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These fluffy, light French crullers drizzled with vivid blood orange topping bring fancy bakery donuts straight to your home. The combo of soft, egg-rich pastry and tangy citrus coating makes for a truly exceptional donut treat.
I first whipped up these crullers while trying to copy my fave bakery snack at home. What began as just trying something new has turned into our weekly Sunday ritual, with everyone gathering around to watch these golden goodies puff up in the oil.
What You'll Need
- Unsalted butter: Adds that richness and helps form those important air bubbles
- Bread flour: Has more protein than regular flour giving your crullers that perfect chewy but soft bite
- Eggs: They're your main rising agent making everything nice and airy
- Vanilla bean paste: Packs more punch than plain extract and leaves those cute little specks
- Blood orange juice: Gives amazing color and sweet-tart flavor to the topping
- Confectioners sugar: Makes a silky topping that hardens just right on warm donuts
- Whole milk: Brings extra richness to both parts of the recipe
Creating Delicious Blood Orange Glazed French Crullers
- Whip up the pâte à choux:
- Warm butter, water, milk, vanilla and salt until it bubbles. This mix needs to get hot enough to partly cook the flour when you mix it in. Keep an eye on it since milk can foam up and spill fast.
- Mix in flour and heat:
- When bubbling, pull off heat and dump in all the flour at once, mixing hard until it's all combined. Put back on low heat and keep stirring for 1-2 minutes. This key step removes extra moisture and builds the gluten that'll trap steam while frying.
- Let it cool and add eggs:
- Move dough to a bowl and cool for a few minutes. With a hand mixer, slowly beat in your whisked eggs bit by bit. The dough should stretch about 1½ inches between your fingers without snapping when it's right. It needs to be thick enough to hold shape after piping.
- Pipe and cook:
- Pipe dough into circles on parchment squares. Heat oil to exactly 360-370°F before gently dropping the dough pattern-down into hot oil. The paper will fall off after about 10 seconds. Cook until golden on both sides, roughly 3 minutes per side. Keeping steady oil temp is vital for even cooking.
- Top them while hot:
- Mix sifted powdered sugar, strained blood orange juice, and milk until smooth. Dunk the slightly cooled crullers into the mix, let extra drip off before placing on a wire rack to set.
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My favorite moment when making these crullers is watching them change in the hot oil. The first batch I made with my little girl, we both went "wow!" when the paper magically came off the dough and the cruller started growing and floating. Now she calls them "magic donuts" and always wants to help when we make them.
Keeping Your Oil Just Right
Getting the oil temp correct is the hardest part of perfect crullers. Too hot and they'll turn brown before cooking inside, too cool and they'll soak up oil and feel greasy. I like using a candy thermometer attached to my pot and tweaking the heat as I cook. The temp drops each time you add new dough, so wait a minute for it to heat back up between batches.
Prep Ahead Options
While these taste best fresh, you can mix the choux pastry up to 24 hours early. Keep it in a piping bag in your fridge, but let it warm up before piping and frying. You can also make the glaze a day ahead and store it covered in the fridge. You might need to stir in a bit more milk to thin it before using.
Mix Up The Flavors
The basic cruller recipe works with lots of different tastes. Try adding lemon zest or warm spices like cinnamon or cardamom to the dough. For the topping, play around with different juices like meyer lemon or pink grapefruit. During Christmas time, I love putting a bit of maple extract in the dough and topping with a maple bourbon glaze for a festive touch.
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Ways To Enjoy Them
Eat these crullers with a bold cup of coffee or espresso to balance the sweetness. They look great on a brunch table next to fresh fruit and savory stuff like quiche or frittata. For a fancy dessert, cut them in half and stuff with lightly sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries.
Frequently Asked Questions
- → How do I make sure the dough is the right texture?
Squeeze the dough gently between two fingers. If it stretches about 1 1/2 inches without splitting, you’ve got it right. It also needs to hold its shape when piped.
- → Can I swap out the blood orange glaze?
Absolutely! Lemon, lime, or even simple vanilla glaze works perfectly if you'd like a change.
- → Why does the dough skin over in the pan?
That skin happens when moisture in the dough evaporates and the mixture slightly cooks. This is key to nailing the perfect texture!
- → What’s the best way to store crullers?
They taste best fresh, but you can stash them covered for a day. Just warm them a little before eating.
- → Why does keeping the oil hot matter?
The right oil heat—360-370°F—means they cook evenly and don't get soggy or stay uncooked in the center.