Oven Baked French Cruller Donuts

Recently a friend of mine reminded me of cruller donuts when we were having a conversation about our favorite kinds of donuts. I used to love going to this little Belgium Bakery in town because they made the best donuts. My favorite of them all were the French Crullers. You had to get there first thing in the morning on Saturday if you wanted to get one because they sold out fast!

I began to wonder if it was possible to bake them instead of fry. I have other donut recipes that I absolutely love that I bake in the oven like Old Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts & Vanilla Cake Donuts. I was very excited to read that the pâte à choux pastry dough that is used to make cruller donuts bakes well in the oven! Yes! The next day I whipped up a batch of Oven Baked French Cruller Donuts & I was satisfied with the results. They turned out very well in the oven & reminded me of the ones I used to get at the bakery.

The picture above shows the dough being made in the saucepan. You want it to get really thick & evaporate as much water from it as possible because your going to add 3 eggs still & it will make it wet. The photo on the left above shows the film you get on the bottom of the saucepan when your evaporating the water. The photo on the right shows what the dough looks like after using a mixer to add the 3 eggs.

I used an Ateco 826 open star tip that I bought on Amazon, you want a big star tip about 1/2″ in size.  I piped the dough using a Wilton disposable decorating bag.

Update: I’ve been getting a lot of feedback from this recipe. Seems like most are people are telling me they like it as is. Others have suggested adding 2 Tablespoons of sugar for a sweeter dough. I think the glaze gives it it’s sugary sweetness. Some say they want a more eggy flavor & wanted to add another egg white. For me the dough would have been too watery to do that but you could try making adjustments to the recipe. The one below is just the one that I liked.

Oven Baked French Cruller Donuts

 

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Recipe type: Breakfast

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 6 Tablespoons butter, sliced
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• -Glaze-
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½-2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions

1. In a saucepan bring water, butter, sugar, & salt to a boil.
2. Lower heat, add in flour and mix well.
3. Continue to cook & stir it on low-medium heat for about 4-6 minutes, you want to steam out as much water as you can. Be careful to not burn it.
4. Once a thin layer forms on the bottom of the saucepan turn off heat.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Use an electric mixer to beat the dough for 1 minute to cool it down.
7. Beat in one egg at time, scrapping the sides of the bowl until they are mixed in well.
8. Preheat oven to 450 F. degrees.
9. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a ½ inch open star tip.
10. Squeeze the dough into circles on a greased or lined cookie sheet, place 2 inches apart.
11. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F degrees & bake for 15 more minutes.
12. Turn off oven, leave in oven for 5-10 more minutes with door slightly ajar.
13. Remove from oven & let them cool down.
14. Prepare glaze, mix powdered sugar, vanilla, & milk together until you get a thin enough glaze to dip or pour over the donuts. Start with 1½ tablespoons milk & add more if needed.
15. Once donuts have cooled down dip or pour glaze over them. Let glaze set.
16. They are best eaten fresh or they will get soggy.

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