makin' cronuts

I made some cronuts again! Just as before, they were delish! This time I made a salted caramel one and a lemon one, because I know how much my mom loves lemon stuff and we're planning on making these during our Thanksgiving trip to visit them, so I wanted to see how it would taste. Ryan and I both agreed the lemon was a win. (So you're in luck, Mom!)

I decided these are just too good to not share with the world...or the 10 family members and friends who read this ;) So today you all are getting a recipe post!
I found the recipe through whiskey tango foxtrot and knew I had to try it! They are pretty easy to make, but it takes a bit of time. So if you're gonna tackle them don't expect to be eating in 10 minutes.
You can find the recipe here, or follow along below. My version is slightly tweaked from the Pillsbury recipe, but it's the same general idea. (Also, the Pillsbury recipe says to use caramel sauce and just add salt to it. And I think that's a terrible idea. So if you have a TJ's by you, buy the Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce and try to not eat the entire jar with a spoon before making these. If you don't have a TJ's by you, I say make your own! It's super easy and tastes AMAZING! I'll include the recipe for that below as well)

Salted Caramel (or whatever flavor you want, really) Cronuts 
Ingredients
-1 can of crescent rolls (you'll get 2 cronuts from 1 can)
-1 snack size vanilla pudding
-Vegetable oil, you'll need enough to almost cover an uncooked cronut, so the amount will vary depending on the size of your pan
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
-Milk (only a tablespoon or 2)
-Caramel sauce
-Course salt (optional)

Directions
1. The crescent roll dough will have "pre-cuts" for 8 triangles. Separate the dough into 4 rectangles, each rectangle made up of 2 of these triangles. Press those perforations for the triangles to seal them together so your cronuts don't fall apart. Stack 2 of the rectangles on top of each other, then fold in half to make a tall stack. Repeat with remaining 2 rectangles.

2. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter (or any circle shaped item in your kitchen and a knife, like me), cut 1 round from each stack. Use a 1/2-inch biscuit cutter to cut out a small hole in the center of each round. The Pillsbury recipe says to reroll the remaining dough to cut a third one, but I have yet to successfully get 3 cronuts from this recipe. The third one always gives me problems at one step or another. Go ahead and try to get a third one, but it will most likely be in vain.

Biscuit cutter...lid to a huge jar of jelly beans your husband's Nana and Poppa sent you...same thing.

Oh, third cronut. You look so promising. Nice trick, liar.

3. In deep fryer or saucepan, heat oil over medium heat to 350°.

4. Fry cronuts in hot oil on each side until golden brown and cooked through (roughly anywhere from 45 seconds-1 1/2 minutes on each side. Like I said before, be sure the oil is at least a little over half-way up on the uncooked cronut to be sure they get fully cooked) Drain on paper towels. Cool for 5 minutes.

5. Split the cronuts in half and pipe some vanilla pudding onto the bottom half of each one. (I just put mine in a ziploc bag and cut the corner off for that. Or this past time, I just spooned some on. Nothing Martha-Stewart-fancy over here) Put the top halves back on :)

And we've lost the third cronut. One of these days I'm going to get 3. I'm determined.

6. Carefully roll each side of the cronuts in sugar. This is a completely optional step, I only do it because I think it makes them look prettier.

7. Make the frosting by slowly adding the milk to the 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. I'm talking like a teaspoon or less at a time. It doesn't take much for it to go from thick and gloppy to too runny. The consistency is totally up to you, so stop adding milk when you like what you see. (I added too much milk this last time and didn't feel like wasting a bunch of powdered sugar to thicken it up again so our frosting was a bit too runny for my liking)

8. Drizzle each cronut with some frosting. And then top with salted caramel sauce and add a sprinkle of course salt on top of that if you wish! Or top it with any kind of sauce you want, or none at all!

Salted Caramel Sauce
(Sorry, no photos. But it's super easy, I don't think photos are needed)
Ingredients
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water
-6 tbsp salted butter
-3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions
1. In 3-quart saucepan, heat sugar and water over med-high heat. Whisking constantly to dissolve sugar.
2. Once mixture begins to boil, stop whisking. Let it boil until it is a dark amber color, carefully "swirling" the pan occassionally.
3. Once it is dark amber, immediately add butter and whisk until butter melts, then immediately remove from heat.
4. Wait 3 seconds, then carefully pour in cream and immediately whisk to combine. It will bubble like crazy, and may spatter boiling hot liquid on your hands/arms...so if you don't want little tiny burns everywhere like I got (why you wouldn't want to be just like me is beyond me) wear an oven mitt.
5. Whisk until combined and smooth. Enjoy :)
(We stored ours in a glass jar in the fridge and it lasted for the week that we were using it. Not sure how long it will actually last because it was most definitely gone before it got to that)

Enjoy! Let me know if any of you actually make them :)