IDEAS IN FOOD: R & Doughnuts

I am never content.

I need obstacles to overcome and mountains to climb. The land of doughnuts continues to provide these stimulating challenges. Though it takes conversations with others to point out new challenges. One such conversation was with Wylie. He asked why we didn't have a cruller on our menu. My response was that I had plans for it, but had not gotten around to making them. I had shelved the idea until it was ready to kick me in the rear. His query accelerated my thoughts (kicked me in the the rear) on crullers and their place in our world of doughnuts. Thinking back, I realized that I had spent some time working on crullers before we had even considered opening a doughnut shop. I had looked at a hybrid doughnut blending pate choux and cake in our Everyday Doughnuts. I had forgotten all about it until this morning. I have always enjoyed the melting decadence of eating a glazed cruller. The light as air interior texture hidden behind the delicate shell of the fried choux is ethereal.

I went to our recipe folder and pulled out our most delicious pate choux. Not our "almost delicious" or "just okay" pate choux, our most delicious. I made the base, omitting the ginger-lemongrass infusion and adding vanilla in its place. After making the base I refrigerated it overnight. The following day at Curiosity Doughnuts I piped rounds of the dough onto parchment and started frying. The pate choux needed to be fried longer than our traditional doughnuts. Once I figured that out I was treated to light as air, eggy, and moist doughnuts. We now have a baseline to build upon. Piping doughnuts one by one onto parchment and frying them is a painfully slow process. While I do like doing things the most difficult way possible, we are looking into upgrading our equipment game and getting a depositor.