Hey guys, have you heard about this brand new food trend: cronuts? Probably not because it hasn’t really hit the Internet yet.
Yeah, I’m totally cutting edge. I know. I congratulate myself all the time. “Emma the trendsetter” they call me.
Jk. Cronuts are not new. Everyone is way into them. I’m late. So I’m really, really excited to try some homemade cronuts sometime in my near future. I’d love to try this recipe, or this one, or maybe this one. We’ll see. But as you can guess, cronuts (like many donut recipes) tend to be a little labor-intensive. I love a good kitchen challenge, but I also like easy stuff. I’m lazy sometimes.
So this made me curious… What would be the best ready-made dough to use when you want to make lazy cronuts?
I tried two different doughs. I bought some puff pastry and also some crescent roll dough. Seamless. Yep. I said these are lazy cronuts, and I wasn’t joking.
Guys, one of these made some really yummy donuts… while the other was… not the best. Are you on the edge of your seat yet???
First up, I layered each dough before cutting it into donuts. This is how you get all those crazy layers in a cronut. This also means you’ll only get 3-6 cronuts out of each package. So, if you wanna make a ton, you better buy a lot of dough. That’s a pro tip. You’re welcome.
Next, I fried the dough (I used canola oil) at around 350°F. For the puff pastry dough, I fried for about 45-50 seconds on each side. For the crescent roll dough, I fried for about 30 seconds on each side. A good rule of thumb in deep frying (non-meat) items is they should be done within about 60 seconds total. But always do one first, cut it open and see. If it looks undercooked then you’ll want to adjust your fry time, not temperture.
After frying, I removed the cronuts to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up excess grease. Then I made a glaze from 1 cup powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of water whisked in.
The cronuts on the right side are made from crescent roll dough. As you can see, they cooked all the way through while the outside was crispy. Fluffy inside, crispy outside is exactly what we were going for. These were delicious!
The puff pastry cronuts did not work as well. They remained doughy on the inside while the outside was fully cooked. I did try cooking a few even longer and found that they would burn on the outside while the inside remained undercooked.
Since the puff pastry cronuts seemed to be too dense, I decided to try a few with less layers. So I just cut out one layer of puff pastry and fried that. It was better, but still kind of greasy while sort of undercooked in the center. I will say the puff pastry had a better, buttery taste than the crescent roll dough. But if you want easy cronuts, stick with crescent roll dough.
Thanks for coming with me on this cronut kitchen experiment. 🙂 xo. Emma
Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos with A Beautiful Mess actions.
Easy Homemade Cronuts
Ingredients
- 1 package cresent rolls from the tube
- oil for frying
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons water or milk
Instructions
-
First up, I layered each dough before cutting it into donuts. This is how you get all those crazy layers in a cronut. This also means you'll only get 3-6 cronuts out of each package. So, if you wanna make a ton, you better buy a lot of dough.
-
Next, I fried the dough (I used canola oil) at around 350°F. For the puff pastry dough, I fried for about 45-50 seconds on each side. For the crescent roll dough, I fried for about 30 seconds on each side. A good rule of thumb in deep frying (non-meat) items is they should be done within about 60 seconds total. But always do one first, cut it open and see. If it looks undercooked then you'll want to adjust your fry time, not temperture.
-
After frying, I removed the cronuts to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up excess grease. Then I made a glaze from 1 cup powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of water whisked in.
60 Comments
Thank you for the experiment! I am going to try this.
You guys are never short of great ideas! We need to try this asap :p
M + K
Yum!!! That looks soooo delicious! I am craving for something sweet like this once in a while and it just looks perfect to me! Also the perfect comfort food for a long and rainy fall day!
yum!!!!
xxoo,
nikki
www.dream-in-neon.com
I wonder how the crescent roll dough would compare to the flaky layers biscuit dough… I’ll have to try when I get my deep fryer back!!
I so need to give this a go – yum!
Lorna | www.studsanddreams.com xx
Oh my goodness, these look absolutely delicious! I’m now sat in bed wanting these haha!
Beauty and Lifestyle Blog
xx
I want to Make these but foresee me making a massive mess and burning myself with hot oil lol
Lauren
livinginaboxx
These look yummy and super easy! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These look delicious and my goodness so easy to make. Can’t wait to give them a shot
How delicious, thanks!
My first response were somewhat similar to Marielle’s. Although a not-so-lazy option, I wonder if it would work kneading the doughs together, before cooking?
I must have known that you were going to post this because I bought two cans of crescent rolls the other day without a plan for them! Now I know why!! LOL Thanks for the inspiration!
What kind of oil did you use? And pan? I’m just curious about the process of frying… (never tried it).
I’m not much of a cook but I love reading your recipes just for the copy 🙂
Love your humor, Emma! Haha. I actually just figured out what a cronut was last week from a very literal fast food chain poster. So this feels right on trend to me! =) These look delish.
Paulina
https://www.etsy.com/shop/smallwhitewave
i looove cronuts but i love even more your sense of humour and your writing style, you always make me laugh! thank you so much! have a lovely weekend ***
I kind of wish I didn’t know about this. So, so good.
I love this post so much! I have always wanted to try a cronut!
http://www.bloglovin.com/heritagepurple
http://heritagepurple.blogspot.com
These cronuts need some pastry filling, stat!
These sound amazing! I love the idea of ready roll cronuts. What is crescent roll dough though? I don’t think we have it in the Uk 🙁
They look amazing… this type of stuff is my weakness. What a great idea for an upcoming day off of school or snow day in the winter. I love surprising my daughter with a special breakfast on days like that:)
Nice recipe!! They look delicious!!
http://isafashionebella.blogspot.com x
YUMMMM! I want this like right now! :))
http://devilreturnsprada.wordpress.com/
Omg just finished my breakfast,
i really wont at least one of those!
This looks absolutely delicious! Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe with us – I’ll definitely try this 🙂
Best regards,
Janne from meeresrauschen
Now I can be lazy AND eat really unhealthy snacks! My diet totally thanks you, haha.
<3 dani
http://blog.shopdisowned.com
These look delish and I guessed wrong on which would work better! I was sure it would be puff pastry. For that Krispy Kreme donut delicious flavor, you might want to try a couple of drops of vanilla into your glaze!
Talk about a foodgasm! http://sadityinthecity.com
lol hilarious post
and looks delish 🙂
http://floatingthrufields.blogspot.com/
I call you “Emma the Trendsetter” all the time. Just sayin’ 🙂
This looks so easy! I have to try this.
oooh gonna have to check this out!!!! I’ve had the original Dominique Ansel cronuts so I’ll be pretty excited to see how these compare!!! http://meowemily.blogspot.com/
Oh yuuuum! I have yet to try a cronut but I feel like I could definitely make these! What type of oil did you use to fry them in?
That’s what I thought the recipe was going to be! I think that’s the method I’ll be trying 😀
This looks amazing. I will definitely have to try this! I have yet to try actual cronuts, but this looks even better! 🙂
www.skinnybelle.com
These look delicious but knowing ho to make them is far too dangerous!
xoxo
The Accidental Mama
http://www.theaccidentalmama.com
YES! Just, YES.
Could u bake the puff pastry first for a bit then fry? I want/need the buttery taste!!!
OMG! I have crescent rolls in the fridge I am totally trying this. I’ve been wanting to make cronuts forever. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds amazing, but making croissants from scratch at home is 1000% better! Totally worth all of the hard work, trust me!!
Yum!!! these look so yummy! Great for Christmas morning
http://thatsmagsforyou.com
I’m definitely going to try this! I waited in line early one morning last summer for a cronut, but arrived a bit too late to get one and have yet to try them 🙁
Totally making this over the weekend!!!
Love cronuts! I wrote a blog post last year using two methods- one with pilsbury dough and the other with croissant dough I made myself. You can check it out here! http://www.runtoradiance.com/2013/07/09/how-to-make-homemade-cronuts-two-ways/
They look delicious! Thanks for sharing your experiment, Emma!
Katrina Sophia
Um, HELLO, these look delicious. I’ll have to try this soon. I have a donut obsession.
Thanks for sharing-I will for SURE be checking out your original recipe some weekend soon. 🙂
-Emma
I didn’t even think of that?! I wonder if it would work well… if you try it let me know.
-Emma
Great idea…the crescent ones look crispy and yum… and i am all up for lazy recipes…
xo
agoldentulip.blogspot.com
they look totally yummy. i first saw the cronut on foxnews a while back and thought…why all the fuss? i don’t live any where near a city that might be making them so i never got to find out. now i can! thanks. looking forward to giving them a try this weekend.
Oh these look great, deff need to make these 🙂
Finally! I’ve been missing this in my life!
XX,
S. Roderick
www.currenthabits.com
Yummy!
You officially made my day. Heck yes!
I don’t usually go for donuts but I love this!! Looks yummy.
looks yummy!
Fashion latte with vanilla
J’adore Emma! I saw in a review and I dream from the cronuts ! Here in France, they talk about it! They are famous. Yours looks so good! I wanna try it 😉
Hahaha, I kid you not, I was literally just looking at cronut recipes yesterday, before deciding they looked too difficult to make. There just aren’t that many places around here that make them! Definitely getting pinned to my “must make and consume” Pinterest board 🙂
Cat
http://oddlylovely.com
What about layering the crescent roll dough with the puff pastry dough on the outside? Is that just crazy? I don’t know…they all look yummy!
Ingenious idea … using the crescent roll pastry. Love it! Will be trying this weekend.