I grew up eating meltaway coffee cakes. The meltaway was the signal that it was a holiday, a special occasion, or (in later years) that my parents were coming to visit. The meltaway was a coffee cake, rich with butter and made, I believe, with a laminated dough. The only major doughnut dough we had not explored in Doughnutland was a laminated dough. I knew deep-fried croissants were delicious, after first trying one when Francisco Migoya did it years ago. As a doughnut maker, I was definitely not going to make the hybrid doughnut-croissant dough that Dominique Ansel created and made famous with his Cronut. I needed to make something of my own. It has taken four years of doughnut making to become comfortable enough in my own skin to explore a laminated a.k.a. croissant doughnut. I started with a basic croissant dough and started tinkering. I increased the butter and added sugar and vanilla. The result was a laminated doughnut, rich, decadent, buttery and, surprisingly, at first bite, it was the spitting image in both flavor and texture of the meltaway. This was an unplanned effect and a very welcome discovery. My first, second, and third bites reinforced my confidence in the creation. It looks like a doughnut, it has layers like a Cronut, and it eats like a meltaway. I could not be happier with dough number 11 in the lineup at Curiosity Doughnuts. In the immortal words of Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, “These go to eleven.”
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
About the Author
