove the eggs and butter half an hour before from the fridge. Mix all ingredients for the Kronut dough together to form a ball of dough. If not using instant yeast, place yeast in a small cup and add 1 tbsp lukewarm milk and and a teaspoon of sugar. Set aside for 10-15 minutes. When the yeast has dissolved and the solution if frothy, add to the dough ingredients and mix. Place dough in an oiled bowl and let rise till double in volume. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2

3.      Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface to a diamond shape. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and place it at the centre of the diamond. Bring together the 4 sides of the dough as if wrapping the butter into a rectangular parcel. Now with the shorter side of the rectangle parallel to you, roll out the rectangle to increase the length of the longer side. Now fold the top 1/3^rd of the dough and then the bottom 1/3^rd over the previous fold. Turn the folded dough 90 degrees in the clockwise direction so that it resembles a book. Now make an indentation at the bottom right corner to mark the 1^st turn. You need to make 3 more turns this way. That is, roll out the dough again to a rectangle, fold top 1/3^rd, bottom 1/3^rd and then rotate 90 degrees for the 2^nd turn. Repeat similarly to make 3^rd and 4^th turns so that you’ve rolled out the dough in all 4 directions and it has come a full circle or square if you will. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate.

Day 3

4.      To make the pastry cream, beat eggs in a bowl till blended. Then add the sugar and beat well till pale. Add the custard powder and the flour and beat till well incorporated.

5.      Bring milk to just under a boil. Remove from heat and add to the egg mixture and beat vigorously till the milk is incorporated. Then transfer this mixture to the stove and cook on low whisking constantly. When the mixture has thickened to a frosting consistency, remove from heat. Whisk in the chocolate until well mixed. Refrigerate till use.

6.      For the chocolate glaze topping, melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside.

7.      Mix cinnamon and granulated sugar in a bowl. Keep ready.

8.      To make the kronuts, remove dough from fridge. Roll out while the dough is still cold into a large shape about ½ inch thick. Use round cookie cutters or a large and small lid to cut out the dough into kronuts. Brush the top of a kronut with water and place another on top of it. Place these on a parchment lined sheet. Let rise for half an hour. Then refrigerate for 1 hour.

9.      Heat oil for deep frying. Remove kronuts from refrigerator. When oil is hot, slide the kronuts into the oil. Deep fry to a golden brown colour. When the kronuts are warm enough to handle, toss in the cinnamon sugar.

10.   Load the pastry cream into a piping bag, poke holes around the sides of the kronut and pipe the pastry cream into these holes.

11.   Holding the bottom of the kronout, dunk the top into the melted chocolate. Sprinkle granulated sugar on top if you wish. For a neater look, you can pipe the topping as well. Serve.