Who doesn’t just love a great donut. I must admit that I simply adore them. We’ve made lots of them here which have included my Greek loukoumades, bacon honey donuts, Berliner donuts and even bomboloni donuts we recently made for Easter. I may not eat them exclusively for breakfast as others do, but I would definitely include them on my breakfast table as an option to enjoy in addition to my regular breakfast.
A French cruller is actually a bit of a misnomer in that there really is nothing French about them. A traditional cruller, whose name comes from the Dutch word krullen which means to curl, is a heavier, fried pastry made somewhat like a cake donut. A French cruller is a scalloped ring shaped donut made from a much lighter dough that is essentially an éclair dough, otherwise known as choux pastry. Once fried, it has a light and airy texture and generally enjoyed in Europe on Shrove Tuesday.
This type of donut has always been one of my favorites and I usually use a lean choux paste recipe to make them. The reason for this is that if the dough is too rich, it will not cook all the way through, so leaner dough works much better. You can add the batter into a pastry bag with a large fitted star tip and simply drop nuggets of batter into your hot oil, or you can pipe out the batter onto small cut out pieces of parchment paper and freeze them until ready to fry. They freeze quickly and fry up beautifully so you can have this treat at any time. One thing to keep in mind is that you oil should not be too hot, or they will cook quickly on the outside and they will stay raw on the inside. You may need to try some of the batter on a test run, and if you have a thermometer, try temps between 360°F-370°F.
French Cruller Batter (makes about 1 dozen)
1 cup water (8 oz)
3 oz butter
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
5.5 oz flour (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
3-4 eggs
1 recipe milk sugar glaze (add 1-2 teaspoons maple extract)
For step by step instructions with photos on how to make the eclair dough, click here.
Add the butter and the water to a small stock pot until the butter has melted and the water is scalded but not boiling. Add the flour all at once and stir well for about 5 minutes to cook the flour and remove as much moisture as you possibly can. This step is very important because if you do not remove as much water as possible, you may not be able to incorporate all of the eggs, and that is a critical ingredient for this product since it is the only type of leavening being used. Once the dough has come together in a ball and has been cooked for several minutes, place it into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, begin to cool the dough down by beating it slowly. Once it has cooled, add the eggs a little at a time until the mixture is firm, but not too stiff. You should be able to pipe this out fairly easily from a pastry bag.
Next, decide if you are going to make the nuggets or if you are going to pipe out the traditional round shapes onto small pieces of parchment paper. If you are going to pipe out the rounds, I recommend that you wither chill the dough very well or freeze it completely which makes it much easier to handle.
Add the cruller into the oil face down, and once it has taken on some color, flip it over.
You may need to do this a few times before they are completely cooked through. Mine took about 10-15 minutes to cook until they were a lovely golden brown color.
While the donuts are frying, make the milk sugar glaze and set aside until ready to use. Once the donuts have been removed from the fryer and drained on a paper towel, toss them into a bowl and drizzle the glaze over them while they are still warm. This way, the glaze will set as the cruller cools.
I made a delicious maple glaze to drizzle over them, but feel free to add some cocoa powder for a chocolate glaze or keep it simple with just vanilla.
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