Homemade French Cruller Donuts

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This French Cruller Donut Recipe is so easy and to die for! My step-by-step guide will help you through frying up these delicious doughnuts!

French Cruller Recipe | Homemade!

I have a precisely 4 doughnut recipes on my blog. And today, I’m adding a 5th and it’s a doozie. Friends, meet my Homemade French Cruller Donut Recipe. Is it Crew-ler or crul-lur? Informal poll.

Fresh doughnuts right out of the grease and glaze are basically what makes my world go round. Gord and I going to voodoo doughnuts was like a spiritual experience. Doughnuts are holy, holy things in this house. Always have been; always will be. So when my sissy-pants came for a visit {that’s sister for all your normal folk}, we were planning on eating our body weights worth in Boston Cream Doughnuts and Maple Bacon Bars at voodoo. Well, at some point before leaving, we decided it would be better to make our own, so here lies our decision on your computer screen.

Sweet, crispy, tender, hot out of the grease Crullers. These are so not the typical doughnut {yeast-risen} but are so delicious in their own way. If you’ve never had a cruller, go get you one. You’ll thank me later.

One thing I happen to love about these doughnuts is you can have the entire batch done in about an hour! No downtime waiting. SCORE. The time thing is what REALLY made me fall in love with these little buggers. You mean I can shove 14 of these into my mouth in an hour instead of 3? SOLD!

Main Ingredients Needed

Simple ingredients come together to make pâte à choux, a French pastry dough used to make things like cream puffs and eclairs. In this case, we are going to fry the dough to make crullers. Here’s everything you’ll need:

• Butter – to add moisture and flavor.
• Water – this creates an even higher moisture content that then steams the dough. This allows the starch in the flour to gel creating structure.
• Flour – for structure! Read above.
• Salt – for flavor.
• Eggs – this thins out the dough to be the right consistency.
• Vegetable Oil – used for frying!

For the Glaze

• Powdered Sugar – to sweeten the glaze.
• Milk – to thin it out to the right consistency (think school glue).
• Vanilla – for flavor.
• Lemon Extract – for even more flavor (optional but recommended).

How to Make Crullers

For full details on how to make Crullers from scratch, see the recipe card down below 🙂

1. Make Pâte à Choux

Bring butter and water to boil in a small pot. Once the mixture comes to a boil, stir in flour and salt until combined. Remove from heat and cool for 3 minutes.     

Crack eggs into a small bowl. Mix eggs into warm mixture one by one until completely batter is completely smooth.

2. Pipe Circles + Freeze

Transfer to piping bag with large fluted tip and pipe into circles on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Place into freezer for 30 minutes.

3. Make Glaze

While the dough is freezing, stir all ingredients together for glaze until smooth and runny…but not too runny!

Frying Cruller Donuts

While you can bake Crullers, they will come out more like cream puffs than crispy donuts. So I recommend frying! I promise it’s not as hard as it seems.

4. Fill + Preheat Oil

Pour vegetable oil into a large pot with high sides so there are at least 3 inches of grease. Heat oil to be between 325-350 degrees so these little guys can get crispy and delightful.

5. Fry Crullers

Once your oil is hot and you can peel your frozen crullers off the parchment paper in one piece, give those babies a hot bath! Drop frozen crullers one by one into hot oil and fry about 1 minute per side or until lightly golden.

6. Glaze + Cool

Remove to a paper towel to drain and then immediately coat in glaze. Place onto a cooling rack to let excess glaze drip off. After 40 minutes or so, the glaze should harden onto the crullers. Best served warm, immediately out of the glaze.

More Donut Recipes to Try!

• Carrot Cake Donuts
• Red Velvet Donuts
• Donut Holes
• Old Fashioned Pumpkin Donuts
• The Puddin Donut {Gourdough’s Copycat}
• S’mores Donut
• 3-Ingredient Nutella Donuts
• Pancake Mix Donuts
• Cranberry Orange Donuts

These Cruller Donuts were the bomb. I had approximately 42 of these before I stopped myself and dropped the rest off to my husband at work. Hallelujah for hungry coworkers.

Printable recipe card is below, have a great day!

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4.82 from 16 votes

Homemade French Cruller Donuts

This French Cruller Donut recipe is so easy and to die for! My step by step guide will help you through frying up these delicious doughnuts!

servings 24 small

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Ingredients

• ▢ 1/2 cup butter
• ▢ 1 cup water
• ▢ 1 cup all purpose flour
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ vegetable oil for frying

for the glaze-

• ▢ 2 cups powdered sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons milk
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract optional

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

• Bring butter and water to boil in a small pot. Once mixture comes to boil, stir in flour and salt until combined. Remove from heat and cool 3 minutes.     
• Crack eggs into a small bowl. Mix eggs into warm mixture one by one until completely batter is completely smooth.
• Transfer to piping bag with large fluted tip and pipe into circles on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Place into freezer for 30 minutes.
• Pour vegetable oil into large pot with high sides so there’s at least 3 inches of grease. Heat oil to be between 325-350 degrees. While oil is heating, stir all ingredients together for glaze until smooth and runny…but not too runny!
• Drop frozen crullers one by one into hot oil and fry about 1 minute per side or until lightly golden. Remove to paper towel to drain and then immediately coat in glaze. Place onto cooling rack to let excess glaze drip off. After 40 minutes or so, the glaze should harden onto the crullers. Best served warm, immediately out of the glaze.

Nutrition

Calories: 103kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 93mg | Potassium: 17mg | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 160IU | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: Cruller, Cruller Donut, French Cruller