Cronut, Dossant

This post has been updated: please see the additional notes and tips on this recipe at the end of this blog entry.  Thanks!

So unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of Chef Dominque Ansel's creation, the cronut.  These things are a cross between a donut and a croissant, flaky layers of pastry deep fried and glazed and sometimes filled with delectable flavors.  Unfortunately, you can only get a cronut if you live in New York because these suckers are proprietary... meaning Ansel won't give anyone else the recipe or let anyone else use the term "cronut."  There is now a black market for these things and they can cost $5 a pop.  Long lines form outside Ansel's bakery each morning and every customer is limited to TWO cronuts a day.  its unbelieveable.  To put it short, these are the trendiest dessert to every appear since the cake pop.  No, these are probably the trendiest dessert ever.

So lets make some.

Now, I have not tasted an actual cronut, so I cannot compare these dossants to a cronut.  But I am guessing they are somewhat close.  They are flaky and layered and just begging for you to fill them with some pastry cream or nutella and then glaze them to your heart's content.  Or you can fill them with some ganache and add cinnamon sugar on top for a churro inspired dossant.  The world is your oyster.

A completely from scratch dossant would taste amazing.  But I have gotten very pressed for time in the last several weeks, and I just do not have the time to make croissant dough from scratch.  So here it is, the working mom version of a dossant.  The base recipe is literally two ingredients.

Here we go!

Dossants

Ingredients:

• pillsbury crescent roll dough
• vegetable oil
• whatever type of filling you would like

Directions:

Open container of crescent dough and unroll dough.  You will have 8 rolls, in 4 rectangles.  Keep each rectangle together and pinch the middle seam to create one piece of dough.  Pinch the dough on both sides, then flatten the pinched seam.

Pinch the diagonal seam together then flatten the seam.

Two rectangles stacked, then folded over to create four layers of flaky goodness.

Place one rectangle on top of another. Press firmly together.  Fold rectangle over the short way, so you have a near square.  Press firmly again.

Using a donut cutter or a glass (I used a glass) dipped in flour, cut donut from square.  Each square will make one donut.  Cut the hole in the middle of the donut and set donut hole aside.

A glass works well for a donut cutter.

All it needs is a hole in the middle!

I used a really old baby bottle for the middle hole.  A water bottle would also work well.

Dossant and dossant hole, ready for frying.  Do not skip cutting out the hole... you need it to make the dossant cook fully!

Heat oil to 350.  Do not put your candy thermometer in the oil and then rinse it off immediately after.  This is how you end up with a shattered thermometer in your kitchen.  I do not know this from experience (this totally horribly happened).  You can test the oil using one of the dossant holes by frying it and seeing if it turns golden and cooks fully in about 1-2 minutes.

Fry one dossant at a time, flipping occassionally to ensure even and full cooking.  The dossant will puff up a little while cooking. Dossant holes can be cooked more at a time.

Remove from oil when golden and cooked through and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel.  Fill with desired filling, frost with frosting or glaze, or you can dust it with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Update: In response to some questions I got about this on facebook, here are some additional tips about this recipe:

1. One can of croissant dough (8 croissant tube) will only make two dossants.  However, you can get about 8-10 dossant holes, depending on how good you are at re-rolling scraps.

2. Fill the dossants AFTER frying.  If you fill them before, you will have a mess to clean up.

3. To fill dossants use a piping bag fitted with a filling tip (like the Wilton #230 decorating tip).  Poke the bottom of the dossant with the tip, squeeze in filling until you notice the dossant slight to every slightly swell, then stop.  Move on to another spot and continue around the whole dossant bottom until it is filled.

4. Alternatively you can fill the dossant by cutting it in half and smearing whatever filling you like (pastry cream, jam, assorted nut butters, nutella, etc) on the inside surfaces.

5. The dossants on their own will not be very sweet.  They will taste like a croissant... not sweet or savory really, but flaky and buttery.  To sweeten up it is important to at least dust with sugar.  Fillings, glazes and frostings will also sweeten the dossant.

Source: YumSugar