Mini JO-CRO-NUTS: (doughnut and croissant hybrid)

These delights are taking the States by storm. They are indeed very tasty, light and crisp but not something you'd want to be making on a regular basis. 

I love laminated pastries but really only make them on high days and holidays. When I saw this and the fact that people are queuing around the block for them, well I just had to try one.

The chef in NY makes different flavours each month, this month was rose but I'm not a huge lover of rose so I decided to go with the following flavours.

1 Batch of Laminated pastry (follow the recipe until the shaping stage)
Golden caster sugar (cinnamon if using)
300ml of double cream
1 pieces of crystallised ginger plus 2 tbsp of the syrup
Zest of a small lemon
Juice of a lemon
100g melted chocolate ( I melt my chocolate in a sandwich bag in a cup of boiling water)
2 tbsp nutella
2 tbsp toasted hazelnuts
4 tbsp sieved warmed jam
Icing sugar

Roll the pastry until you have a layer which is about 1 & 1/2 inches. With a 2 inch cutter cut out discs. Place onto a lined solid baking sheet, cover with clingfilm and pop into the fridge until very cold (at least an hour). Cut out the centres using a small round cutter (I used the end of a piping nozzle).  

Heat your deep fat fryer or a pan filled with oil (sunflower or vegetable) to 190. Remove 4 Cronuts from the tray and pop into the fryer and fry until golden. With a slotted spoon toss into a bowl of golden caster sugar (with cinnamon if you don't want to fill them). Remove onto a wire rack and repeat until you have fried all of your Cronuts.

When the Cronuts are completely cool whip up your cream and divide into 2 bowls.

To Assemble make 3 little holes in the tops of the Cronuts with either scissors or a chopstick. 

For the Chocolate hazelnut stir 2 Tbsp of melted cooled chocolate and the nutella into one bowl of the cream, then spoon into a piping bag fitted with a long thin nozzle and pipe small blobs into the holes. 
Then drizzle with the rest of the melted chocolate and sprinkle with hazelnuts.

For The Lemon ginger Cronut Stir the ginger syrup and 1 tsp of lemon juice into the other bowl of whipped cream, spoon into a piping bag fitted with a long thin piping nozzle and pipe blobs into the holes. With a palette knife spread a little of the glaze icing onto the top of the Cronuts and top with slivers of the ginger.

For the Jam Cronut, spoon the sieved warmed jam into the piping bag fitted with a long thin nozzle and pipe small blobs into the holes.

* I fried off the centres for delicious chefs treats