How to Make Malasadas from Pillsbury Biscuit Dough
It’s Fat Tuesday, which means it’s Malasada Day in Hawaii! Okay, I’m gonna be honest, I did not know anything about Malasada Day being a thing until this year, but I 100% can get behind it. After all, who doesn’t love some Leonard’s Bakery malasadas?? Sadly, if you’re a lame ol’ mainlander like me, you’re going to have to find another way to get your malasada fix. Luckily, I read in Chef Roy Choi’s cookbook that you can make a cheater malasada from store-bought biscuit dough, so I’m here to see if it works!
What are Malasadas?
Malasadas are a type of yeasted donut originally from Portugal. However, growing up in the Asian American community on the west coast of the US, everyone knew malasadas from Leonard’s Bakery in Honolulu.
I love yeasted fried donuts, and I have a great recipe for kinako brioche donuts if you want to try making it from scratch. BUT, as a mom of two young kids, I often need something quick and easy. I knew I had to test out this food hack!
The Easiest and Fastest Malasada Recipe Ever
No lie, this is the easiest and best food hack I’ve ever tried. Here are the steps:
- Go the store and buy buttermilk biscuit dough, the kind in a tube in the refrigerated section.
- Go home and heat up some oil in a deep cast iron skillet or pot to 350 degrees.
- Make someone else open the tube of biscuit dough because it’s too scary.
- Put the precut biscuit dough pieces into the oil and fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through.
- Dunk hot donuts in sugar.
THAT’S IT, FOLKS! SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!
Chef Roy’s book said to use Pillsbury buttermilk biscuit dough, but you can use Trader Joe’s as well. And take care to make sure the donuts are cooked all the way through the middle. Sometimes the slices of biscuits can come out kind of fat from the tube. You may want to turn down the heat on the oil and let it cook for longer.
Do Biscuit Malasadas Taste like Leonard’s Bakery?
Alright, alright, time for the REAL review. Of course, biscuit dough doesn’t have the same yeast-y flavor as true malasadas. And the texture is not quite as airy.
BUT IT WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY CLOSE.
I couldn’t BELIEVE how soft and pillowy and PERFECT the malasadas turned out! The flavor is not quite as sweet as a true donut recipe as well, so I think they would taste better and less biscuit-y if they were filled with jam or custard. But if you handed me one of these babies and never told me how you made them, I would’ve NEVER guessed they came from canned biscuit dough.
So all in all these beautiful donuts took less than 10 minutes to make and practically 0 technical skill. Go give it a try and let me know how it goes for you!
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If you know, you know & no, no, no, please don’t even think these are remotely close to Leonard’s. But try, you might like 🤮 And when in Honolulu go get da kine onolicious from Leonard’s.
Most people aren’t lucky enough to have access to Leonard’s, but this is an easy cravings fix. Did you actually try making it?
I am from Hawai’i and live here but I too wanted to try making a quick at home malasada, thats when I came across this recipe. I decided to try it out ( but I cut holes in the middle) to give it a more donut look😄 it was actually pretty delicious! My kids and hubby loved, I made them 2 days in a row! Obviously, we didn’t expect them to taste like Leonard’s. They we’re savory and sweet at the same time and I didn’t even have to leave home to get them. We did sugar donut as well as chocolate glazed, super yummy! Thanks for this quick recipe.
You’re welcome! I also cut holes in the middle to do donuts (faux-nuts?) sometimes too.
I’ve known about this fun recipe for 65 years. I also made it with my first grade class when we cooked on Fridays.