The croissant donut, or “cronut”, has been a massive pastry fad in the past year. In New York, its “originator” Dominique Ansel Bakery caused a huge stir over the pastry (think massive queues, high prices and bootleg pastry sellers) and applied for a trade mark for CRONUT.

Here in Australia, Adriano Zumbo makes them (including the ahem, awful sounding vegemite and sourdough version) and calls them Zonuts.

I checked the Australian trade marks register and it turns out that CRONUT is even a registered trade mark here in Australia, so I can’t call what I am about to tell you about a “Cronut”. Not that I am using the word as a trade mark, it is just a convenient description for what the whole world other than Mr Ansel thinks is a generic term.

No matter, my donut shaped flaked items are made with Danish pastry, not croissant pastry, which makes them Danuts.

I’ve made a few versions of the-pastry-that-isn’t-a-cronut-because-I-made-them-and-Mr-Ansel-didn’t-make-them in the past year. The first out of Pinterest and food mag fuelled curiosity, the second because there was a Zonut recipe out there and more curiosity, the third because people at the office begged me to and the fourth because people at the office begged me to. Frankly, I think they are massively overrated for the calories, but that puts me in a field of one, because EVERYBODY ADORES THEM.

And let’s be honest. Not-Cronuts (and probably Cronuts themselves) are a pain to make. The pastry part is fine – at least it’s fine for me but I’ve made a lot of Danish and croissant pastry over the years and am used to it. I do recall the first few times I made Danish and thinking the whole thing was a big pain in the @ss. The cutting is fine, if you have a nifty Ateco donut cutter, which go for about 5 dollars. The frying is … well … its ok, there’s oil and its hot and the pastry browns very fast and then you have to dispose of the oil and it’s messy. Rolling them in sugar is fine. Glazing them is fine. But filling them… that is not fine. Once you have gone through the steps of making these flaky creatures, you need to insert some custardy goo inside the walls. This involves messy injection of custard from a pastry bag, general oozing, wishing you had a horse paste syringe which would be about the right size for injection (horse paste comes in green apple flavour so it might be quite tasty), swearing, and general angst.

So by the fourth time I made them it was seriously out of the goodness of my heart. Turns out, though, fourth time a charm.

You see the key to the success (according to my taste buds) of the Danut (not a Cronut because that is a trademark) is the flavour of the filling. Remember, these are pastries made with a ton of butter and fried in a ton of oil. The word “rich” comes to mind. So you need something to cut through that. I’ve tried plain vanilla crème patissiere, stabilised cream and strawberry jam, and a cream/crème patissiere combination. As I said, everyone else was in swoons; I was not.

My last effort was a relief. Finally, a Danut worth eating.

Maple vanilla crème patissiere. Caramelized apple puree with a hint of lemon. Maple Glaze. Why, yes, I could have another. That apple cuts through the grease, making the Danut creamy but fresh tasting.

If you’re ever feeling brave enough to devote the better part of a day to make them – here’s the recipe, with step by step instructions on making Danish pastry.

A little lesson in laminating Danish Dough:

This lesson applies whether you’re making croissant, Danish, or not-cronuts. Actually making Danish dough is not that time-consuming in terms of actual work – most of the time is in chilling. I like to make it while I’m watching a movie on TV – complete up to stage 3, watch half an hour of movie, do stage 4 the first time, watch half an hour of movie, do stage 4 the second time, finish the movie, then make your Danish or Danuts!

The dough also will keep in the fridge overnight, and it freezes very well.

Stage 1: Unwrap the lump of butter paste and place it between two large sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling-pin, roll the butter paste into a rectangle about 18cm x 12cm. Use a knife to “correct” the edges so that you have an even rectangle. Wrap the butter paste rectangle in the baking paper and chill until firm (I have wrapped mine in cling wrap so you can see it!).

Stage 2: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 20cm x 40cm rectangle. Take the butter paste out of the refrigerator and place the butter in the middle of the dough.

Stage 3: Make an envelope fold. Fold one side of the dough over the butter, then the other side over. Press the dough down with your fingers as shown in the stage 4 picture below. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Stage 4: Roll the dough/butter envelope out to a 20 x 40cm rectangle, flouring your surface as needed. The edges of the previous fold should on the short edge of the rectangle. Make another envelope fold (this time folding the edges of the previous fold into the centre of the dough – you can see one side of those three folded edges in the picture above) and press down with your fingers. Wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Repeat Stage 4 one more time, taking some care now to be gentle with the dough, because the dough-butter laminations are getting quite thin (final fold shown in stage 4 picture above). Wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes. Your Danish dough is then ready to use.

For Danuts, on a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish dough out into a rectangle 1.5cm thick, then cut with your donut cutter.

Apple Pie Danuts

The recipe makes about 18-20 but I tend to only make 10 or so at a time. The leftover pastry freezes extremely well. You can also lay all the offcuts together and push them back into a “sheet” then roll it out again to make pain au chocolat or ham and Gruyère Danish!

The Danut part

1 litre grape seed oil, for frying
caster sugar, for rolling

Danish dough

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
7 g package dry yeast
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 cups flour (plus extra for rolling)
1 teaspoon salt

Combine the water, milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl, stirring to help the yeast to dissolve. Place in a warm spot and allow to form a sponge – about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Combine the flour and salt  in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (or in a large bowl if you are doing this by hand!). Make a well in the centre and pour in the dry ingredients. Mix until a dough forms, and continue mixing until the dough is relatively even and smooth. If you are working by hand use a wooden spoon until the dough comes together, then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Make the butter paste while the dough is resting.

Butter paste

250g unsalted butter, slightly cooler than room temperature
1/4 cup flour

Combine the butter and flour with a wooden spoon. Scoop onto a large sheet of cling wrap and pat down into a rectangular lump. Wrap and chill in the freezer for a few minutes.

Laminating and Frying!

Laminate the dough and butter paste into Danish dough following the tutorial above. Once the daunts are cut, leave them, covered in plastic, in a warm place for about 30 minutes to let them rise until they are between 1.5 and 2 times the original size. Don’t forget the “holes”!

Heat the oil to about 190 degrees Celsius in a large pot. Use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature, but be careful – hot oil can melt a little thermometer’s plastic housing!

Once the oil is hot, and taking care not to squash the daunts, fry them in batches of one, two or three (depending on your bravery) until they are golden. Turn them over halfway through the cooking process. Be careful, because they are so buttery they brown quite quickly! Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. If this is your first time, fry just one first and when it is cooled a bit, break it open to test for doneness – raw Danish pastry is a bit icky. If they are too brown and not cooked, let your oil cool down about 5 degrees and try again.

When you have fried all your daunts, fry the holes – these can be done in batches of 4 or so.

When the daunts are cool, roll them in the caster sugar, and fill with the maple crème patissiere and caramel apple puree.  This is the fiddly part. Using a sharp knife and starting at the top surface, make about four holes in the body of the daunt. Using syringes or piping bags fitted with thin nozzles, and sticking your tongue out (swearing optional), fill opposite holes with crème patissiere and the remaining holes with apple puree. You can also insert the syringe or piping bag nozzle into holes that have naturally formed in the sides of the daunt. Don’t worry too much about the crème patissiere or puree oozing out – it’s better to have too much filling than too little!

Glaze with the maple glaze, decorate and serve! They are best on the day they are made – the day after at the outside.

The apple pie part

Crème patissiere

1 cup milk
2 tbsp dark amber maple syrup
3 egg yolks
pinch salt
2 1/2 tablespoons cornflour
1/4 tsp vanilla powder

Combine the cream and milk with the vanilla powder in a saucepan and heat until nearly simmering. While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks, maple syrup, salt and cornflour together in a medium bowl. When the milk is hot, pour in a thin stream over the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to a clean saucepan, and cook over a medium heat until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly, then cover the surface of the custard with some cling film to stop a skin forming. Chill until cold.

Caramelized apple puree

2 granny smith apples (or other tart apples), sliced very finely
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
pinch cinnamon
1/2 sheet of gold strength gelatine

Combine the sugar, butter and cinnamon and cook over a medium heat until the butter is bubbling. Add the apples, reduce the heat, and cook, covered, until the apples are very soft and caramel coloured, stirring occasionally. Puree the mixture. Soak the gelatine in a little water for a few minutes, then add to the hot apple puree, stirring until it is all dissolved. Chill until ready to use.

Maple glaze

In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup icing sugar with enough maple syrup to make a drizzly icing. Cover with cling wrap and set aside.

Enjoy xxx