By: Jill Mills Posted: Jun 11, 2025

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These French Cruller Donuts are crisp on the outside, impossibly light and airy on the inside, and finished with a sweet, glossy glaze that melts in your mouth. Made with classic choux pastry and fried to golden perfection, they’re a bakery-quality treat you can make right at home—no fancy equipment needed. One bite and you’ll understand why they never last long on the plate.

Overhead view of a stack of glazed French crullers

French Crullers are made from choux pastry also known as pâte à choux. It’s a light and airy dough that’s used to make pastries such as éclairs, profiteroles and of course, French crullers. Unlike most doughs it’s cooked twice. First on the stovetop then baked or fried to ‘puff up.’ That’s how the crisp outside and airy inside is achieved.

If choux pastry sounds intimidating, don’t worry – I’ve got you covered! There are no special skills required for this recipe, or special equipment, and I’ve included loads of tips to help you perfect the choux pastry and make the best French cruller donuts you’ve ever tried.

Why This French Cruller Recipe Is So Good

Here are a few reasons why I love this French cruller recipe.

Made with pantry staples. Everything needed to make this recipe is likely already sitting in your kitchen. Think ingredients like butter, flour, vanilla, and eggs.
Light, airy, and golden. This recipe results in French cruller donuts that have the most beautiful texture. They’re golden and crispy on the outside but so light and airy on the inside – exactly the way they should be!
The vanilla glaze. Not all French crullers are topped with a glaze but my favorite ones are. For this example, I made a simple glaze with vanilla and powdered sugar. It’s a nice final touch to making the perfect donut.

Overhead view of ingredients needed to make French crullers

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s a run-down of the ingredients used in this recipe. The exact measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

For the crullers

Butter – I recommend unsalted butter to avoid making the dough too salty. It should be cold and cubed.
Salt
Vanilla extract
All-purpose flour – Use the spoon and level technique for accurate measuring. Too much or too little will impact the donuts.
Baking powder – A tiny amount of baking powder helps the dough rise to achieve the light, airy texture.
Eggs – Make sure the eggs are at room temperature before starting the recipe. Keep in mind that you may not need all 4 eggs but you should have them ready in case you do.
White sugar – Just a bit of white sugar helps sweeten the dough.
Vegetable oil – For frying the donuts.

For the glaze

Powdered sugar – The base of the simple glaze.
Milk – Creates the pourable glaze consistency. 2% or whole milk work great.
Vanilla extract – Gives the glaze a light vanilla flavor.

How To Make French Cruller Donuts

Don’t be overwhelmed by the steps in this French cruller recipe. No special skills are needed, just attention to details! More detailed printable instructions can be found in the recipe card below.

Make the choux pastry dough

Make the panade. Combine the water, butter, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high, stirring occassionally, until the butter is melted. Remove the boiling mixture from heat, add all of the flour, and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it pulls away from the sides of the pan. Return to heat and continue stirring for 2-3 minutes, until it forms a ball that is thick, smooth, and glossy.
Cool the dough. Transfer the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixture. Spread it into a thin layer across the bottom and up the sides. Let cool to room temperature.

Panade spread over a mixing bowl to cool

Add the eggs and sugar. Once the dough is cool, beat the eggs in one at a time on medium speed until fully incorporated. Perform the choux pastry “V test” (see below) as you may not need all eggs. Once the eggs are incorporated to the desired consistency, mix in the sugar.
Chill the dough. Transfer the dough to a bowl. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. (Overnight is great too.)

Fry the donuts

Piping choux pastry dough onto parchment squares

Prep to fry. Cut parchment paper into 12 squares, each 4×4. Heat the vegetable oil to 175F.
Pipe the donuts. Transfer the chilled dough to a piping bag with a large open star tip. Pipe a smooth, even ring of dough, about 3 inches in diameter, on each parment square. Make sure the ends of the dough meet to form a circle.
Fry the dough. Carefully lower the parchment square into the hot oil, flipping it over so the parchment paper is facing up. Fry 3-4 crullers at a time, removing the parchment paper after a minute or so. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, until crisp and dark golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack.

Whisking powdered sugar and milk in a bowl

French cruller donut dipped in vanilla glaze

Add the glaze. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth. Dip the tops of the crullers into the glaze then return to the cooling rack to set.
Enjoy. French crullers are best enjoyed warm and freshly fried!

Choux Pastry “V Test”

The easiest way of checking if your dough is at the correct consistency is to perform a “V Test”.

To do this, remove the paddle attachment from your mixture and dip it into the dough then pull it out. When you look at the end of the paddle attachment there should be a V shape of dough that clings to the end of the paddle and doesn’t easily drop back into the bowl. The mixture needs to be thick enough to pipe so it’s important to get this right.

Perform this test as you are adding the eggs.

You can add the eggs one at a time and beat them in or you can add them all to one bowl and lightly beat them before adding them to the mixture. When the eggs are added the mixture can look curdled but have faith that it will come together! Keep beating until you have a smooth, thick mixture. Remember: you might not need to add all of the eggs so it’s important to do this gradually and assess the dough as you move through the process.

Side view of a stack of three French cruller donuts

Oh No! My Pastry Dough Is Too Thin

If, for any reason you get to the point of adding your dough to a piping bag and it falls through the nozzle, all is not lost! You can rescue a too thin choux pastry dough by doing the following:

Put the runny dough back into the mixing bowl of the stand mixer.
Make a second panade as you did in steps 1-3.
When the panade has cooled, gradually add it a tablespoon at a time to the runny
dough in the mixer (with the mixer on a medium speed).
The extra panade will thicken the runny dough.

Do not be tempted to do an internet search and cook the runny dough. This will not work and your ingredients and efforts will be wasted. Making a second panade is the only way to save a too runny dough.

Overhead view of a plate of French cruller donuts

Keep The Oil Temperature Consistent

Preheating the oil and keeping it at the right temperature (175F) is crucial to light, airy, and golden brown French cruller donuts.

Use a thermometer. When frying, it’s best practice to use a clip on thermometer so you can constantly monitor the temperature of the oil. The oil will drop in temp when crullers are added then gradually increase the longer you are frying so it’s a good idea to be able to keep an eye on it and adjust as needed.
How to check the oil is ready (without a thermometer). If you do not have a thermometer, heat the oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. To check if it’s ready, drop a small piece of dough into the oil—it should sink slightly, then rise to the surface and begin bubbling gently within a few seconds. If it browns too quickly or the oil is smoking, reduce the heat; if it doesn’t bubble at all, let the oil heat longer.

A pile of glazed French cruller donuts, one with a bite missing

More Tips & Variations

Here are a few additional tips for making this French cruller recipe for the first time.

Cool the panade. The process begins with steps 1-3 in the recipe by making a ‘panade’. Once the flour
is added to the hot ingredients it will quickly form a smooth ball. Spreading the panade into a thin layer in the mixing bowl helps to cool it quickly and evenly. It should be at room temperature before moving to the next stage.
Chill the dough. We chill the dough for at least an hour (or overnight) as this ensures the crullers will hold their shape during frying. Don’t skip this step!
Use a large open star tip. We used an Ateco 827 piping tip for the classic cruller shape. Use any large open star tip. Something like a Wilton 1M would be too small.
Use parchment paper. To begin with we leave the parchment on the crullers that we place in the hot oil. Attempting to remove the paper will ruin the shape of the crullers as they will be soft. The parchment will not burn or cause any issues. Peel it away as carefully as you can so the dough is left mostly in tact. Crullers always have one good side anyway!
Variation. I prefer the vanilla glaze as is, but feel to add some maple syrup for a maple glaze or make a honey glaze.

Proper Storage

French cruller donuts are best enjoyed immediately, while still slightly warm from frying. They’re still tasty once they cool to room temperature but they should be eaten fresh on the day they are fried.

French Cruller Donut Recipe

Why This French Cruller Recipe Is So Good