It's here. The final day of Thirty Straight Days of Blogging is upon us. While there is no Rocket Gibraltar to send these past blogs off to Valhalla, I figured the best way to end this journey would be with a sweet finish. And what better way to do that than with donuts. But these aren't just any donuts. These are deep fried rounds of croissant dough, better known today as Cronuts.
If you haven't heard, Cronuts are all the rage right now in New York. People are standing in line for hours just to get two or three of these things. There are reports of people paying up to $40 each on the "black market". But, in every article about these cronuts, there was one thing that everyone was saying: They taste absolutely incredible.
When I heard about them, I was surprised it took someone this long to deep fry croissant dough. I thought it would have been done by now. I like croissants, so I figured they would taste good. When I thought about making it myself, I quickly said "Fuck That!"
For those of you that don't know, croissants are extremely time consuming to make. Most bakeries these days just bring in frozen, pre-rolled croissants to save money on time and labor. The last time I had to make croissant dough, I was in culinary school. When I started talking to coworkers about making it, most of them said they hadn't made it since school either.
Realizing that this would also test my measure as a chef, I knew I had to step up to the plate at some point. To quote Rage Against The Machine, "What better place than here, What better time than now?"
To begin, let me say that this is NOT a tutorial on making croissant dough. This is just my experience with making the cronuts.
Secondly, these didn't come out perfect. I made mistakes, but nothing so costly that it didn't work out at all. Hey, it's been over a decade since I've made croissant dough.
Lastly, if you are thinking about making this, make sure you start early and have no pressing plans for the day. From start to finish, it took me about 5 hours to complete. You will find out why later.
Since this is more about the experience, I'm not going to bother with the recipe. You can find a croissant dough recipe all over the internet.
Enough of the chit chat. Let's get down to business!
Since it is a yeast dough, you start off the way you would any other yeast dough. Bloom the yeast in a bit of water and a little bit of sugar to feed the yeast.
Once the yeast was ready, I added a couple eggs and some vanilla extract and mixed well. Then I added the flour and pinch of salt and mixed until it started to climb up the dough hook.
Now, it was at this point that things started to go askew. I could tell the dough was very firm. From past experiences, I know the dough shouldn't be that firm. So, I did the best I could to knead it a bit more by hand before resting it.
It may be a little hard to see, but you can tell the surface isn't smooth. It should be smooth with a little give to it. I knew it wasn't quite right, but I thought with all the rolling coming later, it might be salvageable.
Just to be on the safe side, I went ahead and made a second batch of dough. I had all the ingredients, and if I was going to be doing this shit all day, I might as well do two batches.
I cut back on the flour with the second batch and it came out a lot better.
While the dough was resting in the fridge, it was time to make the butter block. The butter is the real key to croissant dough. You fold up all these layers of butter and dough to create all those little flaky layers that people love.
The butter itself needs to be chilled, but a little pliable.
Now, it's time to put in some elbow grease and start rolling.
I started with my first dough and tried to do a 4-sided fold to get the butter in there. It didn't work so well, to say the least. The block wasn't wide enough and I put too much flour on the dough, so it wasn't sticking to the other pieces of dough to form a seal.
Let me just say that the first roll is extremely important. If you don't seal in the butter properly, you will get a mess on your hands very quickly.
I opened the dough up and spread the butter to 3/4 of the dough. Then, I folded the non-buttered side over the buttered area. Then I folded the buttered side over the rest of the dough. I know, it sounds weird, but think of it as folding a piece of paper into thirds.
A soft roll, and then into the freezer for 30 minutes. After the thirty minutes, you take out the dough and roll it length wise until it gets to a thinner thickness. Then you do another 3-fold and back into the freezer. You have to do this 3 more times! Fuck!
Once you do the last roll and fold, you have to let it rest an hour before you can roll it out to cut your donuts.
I rolled out the dough until I felt I hit the right thickness. Somewhere around 1/2 inch.
I got a ring mold and cut out my rounds. I was able to get about 12 donuts from it.
The dough has to proof a little before frying. I didn't wait as long as I should have. At this point, I was getting impatient.
While waiting for the oil to get hot, I made a ganache and caramel sauce to dip the cronuts in.
When the oil reached 350F, it was time to get frying. If you want to flip the things with ease, use a cheap pair of chopsticks.
I first tested the oil by frying a few of the donut holes. It only took a minute or two, and they didn't seem like they were burning. With that, It was time to drop in the rings.
It took a minute or two per side and that's it.
With donuts, it's always best to glaze them shortly after you take them out the oil. The heat helps the glaze adhere.
After letting them cool a couple minutes, it was time to eat. I tried one with ganache first. It has a crispy outside, almost like an old fashioned donut. But, the texture inside is different. It's soft and rich. Not oily at all. I have to admit that it is a damn good donut! I wouldn't pay $40 for one, but it certainly worth a wait in line for.
Also, I fried up every bit of dough that was there. NOTHING was wasted! With that much time invested, you need to use every last bit of dough!
Since it was my day off, I figured I would be nice and bring some to my coworkers who knew I was going to make it. OK, that's not entirely true. If I didn't bring any to work, I would have gotten my ass kicked and locked in the walk-in freezer. So, I hopped in the car and made a special delivery.
When I arrived, it only took a matter of minutes before they were all gone. Everyone seemed to love them. And to make a bunch of pastry chefs happy with a pastry is no small feat. I was feeling pretty good at that point.
We couldn't finish the rest of the donuts at home. The next day, the cronuts resembled rocks more than donuts. They have a short shelf-life and should be consumed within the day of making them.
I wish I would have taken more pics, but by the time I got to frying them, I wasn't worried about that. I just wanted to be finished.
And there you have it. The end of this wonderful journey is here. The last 30 days have been a blast. I've talked about a lot of things I've had on my mind for a while. I've shared a little more about myself than I previously have. All in all, I hope you, the reader, has taken something out this.
I'd like to thank all my friends and family who have been supporting me throughout the years. All my friends on Facebook and Google+ who have taken the time out their day to stop by my little corner of the internet and read what I have to say.
With that said, it's time to take a short break from the blog. I'm thinking two weeks, but it might not be that long. I need a little time to recharge the battery and let life happen again.
So, the only thing left to say is....
I'M OUT!
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