Homemade Cronuts with Sugar Topping and Orange Glaze

A tasty dessert with thousands of layers can be made in one day! Try this cronuts recipe and surprise everyone with these huge croissant-doughnut pastries!

I noticed this recipe accidentally while scrolling my Pinterest feed. Wouldn’t you agree that this is one of the most popular and basically easiest ways to find interesting recipes today? For me, it is definitely the most effective one 🙂 But just get back to the recipe.

I have to admit, I fell in love with the cronuts recipe from the very first picture. And I couldn’t help myself to stop – I was searching and searching, looking and staring at them 🙂 Oh, they looked so tasty and so huge, and so so big! 🙂

While reading the recipes and looking for information on the cronuts themselves, I found that the very first cronuts as a croissant-doughnut pastry were introduced in 2013 by New York City pastry chef Dominique Ansel of Dominique Ansel Bakery. The cronut resembles a doughnut and is made from croissant-like dough and also is filled with flavored cream. It is interesting also that the name “cronut” has a trademark, registered at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Dominique Ansel released an At-Home Cronut Recipe in his cookbook, Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes, in 2015. The original recipe takes three days to make the cronuts. I missed an opportunity to prepare the dough in advance (I really wanted to make them for parents that were visiting us at weekend), so I was looking for the recipe that could be realized in one day. And I was lucky. I found the blog of Ashlee Marie where the cronuts recipe was presented.

Was it difficult to make the cronuts? No. And yes, a little bit. But it, actually, depends on what is difficult for you 🙂 As for the ingredients, they are very simple and you can easily find them in your local store. The process itself is also not very demanding – you just have to roll and fold, roll and fold 🙂 it’s easy!

The most challenging part is that you have to have time if you want to make the cronuts. Have this in mind – I started to make them at midday but finished in the late evening.

And how was it? oh… at first I thought that I failed to have huge and layered donuts-shaped cronuts because the dough wasn’t thick and bubble enough (I thought maybe the yeast is sleeping?). But when I started to boil them in the oil, everything was taking its place: the cronuts became big and I could clearly see the layers, thousands of them. The taste was also very nice, a bit buttery I would say 🙂

The original recipe goes with the filling, why not making it too? That’s a good question and I think I am going to do that one day too, but to be honest, I found the cronuts quite strong in taste themselves, also as I mentioned quite buttery and full of moist, strong texture, the glaze was also a perfect alternative for the creamy filling.

What ingredients you should use to make cronuts?

So, let’s talk about what ingredients I used to make the dough for homemade cronuts. Forst of all, I took some milk. Have in mind that it should be warm (about 45 C, if you don’t have a thermometer in your hands, touch it with your finger: it shouldn’t be too hot, but also not colder than your body temperature). Warm milk is needed to wake up active dry yeast. If milk is too hot, it will kill them, and some sugar is needed to feed them 🙂 I add it even when I bake pizza. It’s better for everyone 🙂

When yeast is woken up and fed, it should be mixed with some flour (I used basic all-purpose flour) and salt, as well as some small chunks of soft, room temperature butter. It is said that it’s better to use good quality butter, not less than 80 percent fat.

Separately from the dough itself, you will need to make a bitter block that will help you to layer the dough. There you will also need some butter, actually quite a lot of it :), all-purpose flour and sugar powder to make butter harder, as well as some salt to give it a taste.

What about topping and glaze? Have some orange juice on your hand!

For adding a spark to the cronuts, I used some freshly squeezed orange juice, mixed them with some milk and sugar powder to make the glaze thicker. For the topping, I needed nothing more, but just a bit of granulated sugar.

So, let’s start 🙂 Mix the dough and prepare for layering

We will divide the process of mixing and preparing dough into two parts. First of all, we will make the dough as well as a butter block for layering.

In your mixing bowl add warm milk (it should be similar to your body temperature – not too cold, but also not to hoot, because the yeast both ways can be harmed), active dry yeast, and b together and let it stay for about 5-10 minutes until the yeast is dissolved and you can see bubbles coming out of it.

Add the flour, salt, and room temperature butter cut into small chunks to the warm milk mixture. Mix with a standing mixer or a wooden spoon until it’s well combined, and knead a little bit by hands for a couple of minutes.

Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let the dough sit for 1 hour at room temperature until doubled in size.

Then prepare the butter block. Cut cold butter into small cubes. With your hands, on the counter (or in a standing mixer) mix the cold butter, flour, sugar, and salt until it is without lumps. Work quickly to keep the butter cold.

Place the butter on plastic wrap or baking paper and shape it into a 20×15 cm rectangle. Wrap and refrigerate the butter for about 30 minutes.

Time for making thousands of layers…

Take the dough from the bowl, knock it down, knead lightly in your hands or on the counter and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes. After the time has passed, take the dough from the refrigerator, roll it out onto a lightly floured surface to a 38×20 cm rectangle.

Take the rectangle of butter from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place it in the middle of the dough. Fold over the buttered side like you were folding a business letter. Seal the edges and rotate 1/4 turn.

Roll out the dough with butter in it into a 0,5 cm thick rectangle, turn it to the left and fold into thirds (firstly, take the right part, then cover it with the left one). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Repeat this 2 more times (roll out, turn, fold, refrigerate). Finally, roll out the dough to 1,5 cm thick. Using a 6-7 cm cutter with a 2,5 cm center cut your cronuts. Put them aside on floured surface (or on a sheet of baking paper) and let rise until they are double in size, for about 2 hours.

Heat up a pan with oil. There should be enough room for cronuts to move while boiling. Test the oil: put a small chunk of dough – if it separates too much and falls apart, the oil isn’t hot enough, if it starts to burn, it’s too hot, you want them to poof a little and turn golden brown.

When your oil is hot enough, place the cronuts in, you want to put in enough that they are floating but not overcrowded. Cook it from 90 seconds to 2 mins on each side. Let them cool on a cooling rack over paper towels.

… and before enjoying, a couple of finishing steps

You don’t want to make your cronuts naked :), so prepare some orange glaze and sugar topping. For an orange glaze, mix the powdered sugar, milk, and fresh orange juice together until smooth.

Place the extra sugar on a deep plate. When the cronuts have cooled slightly, but are still warm, but not hot, roll the sugar on the sides, then dip the top into the glaze, let cool completely and then enjoy!

Why don’t you try some other pastry recipes?

• Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Sugar and Cream Sauce;
• Delicious No Fail Sour Cream Pastries;
• Homemade Curd Cheese Doughnuts;
• Puff pastries filled with curd and strawberry jam

Print

Homemade Cronuts with Sugar Topping and Orange Glaze

Course Dessert

Cuisine World cuisine

Keyword cronut, cronuts, donuts, orange glaze, recipe

You will need

For dough:

• 240 g milk warm
• 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 370 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 20 g butter softened and cut into small chunks

For butter block:

• 300 g butter cold
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 30 g sugar powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

For orange glaze

• 100 g sugar powder
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

For topping:

• Granulated sugar

Instructions

For the dough 1

1. In your mixing bowl add warm milk (it should be similar to your body temperature – not too cold, but also not to hoot, because the yeast both ways can be harmed), active dry yeast, and sugar together and let it stay for about 5-10 minutes until the yeast is dissolved and you can see bubbles coming out of it.
2. Add the flour, salt, and room temperature butter cut into small chunks to the warm milk mixture. Mix with a standing mixer or a wooden spoon until it’s well combined, and knead a little bit by hands for a couple of minutes.
3. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let the dough sit for 1 hour at room temperature until doubled in size.

For a butter block:

1. Cut cold butter into small cubes. With your hands, on the counter (or in a standing mixer) mix the cold butter, flour, sugar, and salt until it is without lumps. Work quickly to keep the butter cold.
2. Place the butter on plastic wrap or baking paper and shape it into a 20×15 cm rectangle. Wrap and refrigerate the butter for about 30 minutes.

For the dough 2:

1. Take the dough from the bowl, knock it down, knead lightly in your hands or on the counter and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.
2. Take the dough from the refrigerator, roll it out onto a lightly floured surface to a 38×20 cm rectangle.
3. Take the rectangle of butter from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place it in the middle of the dough. Fold over the buttered side like you were folding a business letter. Seal the edges and rotate 1/4 turn.
4. Roll out the dough with butter in it into a 0,5 cm thick rectangle, turn it to the left and fold into thirds (firstly, take the right part, then cover it with the left one) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Repeat this 2 more times (roll out, turn, fold, refrigerate).
6. Finally, roll out the dough to 1,5 cm thick. Using a 6-7 cm cutter with a 2,5 cm center cut your cronuts.
7. Put them aside on floured surface (or on a sheet of baking paper) and let rise until they are double in size, for about 2 hours.
8. Heat up a pan with oil. There should be enough room for cronuts to move while boiling. Test the oil: put a small chunk of dough – if it separates too much and falls apart, the oil isn’t hot enough, if it starts to burn, it’s too hot, you want them to poof a little and turn golden brown.
9. When your oil is hot enough, place the cronuts in, you want to put in enough that they are floating but not overcrowded.
10. Cook it from 90 seconds to 2 mins on each side. Let them strain/cool on a cooling rack over paper towels.

For an orange glaze and topping:

1. Mix the powdered sugar, milk, and fresh orange juice together until smooth.
2. Place the extra sugar on a deep plate.
3. When the cronuts have cooled slightly, but are still warm, but not hot, roll the sugar on the sides, then dip the top into the glaze, let cool completely and then enjoy!

Atnaujinta 2021-10-24