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 (Bavaria), Germany during carnival season just like Krapfen and Apfelkrapfen.

They are extremely soft and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Enjoy them while fresh for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea/ coffee.

These beautifully looking donut shaped pastries glazed with icing aka. cruller donuts flavored with vanilla are a family favorite. They’re delicious, not too sweet, soft and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside and easy to follow.

Made with eggs, flour, butter, water, a pinch of salt and just one tablespoon of sugar and coated with icing sugar. Perfect for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea or as a snack.

Since the dough hardly has sugar in it’s very important that you coat your crullers with icing or dust them with powdered sugar before serving.

Here is what I like about this recipe:

• It’s made with ingredients that everyone already has home
• It’s easier to make than you think. All you have to do is make the dough, pipe the dough onto parchment paper into a circular shape and deep fry. so they can get perfect shapes.
• You can make the icing based on your liking. We’ve used lemon juice to make the icing, but you can also use rum or milk instead.

What you’ll need to make cruller donuts

For the choux pastry dough

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

You’ll also need

• Vegetable oil for frying
• Parchment paper
• Small pot/ saucepan
• Large pot
• Pipping bag

What you’ll need for the icing

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

How to make German crullers

Make cooked dough (choux pastry) for Spritzkuchen

Pour water in a pot, add vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt and butter cut into small pieces. If you don’t have vanilla sugar simply use ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon normal sugar.

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/ squares (the parchment papers that you cut 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. (that’s greased with a few drops of oil).

How to shape and cook cruller donuts

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. Repeat the process until you’ve used up all the dough.

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.

Brush or drizzle your German crullers with icing sugar made by simply mixing powdered sugar with milk/lemon/ rum or dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.

More fun, easy and delicious recipes you’ll like

Love these German Crullers? Try  my fried dough balls,  and apple fritter bites recipes, too.

Did you make this German cruller recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Simply write a review and add rating to it.