Rioja Pastry Chef Eric Dale has new brunch entrant has offered on the Rioja brunch menu. Introducing the Bao-nut. He now rolls the donut dough into balls, puts them in a silicon mold and refrigerates them overnight. The following morning they are steamed, bao bun style. For service, they only need to be fried for 30 seconds to crisp up the outside and heat them through instead of frying from raw and hoping the dough isn't over or under-proofed and fried completely. Eric says, "The texture is so fluffy and tender.” The two versions that he has made so far: carrot cake bao-nut, sweet carrot ribbons, cream cheese mousse lemon bao-nut filled with lemon mascarpone on a bed of blueberry compote.

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