Creme Brûlée Donuts

The Origin Of Creme Brûlée

Even though Creme Brûlée is French for “burnt cream,” France, Spain, and England all lay claim to its origin story. While England has a similar recipe from the 1400’s, and Spain has one from medieval times, France owns the first published creme brûlée recipe in 1691. It wasn’t super popular or well known as a dessert until it found itself on the dessert menu of a high-end New York City restaurant La Cirque. Now it’s hard to find a French restaurant that DOESN’T have creme brûlée on their menu. Read more about it’s history here!

How to Make Creme Brûlée Donuts:

What Are Creme Brûlée Donuts Made Of?

These creme brûlée donuts are fried and not baked so they’re made with a sweetened and enriched bread dough. They also come with a vanilla bean custard filling made with pastry cream and whipped cream. Finally, they’re dipped in caramelized sugar and pair really well with a cup of coffee. This challenging recipe entails an overnight preferment, waiting for bread to proof and pastry cream to cool, and dealing with hot oil and caramel!

Make the Vanilla Bean Custard Filling

Pastry cream is a fundamental product, and I use it in several recipes. Boil the milk with the vanilla bean and pod, temper the egg mixture, bring everything together to a boil, whisk in the butter, cool. Tempering in baking is bringing two liquids you plan to combine to a similar temperature before mixing all together. The cornstarch, primary, and the yolks, secondary, are the thickening agents here. When boiling it all together, whisk constantly to prevent the bottom from burning, and let it boil for 1-2 minutes to cook out the cornstarch taste and texture.

After you’ve made the pastry cream, have it chill in a bowl in the fridge. Place some plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent any skins from forming. Once the pastry cream has chilled you simply whip up the heavy cream and fold into the pastry cream. This part should be done just prior to filling. Before folding everything together, massage the pastry cream a bit with your spatula to make it easier.

Make the Donut Dough

This creme brûlée donut recipe uses a preferment (also known as a starter) which you make the night before. A preferment is like making a small portion of the dough ahead of time to allow it to age. This aging gives a better flavor, strength to the flours, and a jumpstart to the proofing process. Once it sits overnight, you add it to the dough as a regular ingredient.

This dough is a sweetened and enriched dough which means it contains both fat (milk, eggs, & butter) and sweetener (granulated sugar). However, what’s really important here warming the milk for the yeast, since active dry yeast needs to be activated with warmth to work. Also, it can’t be too hot or else you will kill the yeast which occurs at 120*F. Use a mixer to make kneading the dough much easier than hand kneading, and mix until it passes the windowpane test. The windowpane test demonstrates the gluten development in dough (explained more below). Cover, and allow to proof until tripled.

Why we knead bread:

Flour is composed of starch and protein, and the proteins are called glutenin and gliadin which are long and tangled. Together, glutenin and gliadin form gluten. Kneading rubs these “subproteins” together to stretch them out, line them up, and cross-link themselves to create a net that helps retain gasses during the proofing stage. Kneading also incorporates oxygen in the dough which helps yeast breath and produce carbon dioxide. The windowpane test proves if you have developed enough gluten strands for proper structure to help retain those gasses for the final rise. 

Test for the windowpane by taking a small portion of dough and roll into a ball. Stretch it out gently starting in the middle. Stretch it into a square and until the center is a thin film. If your dough easily stretches thinly without tearing, then the dough is strong enough and enough gas can be retained in the network of gluten strands. If it rips easily, then you need to develop more gluten strands by more kneading/mixing. You should also see the network of gluten strands. It’s called the windowpane test because light should be able to pass through like through a window.

why we proof bread dough:

Proofing dough leads to light and fluffy bread instead of a dense brick. After all that work of mixing and providing a GREAT net of gluten strands, the dough needs a break. During that break the yeast activates, eats the carbohydrates, and releases carbon dioxide which leads to rising. That net you just weaved kneading is now doing its job. The amount of time it takes to proof will depend on your environment. The warmer it is, the faster it will proof; the colder, the longer. See my tips for speeding up proofing times if your environment is not ideal. Allow this dough to proof until tripled in size.

Roll, Cut, and Fry the Donuts

Using a well floured surface, roll the dough to half an inch thick. Since dough is elastic, you’ll want to run your arm under the dough to encourage it to contract and continue rolling until it’s the right thickness and no longer contracting. Punch out with your three-inch cutter and transfer to a pan covered with plastic wrap. You can knead the scraps and reroll if you’d like, however, the more you work the dough, the tougher it gets and the more warped the rounds will be. Once done, allow to rest covered for 30-60 minutes (warmer = 30 and cooler = 60). In the meantime, warm up your oil.

Your oil should be between 350*F and 375*F. Anything lower and they will not brown. Anything higher and the outside will burn before the inside cooks. Make sure to ready your station prior to frying with a cooling rack on top of some paper towels and a pair of tongs. Carefully drop them in, and flip once a golden brown; about 3 minutes per side. Remove with the tongs and place on your prepared cooling rack.

Fill and Dip the Creme Brûlée Donuts in Caramelized Sugar

Start with poking a hole in the side of the donut. Next, fill your pastry bag (or ziplock bag) two-thirds full with filling. If you fill it too much, the cream may fall out right out of the back! When filling, insert the bag as far as it can go. Squeeze while slowly removing the piping bag. You will feel it get heavier and will also feel it expand. Look out for areas where it may be splitting from too much filling.

Making and dipping the caramel can be very dangerous and I recommend using gloves when handling. In a pan, mix the sugar with enough water to make wet sand and cook until it starts to turn brown. Swirl to promote even browning and when it’s an amber color, remove from heat and let it thicken a little. Carefully, dip the tops of the filled donuts in the caramel rotating your wrist in a circular motion. Allow extra caramel to drip off while rotating your wrist before placing caramel side up on a cooling rack. Allow to cool fully at room temperature, and serve within 1-4 hours.

Getting hung up or lost on all the baking terminology? Study up here.

Troubleshooting Creme Brûlée Donuts:

• My dough isn’t rising! You have a yeast problem, it’s too cold, or you did not knead enough. For now, trying creating a makeshift proofbox in your oven by filling a pan with boiling water and placing in the oven with your donut dough. If that isn’t working then it has something to do with either the kneading or the yeast. If you passed the windowpane test then it’s your yeast and you need to start over with fresh yeast. Make sure you activate the yeast in warm milk but not too wam milk where you would kill it (120*F).
• My donut are shrinking and warping when I punch them! This is completely normal. To help reduce shrinkage, run your arm under the dough and allow it to contract. Let it rest for about 60 seconds, then punch. If it’s still contracting a lot, let the dough rest for 30 – 60 minutes, then roll out.
• My donuts are crisp on the outside but raw on the inside! Your oil is too hot. You can’t fix your current batch, but you can save the next one by either adding more oil to cool it down or turning off the heat. The oil should be between 350*F-375*F.

Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!