This is it. The only thing you ever need to bake ever again.
60 ml warm milk 65 ml warm water 6g dried yeast 150g cold, cubed butter 160g flour 30g white sugar 1/2 tsp salt
- Whisk milk, water and yeast together in a large plastic bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes to activate yeast.
- Combine salt and white sugar.
- Add butter to flour and combine with your fingers until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Don't go crazy, lumps of butter are good and will help create a luscious, layered texture.
- Add sugar/salt to flour/butter. Pour combination into the milk/water/yeast.
- Stir with a spatula until a shaggy ball forms. If the mixture is too sticky, add tablespoons of flour at a time to coax it into a ball.
- Turn out onto a floured work surface and pat into a thick oval. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for 1.5-2 hours. Touch it as little as possible.
- Remove plastic wrap and roll into a 1cm thick rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds, first bringing the top third down over the middle and then bringing the bottom third up over the middle.
- Rotate 90 degrees, roll out, and then fold into thirds again.
- Repeat the process twice more.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 5-7 hours, or overnight, in the fridge.
- Roll out the dough again, to a ~1/8" thick rectangle. You should be able to get 8 cronuts out of the first roll, plus 4-6 more if you re-roll the scraps of dough. You can also fry the holes!!
- Use cookie cutters to cut out cronuts and their centers. Transfer to a floured sheet pan to rise for another hour at room temperature, covered with a cloth.
- Near the end of the rise period, fill a large pan with canola oil approximately ~1/2-3/4" deep. If you're making glaze, start that now too (see below for recipes). Heat the oil over low-medium heat.
- Fry cronuts, without crowding, for ~2 minutes on each side. You're shooting for a lovely golden color, not too dark.
- Remove from oil and let cool on paper towels.
- Drizzle with glaze and sprinkles.
Chocolate Glaze: Ingredients 1/4 cup butter 1/8 cup milk 1 tablespoon corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- Heat butter, milk, corn syrup and vanilla until simmering.
- Stir in chocolate and whisk until melted.
- Remove from heat and stir in confectioner's sugar.
- Keep over warm water or reheat if mixture hardens.
Vanilla Glaze: Ingredients 1/8 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- Heat milk and vanilla in a saucepan until warm.
- Remove from heat and stir in confectioner's sugar until smooth.
- If the mixture becomes too stiff, return to stove and heat gently.