French Crullers with Honey Glaze

After making these doughnuts, I have a new appreciation for Tim Hortons and Krispy Kreme. They have the process down pat!  I found a recipe from a book called  Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home. Each step is really important and there isn’t much room for error. A few of my crullers didn’t turn out (I kept them in the oil too long and I think the oils was too hot, too), but most of them were pretty darn good. If you’re in the mood for a really sweet treat, and I mean really friggin sweet, make these crullers.  But I have to say, as tasty as they are, I’m going to leave the doughnut making to the experts.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• vegetable oil for frying

Honey Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Combine butter, sugar, salt and water in a medium sauce pan. Place over medium high heat and bring to a rapid boil.
2. Once boiling, add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon.
3. Continue to cook, stirring constantly for three to four minutes. The goal is to cook off as much moisture as possible. Continue to stir until it forms a dough like ball. Remove from stove.
4. Equip a mixer with the paddle attachment and add the dough mixture to the bowl.
5. Beat the mixture for a minute or so on medium speed to cool. Then beat in the first egg. After about 30 seconds, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl and add the second egg. Repeat the process and add the third egg and beat on medium for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add each egg white one at a time. Reference my pictures above to see what the dough should look like.
7. Use a pastry bag and a 1/2″ star tip to pipecreate the doughnuts.
8. Fill a saucepan with 2″ of oil and heat it to 370°F. This equates to medium heat-ish.
9. Prepare and set aside a layer of paper towels for draining and a cooling rack.
10. Once the oil is hot and ready, pipe rounds of the pastry onto the 3 x 3 inch squares of parchment. Drop one cruller into the hot oil at a time-with parchment paper, paper side up. The paper will detach in a second or two (if it doesn’t, submerge it with your tongs and it should release shortly) and then remove the paper with tongs.
11. Fry for a approx 2 minutes on each side, and flip once until they are a rich golden brown. If they are cooking too quickly, turn down the heat. If they brown too fast and you pull them from the oil too early, the insides will still be overly wet and steamy and your crullers will collapse.
12. Repeat with the remaining rounds of pastry. Pipe more crullers onto the rescued slips of parchment and fry. Repeat until you’ve used all the batter.
13. Allow the crullers to cool on a wire rack.
14. Whisk together all 3 ingredients for the glaze.
15. Dip crullers into the glaze and set them onto a wire rack to dry.

Tagged as: crullers, donuts, doughnuts, french crullers, homemade crullers, homemade donuts