Ok- I love making donuts. I always put it off because it seems like too much work, but then I do it and I wonder why I don’t make them all the time because homemade donuts are the BEST.
Have you ever had a French Cruller though? I don’t mean the cake donut kind that is more like a maple bar, but the light, eggy, fluffy kind made with a choux dough? Because if not- you must. They are life changing.
I know that I have already shared my love for the Food 52 Baking Club and that I’ve mentioned how it’s really giving me life in the kitchen after feeling SO uninspired for months, but it’s really just my favorite thing, especially since the book from a couple months ago, Zingerman’s Bakehouse is full of so much wonderful content.
I still can’t bear to return it to the library and have been making 1-2 recipes a week, and then making my favorites again to put my own twist on them and test them a bit before sharing.
These Vanilla Bean French Crullers are one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. I have tried a few different donut recipes over the years, (Apple Cider Donuts, Key Lime Donuts, and Pumpkin Sour Cream Donuts to name a few,) and while they were wonderful, the dough used for these crullers is SO simple with no waiting time for proofing or chilling needed.
Have you ever made my Baked Churros? Cream Puffs? All of these recipes use a choux pastry, which comes together super quickly on the stovetop and then gets spooned into a piping bag and piped into circles on some parchment paper.
When the oil heats up, you gently lower them in, (parchment and all, it’s too sticky to try to remove,) and after just a couple minutes you have a puffy, golden donut with crisp edges and a light and spongy middle.
Drenched with glaze these are truly too good to be true.
Fluffly donuts with crisp golden edges and a vanilla bean glaze. For the glaze: Make the dough: Fry and glaze the crullers: *If you don't have vanilla bean paste, extract is fine *A deep fry thermometer is needed to clip onto your pan and monitor the oil temp. Keep an eye on it as you fry because sometimes adding the dough cools it and you need to wait for it to heat up to add more. Recipe barely adapted from the Zingerman Bakehouse Cookbook
Vanilla Bean French Crullers
Ingredients
For the glaze:
For the crullers:
Instructions
Notes
Joanne Bruno says
Totally accurate description about the Food52 Cookbook/Baking Club. Like, HOW DID I EVER COOK DINNER BEFORE THIS. It’s a lot of fun. I feel absolutely the same way about donuts – I always feel like they’re so much work, but then when I actually go to make them I have no idea why I put it off for so long. These look absolutely perfect!
Christi says
These sound amazing! I have a quick question for you though…on the first step of making the dough when you are mixing in the flour is it done by hand or with a hand mixer?
Audra says
I just did that part by hand!
Monique says
Just made these and they are absolutely delicious! Enjoying one with my coffee now