Maple Crullers

Crispy and sweet cinnamon maple crullers made with a cinnamon pate a choux dough and topped with an easy maple glaze. These crullers are the perfect fall breakfast treat.

Maple is one of my favorite flavors, I’m told that I get it from my grandfather (who also loved maple), but I also think it’s also just due to its pure deliciousness. These crullers are no exception. They are perfectly crisp, buttery, and full of the maple fall flavor. While I recommend making them during fall, this is a base recipe that could be made with any glaze to match the flavors of the season.

What are Crullers?

Crullers are a fried dough pastry made of pate a choux dough. They do not have any yeast or baking powder, and rise from the steam created from the water and eggs. While they are piped like doughnuts, they are NOT the same texture of doughnuts (just as delicious though). I highly recommend making these if you want a tasty fried treat, but are not ready for the challenge of yeast.

Pate a Choux is a super versatile dough that is the base of churros, cream puffs, beignets, eclairs, and in this case crullers. It can be a little bit tricky to make since it starts on the stove, but once you master it will become once of your most used baking skills.

Maple Cruller Ingredients:

How to Make Pate a Choux:

To make pate a choux, heat the butter, milk (preferably whole milk), water, sugar, and salt together on the stove. Once the butter has melted and the mixture has come to a rolling boil dump in the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to form a cohesive pasty dough, you’re essentially making a roux. It is the water content in the roux that allows the choux to puff up in the oven since there are no other raising agents.

Allow the roux to slightly cool before dumping into a stand mixer. Add in the eggs one at a time until the choux dough has reached proper consistency. Proper consistency is when you can pull the paddle attachment through the dough and a v forms off of the attachment. Place into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip and prepare for piping.

How to Pipe and Fry Crullers:

Once the pate a choux has been made, cut parchment paper into 18 4 inch squares. Pipe 2.5-3 inch circles onto the squares being sure to overlap at the ends. Place piped crullers onto a baking sheet and let freeze uncovered for 20 minutes.

While crullers freeze, heat a large saucepan with vegetable oil until it reaches 350ºF. Remove crullers from the freezer and drop 3-4 crullers into the oil at a time, cooking for roughly 2 minutes or until dark golden on each side. Remove from oil using a slotted spoon and place onto a cooling rack lined with a paper towel (this absorbs the remaining oil). Repeat this process until all crullers have been fried.

While crullers cool, whisk together the glaze. Dip one side of the crullers into the glaze and let harden for 10-15 minutes. Serve maple crullers alone or with coffee and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks for Successful Crullers:

1. Allow roux to cool for 3-5 minutes before adding the eggs. This prevents any possibility of the eggs becoming scrambled from the hot roux.
2. You can reuse oil after frying. As long as the oil has not turned dark golden or has an odor, pour the oil through a strainer and place back into the container originally used.
3. These maple crullers can also be piped and fried as churros. You do not have to freeze pate a choux with making churros. Fry the same way as the crullers.
4. Use a scale, pate a choux dough can be finicky, so using a kitchen scale is the best way to ensure success. I have included gram measurements so there is no need to even pull out your measuring cups.

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