Recreating the Tim Horton's (USA) Peanut Crunch Donut

On a day trip to Buffalo over the summer, we stopped at a Tim Horton's to grab a snack. What I learned was that while the Canadian and American Tim Horton's had many things in common, not everything was the same. Some things were better (as I'll explain below) and other things were considerably worse. I'll start off with the good and get to the bad later, in a subsequent post.

It was at this Tim Horton's (near the Buffalo airport--don't ask!) where I discovered the Peanut Crunch Donut. This donut is definitely not sold in any Canadian Timmy's I've ever visited--there's just no way I could have missed this donut. The donut is a simple but brilliant concept: an old-fashioned donut covered with a glaze and then doused with chopped peanuts. I like to think of it as a Payday bar crossed with an old-fashioned donut. With that image, I doubt I need to explain how this donut is now one of my favourites (though a baked peanut and chocolate donut just might beat that out).

Tim Horton's USA - Peanut Crunch Donut

This delicious donut posed a problem for me: how was I going to be able have this donut again upon returning home (and not having easy access to Buffalo)? I thought about petitioning Tim Horton's Canada to bring the Peanut Crunch Donut north of the border, but that could take months/years/never, and I want one here right now!

So I decided on a relatively simple solution. I would take a plain Tim Horton's Old Fashioned Donut, dip it in a donut glaze and then roll in it chopped peanuts. For the donut glaze, I adapted a recipe by Alton Brown from the Food Network website. My change to the glaze recipe was very small, but still important if you don't have experience making donut glazes (like me).

For the donut, any unglazed cake donut should work (e.g. old-fashioned or sour cream). With that said, I realize that not all donuts come unglazed, like many chocolate donuts for example. You could try experimenting using a pre-glazed donut, but you may make a bit of a mess of the old glaze and it might be tricky to get the new glaze to adhere. But just try it! Don't let my doubt stifle your innovation.

Matt's Almost-a-Peanut-Crunch-Donut


These donuts were a pretty big hit with my colleagues, who acted as willing taste testers.

My attempt at the Peanut Crunch Donut - not as pretty, but every bit as tasty

Ingredients

• 6-8 Tim Horton's Old Fashioned Donuts (unglazed)
• 1 1/2 cups of peanuts coarsely chopped as evenly as possible (see the exemplar donut above from Tim Horton's above, and not my version)

• 1/4 whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• Hot water (from the stove or microwave) for thinning the glaze - this wasn't in the original recipe but I found the recipe wouldn't have worked without it.

Directions

Before making the glaze, spread the chopped peanuts evenly over a piece of waxed paper. 

Combine the milk and vanilla in a saucepan and heat over low heat until warm. Gradually sift the sugar into the milk mixture, whisking gently and continuously, until well-combined. Remove the saucepan  from the stove and place in a bowl of warm-hot water so that just the base of the saucepan is submerged in the water. If the glaze is so thick that it is starting to harden in parts (as it likely will be), continue whisking it while very slowly dropping in hot water using a spoon until the glaze is just smooth without clumping or hardening as you whisk.

Now, take each donut and quickly dip it in the glaze on both sides and immediately roll each side of the donut and the edges in the peanuts. Repeat this process for each of the donuts. Pay close attention to the consistency of the glaze as you may need to whisk in a few drops from one donut to the next. If you find that the glaze goes on too thick and lumpy or the glaze doesn't adhere to the donut, you need to thin the glaze with hot water as described above.

And after you gorge yourself on several of these, you may want to detox yourself with a simple coleslaw from my previous post.