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.

A simple coleslaw, but better

I've always enjoyed the idea of coleslaw. Shredded cabbage with a light vinaigrette--simple, tasty and refreshing. But the toils of preparing it had always seemed too daunting to be worth the effort. Or, when I tried, the results were so bad I just gave up, like when I tried shredding cabbage by stuffing cabbage chunks into our food processor using the slicing disc attachment. Aside from all the work it took (i.e. prep, process, empty, clean), I would get unevenly shredded cabbage with big chunky pieces that I basically had to throw away. What's more, the dressing recipes I always seemed to try were too complex or overpowering to make a good coleslaw.

Me learning to make coleslaw

It turns out that I was trying too hard to make something extravagant out of something that wants to be plain and simple. This occurred to me during our trip to Serbia and Croatia this past summer, where my mother-in-law taught me an easier easier way to shred cabbage and prepare coleslaw. The technique is quite straightforward:

1. Take a head of cabbage and peel off the top few layers of cabbage leaves, which effectively act as nature's packaging for the cabbage head. Rinse the cabbage head if you wish.
2. Using a medium-sized utility knife (6" or so) cut the head of cabbage in half cutting from the top of the cabbage down to the root (i.e. lengthwise and not widthwise).
3. Here's where it gets a bit awkward. You want to find a comfortable way to hold or brace the cabbage using your non-dominant hand so that you can use your dominant hand to shred the layers of cabbage over top a bowl. You can either stand and do this with a bowl on the counter, which takes a bit of work. Or, an easier way to do it is to sit in a chair with a bowl in your lap.
4. To shred the cabbage you simply shave off layers of the cabbage at your desired thickness from the top of the cabbage down the sides, gradually moving inward and down the cabbage, while generally avoiding the tough root part.

Now for the dressing I was taught to use a light splash of vegetable oil, a generous amount of vinegar to taste, and salt and pepper to taste (sorry, I don't have any specific measures, you really just have to do this according to your own taste). I've found that using light rice wine vinegar (like Marukan's) in place of white vinegar creates a smoother and also sweeter flavour. I also use a spray can of oil to keep the oil to a minimum. A few shorts sprays is more than enough. I recommend adding salt last because the salt in the rice wine vinegar will lessen the amount you need to add afterwards.

Random ingredient recipe: tomato peach and ginger salsa

The scenario: I had several pounds of ripe tomatoes from a local vegetable market in Bloor West Village and another couple pounds of ripe peaches from the Winona Peach Festival. We were heading to a friend's cottage for the Labour Day weekend and so I was thinking about some kind of party food. The idea of salsa first came to mind given the shear volume of tomatoes I had and I thought that the sweetness of the peaches would compliment the salsa nicely.

However, when I searched several recipe websites that I typically rely on, I came up empty. Then after a basic web search, I came across the exact recipe I was looking for. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except that I added about 2 teaspoons of fresh grated ginger for extra warmth which gave it a nice touch. I used about 4 dried red Thai chili peppers which worked quite nicely and gave it a medium spiciness overall. I also didn't use a food processor to mince the onions and peppers, but rather I diced them by hand.

This is an excellent recipe that makes a wonderful, fairly thick and chunky style salsa (see above). I did not can this for long-term storage however if you're a experienced at canning, you certainly could. Here is the complete recipe for Tomato Peach and Ginger Salsa adapted from the blog "A Handmade Life" with my comments and additions in italics:


Tomato Peach and Ginger Salsa

• 3 1/2 pounds ripe, Roma tomatoes (blanch, peel, and chop)
• 1 1/2 pounds peaches  (peeled and chopped)
• 3 large bell type peppers diced
• several hot type peppers (maybe 6 jalapeno type then add more depending on your taste - I used 4 dried hot Thai chilies which worked perfectly)
• 1-2 large onions diced
• fresh minced garlic (1 head is nice but can use less)
• 2 tsp grated ginger

• 1 small can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp coarse salt
• 2 tsp paprika (optional -- I included paprika)

Place all ingredients in a large pot.  Bring to a boil uncovered and then turn down heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Keep an eye on it and stir every so often otherwise it can burn on the bottom as it thickens.