I remember when cronuts (the croissant/donut hybrid) started to get really popular in New York and beyond. It took forever for it to hit the Chicago area where I am. But when they did, I knew I had to avoid them or I’d make them my new hobby. The eating donut hobby of my dreams.
They’re super similar to my absolute favorite kind of donut, the French cruller. Light, flaky, and usually smothered in a sugary glaze. Cover me in glaze and call me Sally.
I took this puff pastry cronuts recipe in a slightly different direction than others have by layering some cinnamon sugar in between the pastry layers before frying. You can add your own fillers or glazes as you like! Go wild.
Get yourself a good thermometer like this!
This was actually my first time deep frying a dessert, if you can believe it. I’ve definitely fried up some chicken in the past, but desserts have always been baked for me so far. Even all of my previous donuts were baked:
Snag yourself a good candy/meat thermometer to make this even easier.
Check out the bonus cronut holes that are just as easy and cute.
Smiley face cronuts!
Yep, I cooked the scraps. Wanna fight about it? 😉
Would you try these easy puff pastry cronuts for yourself? Let me know if you try it!
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Ingredients
- 2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted but still chilled
- All-purpose four, for rolling
- 1 quart vegetable oil
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1/4 cup sugar or sugar substitute
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
- Take the defrosted sheets of puff pastry, still folded from the box, and lightly dust with flour on both sides. Using a pastry brush, brush the face up layer with some of the beaten egg.
- Unfold the pastry and brush egg on each inner layer and sprinkle slightly with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Fold over each layer in thirds so it's in the same form it started. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry.
- Freeze the pastry for about 10-15 minutes.
- Over medium-high heat, heat the vegetable oil up to 350F.
- Take the dough out of the freezer, and with a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut circles out of each folded sheet. Take a 1-inch cookie cutter and cut little holes out of each circle. Feel free to make donut holes out of the small circles.
- Put the donuts 2-3 at a time in the oil, cooking for 3-5 minutes, then flipping to cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes. They should be a golden brown all over and puffed up. Drain on a paper towel and fry the rest of the cronuts.
- After letting the cronuts cool for just a moment, roll them gently in the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.
If you make this recipe, share a photo and hashtag it #BIJOUXANDBITS. I’d love to see what you’re cooking!
Recipe adapted from Brown Sugar.
Catherine Clark is a Chicago native sharing noteworthy things she sees and attempts to make in the world. She's a geek, cat lady, designer and editor by day, and noob chef by night.
This is one way to get some homemade cronuts, NONE sold here. 🙁
I plan on trying your way soon, I happen to adore donuts, a fav treat of mine, along with cupcakes, my two favorite sweet-treats.
I believe I have more favs, but for now picking two….LOL!!
I do have some puff pastry in my freezer, a sale last week at the local grocers plus a coupon, yep, I’m a coupon clipper. *^_^*
I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Pinned!
I’m with you — sweets of all kinds are the best! I hope these work out for you! 🙂
Would the butter from the puff pastry not just leach out into the oil.
I think the oil would go rancid extremely fast f you did more than one batch , all that burnt butter in the oil would create some issues and smells. Please explain as I want to to make these commercially to sell at fairs for our school fundraiser.
For larger commercial sales, I can’t really know either way how it will scale, but I’ve made a few batches at one time and haven’t had any issues with rancid oil or weird smells at all. I’d suggest doing a trial run to see if you have any problems. I know frying puff pastry dough is pretty common in small batches, so it may just be a bit uncharted territory. Best of luck!!
I love this recipe. Its quick easy and delicious. I even mixed some powdered sugar and crushed walnuts with a little water to make a glaze.
That sounds amazing!! Thanks for trying it! 🙂
I am in the UK and puff pastry tends to come in a lump about 6 x 6″ and 3/4 inch thick, how thick should these be per layer and how many layers? I assume I would egg/sugar/cinnamon between the layers then use the cutter. This sounds like a great little recipe for quick and easy Sunday yumminess and uses up the leftover pastry I have sat in the freezer, not enough for a pie topping..
I would like like to make these hole after adding the cinnamon and sugar at the End cooling and filling it with raspberry jam that would be really good. Thanks