Try this at home

The only thing better than a Peter Pan doughnut

is a Peter Pan doughnut, grilled.

I was at a backyard barbecue in Greenpoint when, sent out on a mission for rosemary for paella (don’t ask), I happened to pass Peter Pan Bakery, the best doughnut source in the five boroughs, as far as I’m concerned. (I have a hunch, though, that there’s some hole-in-the-wall contender in some dark, godforsaken corner of Staten Island.) As happens on the rare occasion, I put two and two together and made five (Doughnuts? Grill? DOUGHNUTS. ON. GRILL.). Everyone was skeptical; some were curious. My instincts told me that there was potential for magic here.

Forget your 8-second-nuke rule for Krispy Kremes. This, my friends, is reheating at its most glorious. The exterior becomes a crispy hot shell that gives way to juicy, molten insides and takes on the slightest hint of smoke and maybe just the faintest little happy leavings of whatever sausages (from the Polish butchers up the street) and steaks (from the Greenmarket) had just vacated the grill real estate. I had put my money on the eclair and got the jelly doughnut as an afterthought, but while the eclair was pretty good, the jelly doughnut blew our minds.

(I know, I’m a bit late in posting this — and have been lax about the posting in general — but despite it being too cold for grilling out, this could be somewhat replicated indoors. In the way that indoor grilling or a grill pan is always a sad shadow of actual outdoor-over-charcoal grilling. Keep this one filed for next summer.)