Cronut Copycats

This has been a goal of mine since high school, and being stuck at home for a month has finally allowed me to do it:

Recreating Dominique Ansel’s famous Cronuts(tm) or Doughssants (pantry-edition) Homemade! Not just puff pastry stacked together like other recipe I've found online.

Of course, the ones pictured are somewhat Asian!

I’ve only had a real Cronut once, and it wasn’t that great. But these are milk-bread based, meaning they're made using the tangzhong method. Wonderfully soft and fluffy, flaky but not too greasy! 🍩

Instead of a traditional cronut copycat recipe online, I actually took a milk bread recipe, laminated it, then fried it! Most recipes tell you to make this in 3 days, but I managed it in 2. 🍞

I used the same dough and rolled it thinner during the final roll to make homemade croissant and laminated bolo bao.

I can’t give exact pastry cream or icing recipes, because I just eyeballed everything (even though baking should be a science). But just use your favorite pastry cream/ganache recipes for filling, and something like a thick doughnut icing or royal icing for the top!

For the tangzhong (roux)

6 tablespoons water (85g)
2 tablespoons bread flour (15g)

Doughssant dough

1/2 cup whole milk (113g) + 1 Tbsp dry milk powder (4g) - 105F
1 1/2 teaspoons active dried yeast (5g)
2 1/2 cups (320g) bread or AP flour (plus more for kneading if not using a stand mixer)
1/4 cup sugar (50g)
1/2 teaspoon salt (2g)
1 egg + 1 egg white (cure your yolk if you want or save it to make pastry cream!)
Tangzhong
3 tablespoons softened butter (42g)

For the final Cronut

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup = 227g) for laminating. Preferably use high fat European butter, but I used generic store brand
Favorite pastry cream or ganache recipes for filling
Krispy Kreme Copycat glaze recipe with less evaporated milk (check texture after whisking butter and powdered sugar together before adding any milk), royal icing, or spreadable ganache for the glaze

Instructions

Make the tangzhong by mixing together the water and flour in a saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until thickened to a paste. Set aside to cool to room temperature
Mix milk, milk powder, dried yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit for five minutes. Add eggs, flour, and salt and mix into a rough dough. Add cooled tangzhong and softened butter and knead together until a smooth ball forms (can use a stand mixer with a dough hook)
Let sit in a warm place, in a greased bowl and covered, for 60 minutes or until doubled in size. (Can also refrigerate overnight for time constraints)
While the dough is bulk-proofing, take your butter sticks and smack it with a rolling pin into submission until it becomes a flat square (1/4 inch thick). Make sure the butter is always cool/solid but pliable.
Take your dough and roll it into a square twice as large as your butter square. Place the butter square as a diamond shape in the center of your dough, and fold in the four corners of the dough to the center and seal closed. Press the whole thing with a rolling pin and roll into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. (Use a light dusting of flour if the dough sticks, but if you ever notice the dough is too soft, chill it!) Fold into thirds, cover, and refrigerate about 30 minutes. This allows gluten to relax and butter and dough to chill. Too soft and it will be a mess to roll, and the lamination will be destroyed.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick again (first a little wider then lengthwise so you’re mostly rolling the gluten strands in the other direction from how you first rolled it). I totally didn’t use measurements. Chill 30 minutes again.
Repeat step 6 two more times. So you will have done the initial butter’s lock-in, then the three-fold (AKA letter-fold) four times. (Rotating the dough 90 degrees each time). This makes like 81 layers or something.
Once all your folds are done, flatten the dough slightly and refrigerate 1-2 hours. Roll it into a 1/2 - 3/4-inch rectangle one last time, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove your dough from the fridge and cut out your doughnut shapes. Mine are on the smaller side of real cronuts. You can use doughnut cutter, cookie cutters, or glasses and bottle lids. (Save the scrap dough for test frying or squish together in greased muffin tins to make pineapple buns.)
Gently cover cronuts and let rise until puffy and an indentation made with your finger stays there (springs back about halfway), about 1-2 hours depending on your dough’s temperature and the temperature of the room. It will have multiplied about 1.5x in size.
Preheat 2 inches frying oil to 375°F. Use a thermometer for this if you have one. Too low a temperature will melt out the butter before the cronut has a chance to puff and cook. And your doughnut will absorb too much oil. If you don’t have a thermometer, test the oil with a piece of scrap dough. It should bubble vigorously and puff quickly but not burn.
Take a spatula to gently lift one of your cronuts, then place into the frying oil. Cook until puffed, then rotate with chopsticks to cook the other side (promote even rising). Keep cooking and rotating until completely brown. Remove to a wire rack or paper towels to remove extra grease. While still warm, roll in granulated sugar. Cool completely.
Once cooled, poke 5 holes in the bottom of your cronuts and fill with desired cream. Flip over and pipe icing on top. Enjoy!

Pictured Flavor Lineup:

🍳 Homemade salted egg yolk - mashed a baked salted egg yolk into the pastry cream. Topped with vanilla icing and grated salted yolk

🍓 Strawberry-matcha🍵 - mixed matcha powder into the pastry cream. Topped with a strawberry Nesquik-flavored icing and dehydrated strawberry pieces

🍋 Black sesame-yuzu - melted a yuzu marshmallow and mixed it into the pastry cream. Mixed black sesame powder into the icing, and topped with sprinkles

🍫 Earl grey-chocolate - steeped earl grey tea into some cream. Used some of the cream for the icing, and the rest for the dark chocolate ganache. Topped with homemade candied orange peel pieces and drizzled in chocolate