Orange-Honey Cruellers

Delicate and airy, with a hint of citrus, these home made doughnuts are bound to impress

orange-honey cruellers

LONG overdue, I have been sitting on this recipe for a while now. I posted a picture on my

Instagram a while ago of these little beauties and never got around to posting the recipe. I made them again the other day and am trying really hard to procrastinate less, so here you have it; Orange-Honey Glazed Cruellers.

I've noticed over the last couple of years, my local doughnut chains are leaning more and more towards frozen, pre-formed doughnuts than baking them fresh in house, so while cruellers are definitely one of my favorite doughnuts, much more delicate than your average sour-dough, if they aren't fresh, they aren't very good. An old, soggy honey crueller is the pits. So why go through all of that heart break when you can make them FRESH, ANY-TIME, in the privacy of your own kitchen?!

These are the type of dessert that I used to shy away from, assuming it was too involved and I would be unlikely to walk away with an edible by-product. But as the old saying goes, "whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, you'll be right," so I took a leap of faith, and tried and boy am I ever glad I did.

If you've ever made a cream puff or eclair, than a crueller is right up your alley. It's heavy on the prep side in my opinion, and the actual process of making them moves super fast, so once you start this recipe, prepare to stick with it and see it through, you definitely do not want to walk away at any point.

I always start by making my glaze and then setting it aside. I have been caught too many times fumbling around when the donuts are warm trying to throw a glaze together to make that mistake again. I like to punch up the flavor of the traditional honey glazed crueler by replacing some of the liquid for orange juice and adding orange zest, but flavor according to your tastes! (Luckily I did not have to do this job alone and had a miniature person to help me)

My recipe begins with a water, butter, salt and flour. In a heavy saucepan you bring the water and butter to a rolling boil. Add the flour all at once and with a wooden spoon, stir constantly until the flour forms a ball and rolls easily away from the sides of the pot.

Put into a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly until completely combined. Once all of the eggs are added and the mixture is shiny; place into a large piping bag with a star tip.

Pipe circles onto squares of parchment paper, which makes it super easy to drop your donuts into the hot oil without messing around with them too much.

At this point you want to make sure that your frying station is ready and waiting. The oil temperature should be steady at 370 degrees before frying and each doughnut should take about 2-3 minutes. Pop them out onto some paper towel or a cooling rack and after a few minutes, let them go for a dip in that orange-honey glaze.

They should form a nice light "crust" of glaze and voila, a crueller that could give any local doughnut chain a run for their money!

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Orange-Honey Cruellers

1 cup Water

3 large Eggs

1/2 cup Butter

1 cup Flour

1/4 tsp Salt

Glaze

2 Cups Confectioners Sugar

4 Tbsp Cream

1 Tbsp Fresh Orange Juice

2 Tbsp Honey

Orange zest to taste

1. In a heavy saucepan bring water and butter to a simmer ( to melt butter).

2. Add flour and salt and mix with wooden spoon until a ball forms.

3. Remove from heat and using electric stand mixer beat in eggs, one at a time until each is well incorporated and the batter is shiny.

4. Place in piping bag and pip using a start tip pipe circles onto squares of parchment paper.

5. Drop into oil which has been heated to 370 degrees, and fry for 2-3 minutes or until both sides of the doughnut are slightly golden.

6. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

7. Glaze and let stand.