What do you do when you find yourself with over 50 donuts in the house?
This past week, I've been working on a collab with a donut shop & bakery (can't wait to share more... soon!) and was left with about 54 donuts in the house after the shooting was done. There was no way the two of us could eat all that many donuts, even after sharing plenty with friends. By day 4, I was left with some rather dry and stale donuts.... which are perfect for a donut "tiramisu"! Tiramisu is in quotes here because it's not a real tiramisu, with eggs. I used whipping cream instead, so it sort of makes this one a tiramisu-flavoured trifle. 😅
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| "D" is for post-shoot donut disaster |
Most common suggestions for stale donuts involve donut french toast or donut bread pudding, but donut tiramisu, I feel, is the optimal way to go because what better flavour to pair donuts with than (boozy) coffee! *pats self on back* We also made a kimchi grilled cheese sandwich with one of the leftover croissant-donuts that was ... really good, but probably not the healthiest of workday lunches one could imagine.
Unfort, I have no picture of the final tiramisu for you (there's one uber-grainy photo, on instagram stories--not worth enshrining here!), since I made it super late into the evening in some to-go containers and immediately distributed it around LA to friends who replied to my last-minute text of "who wants to eat my donut experiment?" But after one friend labelled it a "Best of Pandemic" dessert (it's a bop!), I felt like I should at least share the recipe with you here!
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Read on for recipe....
Donut "tiramisu" trifle
makes about 8 personal-sized cups (roughly the size of a large muffin), or one 10-cup trifle dish
16 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. mascarpone
2 tspn vanilla extract
3 shots espresso, at room temperature
3–4 Tbspn dark rum
3–4 Tbpsn bourbon (pick a nice chocolatey one)
sugar, to taste
1 or 2 squares of dark chocolate, grated
4–6 stale donuts, sliced into roughly 2cm-thick slices
1 mango, diced (or any other fruit you want would work, like berries)
cocoa powder, for topping
1. Combine the heavy cream and mascarpone in a large bowl. Whip until you get soft peaks. The mascarpone should make it so that the soft peaks are pretty stable and firm. If not, whip a little bit more, but be careful not to over-whip. Stir in vanilla extract. If you are not using glazed or otherwise sugared donuts, you may want to add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar to the cream at this point. Mix to combine.
2. In a shallow bowl, combine the espresso, rum and bourbon, adjusting the alcohol level to your preferences. It should be rather alcoholic. Again, if your donuts are the type with toppings, you may want to skip sugar at this stage. If not, add about 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar, just to sweeten the syrup a bit.
3. At the bottom of your cups or trifle dish, place any chopped fruit that you are using, about a spoonful or two for the personal-sized cups, or all of the fruit for the trifle dish. Then, on top, ladle on a scoop of whipped cream, enough to create a medium-thick layer. Top with the grated chocolate, adding more or less chocolate as you prefer. Then, take the sliced donuts and dunk them into the espresso bowl, pressing them gently under the liquid so that they soak. Some donuts (like raised ones) will soak up the liquid really fast, so watch out. Others will take longer (smaller donuts, some cruellers/old fashioneds). Once the liquid has soaked into donut slice, remove immediately and layer into the trifle. Be careful not to let the donuts soak for too long, since some of them will very easily disintegrate in the liquid if left unattended.
4. Top the donuts with a thick layer of cream. For the person sized cups, you'll only need one layer of donuts. If you're making a trifle, you can at this point repeat the donut-cream layering steps.
5. Cover gently and refrigerate for 4 hours. Before serving, sprinkle on a generous dusting of cocoa powder.
Enjoy!