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German cruller recipe

These donuts shaped pastries aka German crullers (Spritzkuchen) made from a twice cooked dough (choux pastry) and glazed with icing are very popular in Franconian region, Germany during carnival season. They are extremely soft and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Enjoy them while fresh for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea/ coffee.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour 10 minutes
Course: afternoon coffee, afternoon tea, Breakfast, Brunch
Cuisine: European, French, German
Keyword: choux pastry, cruller donuts, Faschingskrapfen, howto, Spritzkuchen
Servings: 22 Crullers
Author: Ester | esterkocht.com

Equipment

  • Bowl
  • Hand mixer with whisk
  • Wooden spoon
  • Saucepan or pot
  • Pipping bag
  • paper towels
  • cooling rack

Ingredients

For the choux pastry dough

  • 250 ml (8.5 fl.oz/ 1 cup) water
  • 75 g (2.6 oz/ about ⅓ cup) butter
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
  • 150 g (5.3 oz/ 1 ¼ cups) plain flour (all purpose flour) sieved
  • 3 medium eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • vegetable oil for frying

For icing

  • 55 g (2 oz/ about ½ cup) icing sugar (powdered sugar)
  • 2 ½ tablespoons freshly pressed lemon juice/ rum/ milk

Instructions

  • Pour water in a pot, add vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt and butter cut into small pieces. Heat on medium heat until the butter has melted and the water begins to boil. Remove the pot from the heat and immediately stir in sieved flour with a wooden spoon, so that you won't loose part of the water through evaporation. Bring the pot back to the heat and let cook for 2 minutes. Keep stirring vigorously until the dough separates from the bottom of the pot and the bottom of the pot is slightly coated with whitish staffs from the dough (a thin white film).
  • Next transfer the dough to an empty bowl and let cool for about 5 minutes. In the meantime heat oil in a small pot. (We've used a small pot, but you could also use a large pot to speed up the deep frying process.) Cut the parchment paper into rectangles (the rectangles should be smaller than the pot you'll be using). Then grease the whisks and brush parchment paper cut into small rectangle shapes with oil. After 5 minutes crack the eggs in the bowl with cooled dough, one by one while beating with a hand mixer, until you have a smooth dough. Transfer the dough to a pipping bag with big start tip or just a freezer bag with a big star tip at the corner. This is how we did it, because we couldn't find a pipping bag.
  • Squeeze a bit of the dough on the parchment paper to form circles (or hearts if you want). Make another circle on top of the exact same circle, so that the crullers will go up nicely while baking. Insert the wooden spoon handle in oil to see if the oil is ready. If bubbles start forming around the spoon, then the oil is ready.
  • Put the parchment paper with shaped batter in hot oil upside down (the side with the shaped dough facing down). The dough will release itself from the parchment paper. Now remove the parchment paper from the pot and make the next circle while the crullers are baking. You can put as many crullers as you want in the pot. This just depends on the size of the pot that you're using. Just bear in mind that the crullers will expand while cooking, so make sure to leave enough space between them. Cook until golden brown. It took us about 3 minutes per side.
  • Remove the donut crullers from the fat and put them on the cooling rack lined with paper towels to remove excess fat, until you’ll be able to touch it with your hands. Then transfer the donut crullers to a platter or roasting dish or something similar and brush or drizzle with icing sugar that you’ve previously prepared or dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.

Notes

  • The German crullers are often made with either water, milk or the mixture of both. This recipe uses water to make the choux dough.
  • If you don't have vanilla sugar simply use ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon normal sugar.
  • We've used a small pot to cook the cruller donuts, but you could also use a larger pot if you like, to speed up the process.
  • Hold parchment paper upside down over the hot oil and let the curls slide into the oil.
  • Make the icing with either with milk, lemon juice or rumand brush the pastries with it.
  • You can increase or decrease the icing depending on your liking
  • The crullers taste the best fresh.