Homemade French Cruller Donut Recipe
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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
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!
How to Make Crullers
Start by boiling some water and butter together in a pot.
Once it boils, stir in some flour and salt.
Stir vigorously until the dough comes together. Remove from the heat and cool a few minutes.
Now we’re going to stir in these eggs one at a time until a thinner, smooth batter comes together.
Something like this is good. If it’s hard to pipe, that means it’s too thick and you should stir in another egg.
Pipe the batter into circles onto some parchment paper and place into the freezer.
While those are freezing, stir together your glaze and start heating your vegetable oil.
You want your glaze thick but still a little runny. I tried to show you a middle ground with this photo. I realize that this photo probably tells you nothing about the glaze viscosity so……you’re welcome.
Frying Cruller Donuts
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! You want the oil somewhere between 325 and 350 degrees so these little guys can get crispy and delightful. I don’t use a thermometer cause I’m a rebel like that but you can know your oil is hot enough when you drop a cruller in and bubbles sizzle around it and floats. All in all, these should be done after a minute and at max 2 minutes.
Once they’re lovely and golden on both sides, remove to paper towels to drain.
And then dunk into some glaze.
OR if you’re sassy, dip them into some lemon glaze. OH YEAH. Those were the bomb.
Actually, they all 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!
Other recipes you might like:
- Carrot Cake Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Frosting
- The Puddin’ Doughnut
- 3-Ingredient Nutella Doughnuts
- Red Velvet Coconut Doughnuts
- Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts
- S’mores Doughnuts
Homemade French Cruller Donut Recipe
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
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.
I could totally go for about a dozen of these right now! Yummy!!
Yum! these look incredible! your daughter is SOOOO cute!
Wow. Wowwwwww.
wow! never realized this was so easy. and we are SO going to voodoo when me and megs come down! yes?! yes.
Wow – I’ve never even heard of a donut called a cruller but now I want to make them!
These are my husband’s FAVORITE donuts…I definitely have to make them for him!! (Probably on a day that I need him to hang pictures for me or lift heavy stuff)
Oh wow. I could probably get rid of a dozen of these right this second. Love homemade donuts like no other!
Those sound fantastic! I can’t wait to give them a try (even though I try to stay away from making fried foods at home!). I also can’t wait to check out those other 4 doughnut recipes you have. YUM!
These look so good, I haven’t had the nerve to make homemade doughnuts yet. I’m afraid I might actually eat them all!
These look so good–I loooooooove crullers! Is it possible to bake these? I avoid frying since I have poor ventilation and it makes all my stuff smell disgusting.
I would have failed the quiz on the first question. I applaud her 7% success.
OK, and these donuts, wow, incredible!
My husband who worked at a bakery said they are ‘crew-L-ers’ just in case you were wondering for future purposes! 🙂 This is totally heavenly looking! I am making some right now! Thanks for sharing!
Ok, yeah, these are going on the must make list.
Crullers are my mom’s favorites! I’ve got to show her this recipe. =)
These look amazing!!
These seem so easy for how fancy they look! And I will take lemon glaze any day of the week, thankyou.
OMG these sound so yummy! Any idea if they would work with an alternative flour? Like say almond flour? While they sound so good I am afraid, like you, I would want to eat and eat and eat some more! Not good on a low-carb diet! LOL!
Never tried it….give it a whirl and let me know!
I made these donuts with Bob’s Redmill GF 1:1 Baking flour mix! The dough seemed stickier that when alive made pat They turned out fantastic! I was concerned that without sugar in the dough, maybe they wouldnt be sweet enough—this was not a problem! I wanted to add some Scandinavian flare to my donuts, so I added ground cardamom to the dough (not a traditional crueler, but delish) . I glazed them with amaretto/coffee/sugar
I tried making the crullers gluten-free using 3/4 cup of Cup-4-Cup GF flour and 1/4 cup of millet flour (thinking that the Cup-4-Cup would behave most like wheat flour and the millet flour would add flavor). They came out looking beautiful and have a good texture but they taste weirdly of pancakes. So if you are trying to make GF donuts, I would try a different flour mix!
This is a quick and easy recipe that looks impressive–and I’ve never fried anything before. I’m sure that II will try again–with different flours.
I am too afraid to fry anything in hot oil on the stove, as I am scared the oil will splash all over … does this happen to you?
I was going to make your red velvet donuts yesterday (for the 4th or 5th time) and had all the dry ingredients in the bowl and then went to find my donut pan and it is gone!? I threw a little fit and searched my house high and low, and still can’t find it. Now I guess I have to buy a new one – weird hey!?
I use a deep frying pan and these didn’t splash or splatter at all.
I didn’t need to know they were *that* easy to make… Crullers are my Achilles heel in the donut world!
Definitely Crew-lers. That glaze step just makes them so ridiculously irresistible.
Died andgone to heaven…mama mia.
I could eat these at alarming speeds right now. Love it!
I want these right now for breakfast! What a great recipe.
These look perfect and delicate and beautiful!
Oh those are so awesome – and on my to make list ASAP!
Those are beauties Lauren! (who is nice 🙂
I can’t get over how easy these look and I can just imagine how good they are! Can’t wait to try some 🙂
My all time favorite donut!! I can’t freaking wait to make these!
I always pronounce it as “crul-lers” as opposed to “crew-llers”. Either way, they are delicious!! hahaI can’t get enough of dounts, so keep the recipes coming! Thanks!!
Well, who knew I needed a Cruller? I guess you did 😉
Mouth is watering!
These look awesome! I’ve never been a huge doughnut eater, but I love them when I make them at home!
[…] donuts and Crullers are one of his favorite. I think I will get big bonus points if I make these Homemade Crullers for […]
These look RIDICULOUS–in the best way! I need to figure out a way to justify making and eating these, ASAP. Gorgeous!
[…] until I get my digital nourishment, so to speak) I found a simple recipe for this tasty confection. This cruller recipe from Lauren’s Latest combines some of my favorite things: fat and sugar. The best part? […]
My crullers never looked as pretty as yours. 🙁
Now I’m jealous. How can a mommy of an adorable 3 year old who seems busier than a single woman who’s employer is herself make a BETTER looking and perhaps BETTER tasting crullers like this?
Oh well, I have the year ahead to try this out! Love your photos!
Made these this weekend and OH MY GOSH! totally amazing. The kids and hubby were gobbling them up as fast as they could be made. Wonderful recipe, thanks for sharing 🙂
[…] Crullers Oh these were insane. Downside is is pretty much took 4 adults and a cooperative 5 year old […]
oh beach body be damned, I need a cruller
Oh yum!!!!
same recipe for churros, just roll them in cinnamon sugar right out of the fryer.
What did you use to squeeze it out of?
1M Wilton pastry tip + bag.
I made the dough last night and left them shaped in the freezer until morning where I just had to pop them in the oil to fry them. SOOOOO YUMMY!!!!!!! I love that this uses a lot of eggs because we have chickens and have lots of extra eggs most of the time.
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They sound super, but I would like a baked donut recipe, please…don’t like to fry. Thanks!
I made these this morning using Better Batter (a gluten free flour mix). They are HEAVENLY! I also did not have lemon extract but I did have maple extract! They really were easy and wonderful to make and I made them gluten free so I had a special treat!! Thanks for the recipe!
Can I bake instead deep fry?
[…] Homemade Crullers from Lauren’s Latest look so so delicious. […]
This looks great. What can be used to replace eggs?
What did you use to pipe them into rings? Regular frosting bag or a cookie press? They look great! Love your site and follow your pins!
Sorry just back tracked nd saw my answer. Thanks