Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts
Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts: the perfect French Cruller donut recipe, made with choux pastry, and a honey glaze.
One of the best things about having a blog is an excuse for me to do things like make Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts with our French cruller donut recipe!
Turns out they’re not that difficult to make, and certainly worth the effort. Sometimes called French cullers, they’re made with a different type of dough then traditional donuts. Traditional crullers are made from choux pastry, like cream puffs or chocolate eclairs. Unlike cream puffs or eclairs though, instead of being baked the French cruller donut recipe creates a fried pastry. It’s not difficult, but is a little time consuming. It’s worth it though because this French cruller donut recipe is 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.
Homemade Is Always Better
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.
Letting The Glaze Set
Next attempt, just dunk the tops in the sweet 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 the next time I tried them was after dinner we all tried them again. AMAZING, home run, how many of these French cruller donuts 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, or if you have kids…
The French Cruller Donut Recipe
Homemade Honey Cruller Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 6 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- vegetable oil for frying
- For the Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp milk
Instructions
- To begin with to make the choux dough, 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 to medium heat. Stir the dough and cook until the bottom of the pan is covered in a thin film and the dough has dried out.
- Put the hot dough into the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and mix on medium speed to cool the dough slightly. Add in the whole eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.
- Transfer dough to a piping 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 onto the parchment squares, being careful to pipe and even circle of dough without overlapping the beginning and end of the donut as you make your ring of dough.
- Heat oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer. When the oil is hot, place one or two donuts, paper side up, into the hot 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 deep 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). To remove the cruller doughnuts from the oil use tongs or a slotted spoon and allow the donuts to cool completely to room temperature on a paper towel or cooling rack, and finish frying them all.
- To make the honey glaze, combine the icing sugar (powdered sugar), honey and milk in a small bowl and stir the glaze ingredients together. Dip the good side of the donuts, one at a time, into the glaze. Set on a wire rack to set completely. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
18Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 131Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 45mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 0gSugar: 13gProtein: 2g
These homemade French crullers had that characteristic light airy quality that I was looking for. Which is good, when you’re eating many in one sitting. ;). These airy donuts are very different in texture from classic donuts like yeast donuts, or cake donuts. The French pastry dough gives a really light and airy donut.
These delicious French crullers are perfection with a cup of hot tea, or coffee. Perfection.
Prepare To Be Thanked
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 a Homemade French Cruller Donuts Recipe, life really is a party!
More Donut Recipes
You might also like our recipe for Bread Machine Mini Jelly Donuts.
Also check out our Nutella Mini Donuts here.
I LOVE FOOOOOOD
Olivia,
I’m with you on that one. 😉
Dannyelle
I don’t have a stand mixer with a paddle for use in cooling the dough before adding the eggs. Any suggestions?
You can definitely make this recipe without the stand mixer. It just takes a lot of elbow grease. Use a spoon and stir away. It doesn’t have to be completely cool or anything to add the eggs, you just don’t want them to scramble.
Best of luck with it,
Dannyelle
Your donuts look yummy! My friend gave me a donut maker and I made these in it. They were OK but I think they would be better fried like yours. They tasted quite ‘eggy’. Is this normal?
Hi Robyn, yes definitely better fried for this recipe I think. And yes honey crullers are a bit eggy tasty usually.
Love hearing about your experimenting in the kitchen, happy baking!
Dannyelle
What is icing sugar?
Hi Beth,
I think it’s maybe a Canadian term? It’s also known as powdered sugar. Good luck with the recipe.
Dannyelle
I don’t have a deep fryer, can I put some oil in a pot with a thermometer?
Hi Ashleigh, a pot with some oil will work, but it’s a little tricky to regulate the temperature. You can do it though, just keep a real eye on the heat and adjust to try and keep it where you want it, also be careful with hot oil and don’t overfill your pot.
Best of luck,
Dannyelle