Like churros, French crullers are made with choux pastry dough, cooked by dip frying in hot oil and served coated in powdered sugar or a glaze.
An additional sauce of choice kicks them up a notch. Likewise, like choux pastry, the dough is dehydrated before cooking, something not observed in doughnuts which makes them light and airy.
Although we like the modern-day doughnuts, especially when filled with custard, crullers are unyeasted, meaning no wait time is required.
The dough also requires few ingredients to make. And the best part, you can serve them with a sauce of choice. I particularly like mine served with chocolate and, in this case, an orange spiked sauce. A ganache, made with heavy cream, fresh zest, and juice of orange but feel free to spice it up if you want.
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Taste and Texture of Crullers.
Crullers taste like doughnuts without the aftertaste of yeast, making them a go-to dessert for people who don’t like yeasted pastry.
They exhibit Churros or Mandazis but with a crispy exterior and airy and soft centres. Cruller dough is usually mildly sweetened but can be flavoured with vanilla, lemon and much more. They are generally glazed with flavoured sugar syrup or powdered sugar. Crullers are best served the day they are made.
Learn how to make crullers Step by Step.
Prepare the parchment papers to pipe on.
Fold and cut small squared size parchment papers for piping the crullers on. The size will depend with the size of cruller you are going for. To do this, Fold a parchment paper once to create two sheets, then fold again to form for layers of paper. Keep going until you reach the desired size then cut with scissors round the edges.
Make the cruller dough.
In a deep cooking pan, heat water and butter until the butter fully melts. Stir in all-purpose flour and mix thoroughly until fully incorporated to form a soft dough. Cook constantly mixing until a thin film of the dough coats the sides of the pan ( approximately 1-2minutes)
Remove from heat, transfer the dough into a stand mixer and give it a few minutes to cool. Then mix on low speed, adding eggs until thoroughly mixed in to form a soft dough.
Pipe.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle with the pastry dough and pipe on the square cut parchment paper. Pipe atleast 1 cm diameter rings setting them aside. You can refrigerate the piped rings until stiff if you do not want to fry them with the parchment paper.
Prepare the cooking oil.
Fill a deep frying pan with oil of choice and place over stove set on medium flame. Oil will be ready for frying when;
- A skewer forms rapid bubbles that start from deep in the oil, rising up
- A thermometer reads 180 C when dipped into the oil
Dipping crullers in not warm enough oil will make them soggy, while dropping in very hot oil will burn them.
Deep Fry.
When the oil is ready, deep each cruller into the hot oil with the parchment paper facing up, fry for 1-2 minutes, then using tongs, peel off the parchment paper from each cruller.
Let fry for 6-8 until golden brown, then remove from the hot oil using a scooping spoon and set on a tray/ bowl lined with parchment paper. Dust with powdered sugar and set aside to make the chocolate orange sauce.
Make the orange spiked Chocolate Sauce.
To make the orange sauce, you will need;
- Semi-sweet chocolate bar or chips
- Heavy cream
- Fresh oranges
Mix zest of fresh oranges with heavy cream and heat just below boiling point. Pour over the finely chopped chocolate and mix. Add three tablespoons of fresh orange juice or orange liquor and mix thoroughly.
Serve immediately with the crullers.
Recommended Equipment.
These are equipment, some more vital than others, that will make work easier when making crullers.
- Stand mixer
- Deep frying saucepan
- Parchment paper
- Tongs
- Doughnut scooping spoon
- Piping bag and star tip
CRULLERS WITH ORANGE SAUCE
Course: DessertDifficulty: Medium7
servings20
minutes40
minutesIngredients
- Crullers
350 ml water
250 gm plain flour
150 gm butter
4 large eggs
30 gms granulated sugar
Vegetable oil (for frying)
1tbs vanilla extract
- Chocolate orange sauce
250 gm dark chocolate
300 ml heavy cream
Zest of two oranges
1-2 tbs orange juice
Directions
- Fold and cut parchment paper into small-sized pieces, then set them aside.
In a pan over medium heat, mix water with room temperature butter and heat until it boils and the butter fully melts. - Add sifted flour at once and mix vigorously, preferably with a wooden spoon, to form a soft dough. Continue cooking until a thin film of the dough coats the sides of the pan( 1-2 minutes). Then remove from heat.
- Transfer dough to a stand mixer and let it sit for a few minutes to cool. Afterwards, mix on medium speed, adding the eggs one by one until mixed thoroughly.
- Fill a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip and medium-sized pipe rings on the cut parchment paper, setting them aside.
- Holding the edge of each parchment paper, deep the crullers in hot oil with the parchment paper facing up. Let cook for 1-2 minutes, then gently release the parchment paper from the crullers using tongs.
- Deep fry the crullers until golden brown, setting them aside on a tray lined with parchment. Dust with powdered sugar.
- To make the ganache, heat heavy cream with the zest of 2 fresh oranges until hot, then pour over the finely chopped chocolate, constantly whisking until the chocolate fully melts. Add orange juice and mix to combine.
- Serve dusted crullers with spiked chocolate sauce. Crullers are best indulged the day they are made.
Related Recipes
- Churros
- Orange chocolate cupcakes
- Orange bundt cake with strawberry sauce
- Chocolate orange sandwich cookies
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