three more ways to love ya

I know, I know. It's getting really out of control around here with donuts. As I've said before, donuts are my weakness and they're the one thing I have a really hard time saying "no" to. I even created a whole donut category in my recipe section... I can't believe I have that many various donuts on here! I told my sister the next time I make donuts, I'm going to bake them so that there are some non-fried versions.

I visited my sister Tracy (who has an awesome design blog, btw) in Maryland recently and made a double batch of these babies. It was a true "Donut Day" since we made three types of donuts. An updated, (and easier to eat) version of the Samoa donut called the Coco-Caramel Chocolate Donut, a honey-dip glazed and chocolate frosted. I just love this donut dough. It doesn't require the same amount of rising time that the dough from Flour does. And the end is result is a fluffy, airy donut that holds whatever toppings your heart desires.

In the Samoa donut, the caramel and coconut were mixed together and thickly applied to the top of the donut. In these Coco-Caramel Chocolate Donuts, I made the caramel softer (thank you heavy cream) and kept each component separate. First, I spread the soft caramel all over, then generously sprinkled toasted coconut and drizzled chocolate all over. I also didn't dip the bottom-half of the donut in chocolate (like I did with the Samoa donut) but you are more than welcome to do it. Can't hurt!

The chocolate glaze from the Samoa donut is more of a ganache and is delicious! It tastes like rich chocolate and stays a bit soft (unlike store-bought donuts that harden). That's why I also used it on the Boston Cream donut. 

The honey-dip glaze is unbelievably good, but there's a reason it looks a bit grainy here. My sister had run out of confectioners' sugar so we whipped up our own, but didn't blend it long enough. If you use store-bought confectioners' sugar, it should look silky smooth

Croissant + Donut= CRONUT!

Imagine this: croissant dough cut into the shape of a donut, fried, drenched in glaze, rolled in sugar and filled with vanilla pastry cream. This, my friends is a cronut. 

This is the hot new donut trend that started in this small bakery in NYC. It’s reached National attention because people go crazy for these cronuts. The bakery only sells about 300 a day, with huge lines of people waiting hours to get one. Since I don’t live in NYC and am unable to get the real-deal, I have no idea how these compare. But who are we kidding? They are amazing on their own!

I was hosting a birthday dinner a few weeks ago and the birthday girl requested breakfast for dinner. I made all the traditional stuff: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, toast, a homemade granola with fresh berry compote over yogurt…but I needed a dessert. I wanted it to be in the breakfast theme and toyed with a few different donut ideas but was undecided.  My husband, Kent, had heard about cronuts on the radio and we both agreed they sounded pretty amazing, except for one problem- we don’t live in NYC. So when I stumbled across this video my interest was piqued.

When I told him I was going to surprise the birthday girl with a plate of cronuts he begged me to save him one (this is only worth mentioning because my husband isn’t crazy about sweets the way I am, so for him to be excited about this made me even more excited to make them).

After I watched the video I was hooked. The video made it look so easy, but they also left a lot out- like recipes for the pastry cream and glaze. So I’m going to break it down for you so you can make cronuts at home too! Kent told me he prefers the cronuts without the pastry cream, and this would save you a step; meaning you can have cronuts in your mouth even faster! But I disagree. I think the pastry cream is what sets them apart and really makes cronuts unique and special.

Now I see cronut knock-offs everywhere!
(recipe after the jump)