Lisa Paradise: A box of brioche doughnuts freshly rolled,
then fried and filled with flavors
inspired by cherished family recipes.
At Kora, here in Queens, they're doing just that,
working tirelessly in a tiny New York City apartment
to produce hundreds of doughnuts.
And they are so good that every single week,
they sell out in less than a minute.
Let's take a look.
Customer: It took about three tries.
Lisa: Did you literally just sit on your computer
until the order time?
Like you're trying to buy, like, Beyoncé tickets?
Customer: Yeah.
Customer: They're worth all
the work and strategy.
For maybe the seventh try, I finally got it.
Lisa: It took you seven weeks?
Plush brioche doughnuts
filled with leche cream,
topped with leche flan,
and gently sprinkled with powdered sugar.
And while some food in New York is designed
with pseudo-exclusivity to build up hype,
these particular doughnuts are exclusive
purely out of necessity.
They're made in this small Woodside kitchen
outfitted with a KitchenAid, a single oven,
and two small fryers that work together
to produce over 500 doughnuts every single week
for a growing customer base.
Are you tired?
'Cause I'm tired listening to you talk. [laughs]
Kim Camara: Oh, we're so tired, all the time.
Lisa: Kim, along with her boyfriend
and Kora co-owner, Kevin,
begin prepping for the week's sales on Monday.
And while Kora's doughnut flavors change week to week,
the leche flan doughnut is the star of the show.
It begins with a whole lot of egg yolks,
evaporated and condensed milk,
a pinch of salt, and some vanilla,
all combined with an immersion blender
until it's silky smooth.
Kim boils hot caramel just shy of burning
for a slightly bittersweet tang,
then pours it onto a tray,
laying on the flan mixture
before popping the whole thing into the oven,
where the flan is torched to remove any air bubbles
before it's baked for about an hour and a half, until set.
Each tray only makes about 35 doughnuts,
and the oven only fits one tray,
so Kim needs to repeat this process
at least four more times
to make enough doughnuts to fill orders.
The flan is left to cool and set in the fridge
until the next day, when they kick it into high gear.
Kim's mom, Titi Babes, glazes doughnuts in one corner,
while some coworkers meticulously pipe
and decorate in the other,
all while Kim fries dough and Kevin fills it.
To finish the signature doughnut,
rings are cut into the freshly fried dough.
Then it's filled to the brim with pureed flan cream.
The leche flan is cut into rounds
then gently layered into the doughnut
before the whole thing is lightly sprinkled
with powdered sugar.
Customer: So, I'm Filipino, and the flavors
are just so true to what you would imagine
Filipino dessert tastes like.
But it's just brought to a more modern,
contemporary format through the doughnut.
Lisa: The flan recipe fell into Kim's hands
in some tragic, yet serendipitous timing,
when Kim's grandmother Kora passed in January 2020
and in sorting through some of her belongings,
she stumbled across something pretty special.
Kim: And we found her leche flan recipe
in her old notebook.
I wish that she was still here to see this
and see what an impact she's left on me,
and how everything about this business has been built
because of what she did for me in my life.
Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna start tearing up.
Lisa: If you cry, I'll start.
Kim: Oh, my God, don't cry. I see you crying.
Lisa: When the pandemic
and subsequent stay-at-home orders hit in March,
Kim, like so many of us, took to baking to pass the time.
Kim: During quarantine, when I was doing
a lot of baking, I had leftover brioche.
So, yeah, I was like,
let me just get some oil on the stove,
and I'll fry them off like doughnuts.
Lisa: She took to social media to sell some doughnuts
to family and friends,
and to her surprise sold over 175 on the very first day.
Working simply through word of mouth,
the couple dropped an order form
every Monday at 3 p.m.,
each week selling more and more until it became
almost impossible for customers to snag a box.
Grandmother's recipe book in hand,
Kim and Kevin began building a business
that pays homage to her grandmother in every way,
down to the logo, which uses her handwritten letters
lifted from the book.
Kim: When we go downstairs
and we hand a box to people,
especially people that are having it for the first time,
these doughnuts that have been so elusive
and so hard to get,
and just the pure joy on their faces is enough.
Lisa: Yo, I haven't had doughnuts in months,
and I'm so excited.
I've been watching them make these for two days straight,
and it's just been straight torture
not being able to try them.
Oh, f--- yes!
The brioche doughnut by itself is light and airy.
It's perfectly fried; it's not greasy.
The cream on the bottom
hits your mouth the second you bite into it,
so you immediately get that leche flan flavor.
And then you bite into the flan itself,
and it's not dense, it's not too jiggly, it's just creamy.
It melts in your mouth the second that you bite into it.
The burnt caramel on top gives it this bitterness
that really brings the whole thing together.
It really levels out the sweetness.
As far as desserts go,
this is one of those ones that you feel like
you can bite into it and it doesn't feel heavy,
it doesn't feel dense.
It tastes like it came out of your grandmother's kitchen,
but if your grandmother was a professional pastry chef.