Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts

One of the best things about having a blog is an excuse for me to do things like make Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts!

Turns out they’re not that difficult to make, and certainly worth the effort.  They’re made with a choux pastry, like cream puffs or chocolate eclairs, and then piped and fried.  Not difficult, a little time consuming, and amazing tasting -AMAZING.

I say this after sampling a considerable number purely for your benefit.  My first one, just the plain donut to make sure I was cooking it enough, was a little doughy so I adjusted the cooking time.  It was also rather plain.  My expectations fell a little.  I have found that in general, any thing homemade is better than store bought -it was true of , the graham crackers, the marshmallows, the bbq sauce, the baked beans…I could go on.  A solid belief based on rigorous at home testing.  But, by first bite of the crullers and I was thinking I hope they’re just as good as store bought, I didn’t think at that point they’d be better.

After I made the glaze the I dunked one in there, both sides and tried to wait for the glaze to set.  I tried, really I did, but I had to give them a try, incase they needed adjustment.  With the glaze not quite set, my second taste of them and they were not as amazing as I’d hoped.  They went from a little boring with no glaze to way too sweet when drenched in the glaze.

Next attempt, just dunk the tops in the glaze, and again patiently wait for them to set.  At this point in the day I had to bring my girls to gymnastics for an hour and a half…that helped me resist them since I wasn’t home anymore.  When I got home it was dinner, so after dinner we all tried them again.  AMAZING, home run, how many of these is it reasonable to eat in one sitting, kind of yumminess.  And, indeed, further evidence that the homemade version is always better.  And…you get to eat like a dozen of them or more (my batch made about 18 little-ish ones) cause they’re really better eaten the same day you make them -maybe invite some friends over.

The Recipe

Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts

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Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 6 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• oil for frying

For the Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp milk

Instructions

1. To begin with, bring the water, butter, and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Then, add in the flour and use a whisk to incorporate. Switch to a wooden spoon, and lower the heat to medium. Stir the dough and cook until the bottom of the pan is covered in a film and the dough has dried out.
2. Put the hot dough in a stand mixer with a paddle beater and mix on medium to cool the dough slightly. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.
3. Transfer dough to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Cut out square 3 x 3 sheets of parchment paper (my batch made about 18 smallish donuts), and pipe donuts on to them, being careful not to overlap the beginning and end of the donut.
4. Heat oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer. When the oil is hot, place one or two donuts, paper side up, into the oil. The donut will separate from the paper in a few seconds, and you can remove the floating paper with tongs. Allow the donut to fry until it is a rich golden brown, then flip over and do the same on the other side. (Test your first donut to make sure it's not not doughy in the middle and adjust your cooking time if needed). Remove from the oil and allow the donuts to cool completely on a paper towel, and finish frying them all.
5. To make the glaze, combine the icing sugar, honey and milk in a bowl and stir together. Dip the good side of the donuts, one at a time, into the glaze. Set on a rack to set completely. Enjoy!

These little guys had that characteristic light airy quality that I was looking for.  Which is good, when you’re eating many in one sitting. 😉

They are perfection with a cup of hot tea, or coffee.  Perfection.

And, if you make them for your kids, they just might say things like “I’m so glad I live in this family, with a mom who does things like make homemade donuts, and buys us a new puppy.”  We got a puppy on the weekend -Oscar, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you might have seen him.  He’s amazing and finally did more sleeping than crying last night, I’m sure he’ll make an appearance here on the blog soon, but I didn’t think posing with a donut would work out, haha.

With Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts, life really is a party!