Fry Day-old Croissants in Ghee and Cinnamon Sugar
My love for grocery store croissants has been well-documented. While they lack the air structure of those you’d find at a Parisian bakery, they’re delightfully soft and greasy, and I don’t feel bad if they go a little stale. I have mitigation strategies, some of which are more even more delicious than a plain croissant. I’ll usually make croutons or croissant brittle, but on one recent night, I decided to use a stale croissant to make cinnamon-sugar toast, frying it in ghee to give it heaps of texture and flavor.
This preparation, which doesn’t really have a name, lives in between fried cinnamon-sugar toast and the aforementioned croissant brittle. The ghee gives the cinnamon and sugar something to stick to, and when fried, the sweet, aromatic mixture caramelizes on the thin, flaky layers of the pastry, effectively candying them. It’s divine, and so easy to make, even a wildly high person could do it. (Not that I know anything about that.)
I like using ghee because it doesn’t brown like butter. This allows you to track the state of the sugar a little easier, because you won’t have to worry about confusing browned milk solids with caramelized sugar bits. You can use butter, of course; it will still taste good, though I recommend dropping the heat down a little so the butter doesn’t burn before the sugar caramelizes. Enjoy these crispy beauties with a little jam, a scoop of ice cream, or all by themselves.
Fried Croissant Cinnamon Toast
Ingredients:
Day-old croissants
ghee or butter
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Slice the croissants in half. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. Spread softened ghee or brush melted butter on the exposed innards of the croissant, then coat with a generous layer of cinnamon-sugar.
Place the croissant half in a nonstick pan, sugar side down, and set the heat to medium (if using ghee) or medium-low (if using butter). Fry for a few minutes, until the sugar melts and caramelizes into a golden, crunchy coating. Remove from the pan, and let cool for a few minutes before eating to let the sugar harden. Repeat until you are out of croissants.