Spiced Sugar Crullers

Crullers are circles of piped choux dough, fried until perfectly crisp and golden, then tossed in your choice of sugar or dipped into a glaze. These crullers are rolled in spiced sugar for the perfect holiday or anytime treat.

I am a big fan of making small changes to lead up to a larger goal. I love making a super detailed list so that I get to cross off as many things as possible, and when I am tracking goals I make the steps to achieving super specific so that I can track my progress.

The last few years, a lot of the small changes that I have made around the home have focussed on making my kitchen more environmentally friendly. It is the place where I spend the most time, but I also think that it is the place where a large number of changes can be made. This involves doing things like shopping locally in bulk to transfer to my own jars, getting bowl covers for when I make bread so that I don’t use plastic wrap, switching to eco-friendly cleaners, getting a compost bin and composting food scraps rather than throwing them away, and switching to compostable parchment paper.

As a baker, parchment paper is one of my most reached for items in the kitchen - whenever I am lining a cookie sheet, cake tin or a baking pan for a project, it is what I use, and I have teamed up with If You Care and The FeedFeed to bring you this recipe using If You Care’s compostable parchment. We have a little compost bin on our counter top, and while I try and re-use parchment wherever I can, I love knowing that when I am done with it I can just pop it into the compost, reducing waste that we would otherwise send to the landfill. I have used the regular roll of If You Care Parchment Paper, but they also make a roll of pre-cut sheets, which are perfect for lining cookie sheets, and come in a roll rather than a package of flat paper, which makes storing them an absolute breeze.

Today I am sharing this recipe for Spiced Sugar Crullers using the If You Care Parchment Paper. Crullers are circles of choux dough (same dough that is used for eclairs and cream puffs), fried until they are puffed up and golden. The outside is slightly crispy and the centre is custardy and delicious - they are one of my favourite types of doughnuts. They are super easy to make, and the variations in terms of flavours are endless.

I kept things fairly simple with this recipe, going with a vanilla bean cruller, which I rolled in a spiced sugar after frying to add a little festive twist. Once you have made your choux dough, you transfer it into a reuseable piping bag and pipe out your rounds onto squares of parchment paper. In the past I have frozen the piped out rounds but after a little experimenting I found it works best to fry them straight after they are piped. They are then dropped into the hot oil, and the paper is peeled off. Using the If You Care Parchment Paper made this so easy as I was able to pull off the parchment paper using tongs and drop it directly into the compost bin.

I hope you give these spicy wee doughnuts a try, and make sure you pick up some If You Care Parchment Paper!

A few wee tips:

• I have included an extra 'just in case' egg in the ingredients. The reason that this is in there, is that sometimes you need to add extra egg to the pastry if necessary. You want the mixture to be at a consistency where if you dip in the beater of the mixer, the batter will form a 'v' shape and eventually break off. If it is too stiff, and breaks off very quickly, you may need to add another beaten egg, and mix again, before performing the test. Make sure that you do not make the batter too runny - if anything you want it to be a little stiffer than necessary rather than have too much egg or the crullers won’t hold their shape.

• Instead of drawing a circle on each individual piece of parchment paper, draw a circle on one piece and use that as a template by placing each piece of parchment over your template and tracing the shape through the paper. Not drawing each individally saves loads of time.

• Make sure that you do a test cruller when it comes to frying - if the oil is too cool they will go soggy or not cook properly inside, causing them to collapse. Test one, then take it out of the oil and rest for a few minutes to ensure that it does not collapse. If it does, it is not properly cooked inside - either increase your cooking time, or check your oil temperature.

Thank you so much to If You Care and The FeedFeed for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

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Spiced Sugar Crullers

• Author: Erin
• Prep Time: 15 minute
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes, plus oil heating time
• Yield: 12-14 Crullers 1x

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Description

Crullers are circles of piped choux dough, fried until perfectly crisp and golden, then tossed in your choice of sugar or dipped into a glaze. These crullers are rolled in spiced sugar for the perfect holiday or anytime treat.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Spiced Sugar

• 200g granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves

Cruller Dough

• 125g whole milk
• 125g water
• 110g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 20g sugar
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 175g all-purpose flour
• 240g egg, lightly beaten, plus one extra egg if needed (see notes)
• Neutral oil for frying (I used refined coconut oil)

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Instructions

SPICED SUGAR

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

CRULLERS

1. Fill a heavy bottomed saucepan or cast iron dutch oven with about 4 inches of oil. Heat over medium until it registers 375˚f (190˚c) on a candy thermometer. Alternatively you can use a deep fryer. Place a cooling rack on a sheet pan. While the oil is heating up, make your crullers.
2. Cut about 14 or 15 squares of If You Care Parchment Paper approximately 3” x 3”. Using a cookie cutter or other circular tool, draw a circle 2 ¾” diameter on a piece of paper. This will be your master template (See notes). Fit a large reuseable piping bag with a closed star tip (I used an ateco #847).
3. In a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the milk, water, butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean paste. Place over medium heat, and stir until the butter has melted and the mixture has begun to boil. Remove from the heat, and add the flour all at once, mixing quickly with a wooden spoon to combine. The mixture will form a thick paste.
4. Return to the heat, and, stirring constantly, cook the mixture for 2 minutes to help dry it out. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute to help cool down the mixture.
5. With the mixture running on low, slowly stream in the 240g egg. Mix on medium speed for 4 minutes, or until the egg is fully incorporated. Test the consistency of the batter by dipping in the beater and pulling up. If it forms a v which eventually breaks off, you are good to go. If it seems too stiff, slowly add another beaten egg and mix to incorporate (see notes).
6. Transfer the choux pastry to the prepared piping bag. Using your traced circle as a guide, pipe circles onto the parchment paper squares, ending each with a little flick of your wrist. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough - the parchment squares can overlap a little.
7. Working in batches, frying two to three doughnuts at a time, carefully lower into the oil, ridge side down. Remove the If You Care Parchment Paper with tongs and discard into the compost.. Fry for approximately 7 minutes, turning often to ensure even cooking, until golden brown. Remove from the oil and allow to drain on the wire rack. Leave to sit for approximately a minute before tossing in the spiced sugar mix and placing on a rack. Repeat with the remaining doughnuts.

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Keywords: cruller, choux, spiced sugar, donut, doughnut, choux pastry