If you live in NYC you are hopefully familiar with the Daily Provision’s maple cruller. And if you are not … well allow me to introduce you to my take on their delectable little round of pâte à choux glazed with tantalizing maple glaze. Imagine the delicateness of a croissant, the moistness of a cake, and the flavor of breakfast pancakes. I’ll admit, crullers or even doughnuts in general may sound a big intimidating, but I promise you this is one of the easier, less involved baked good that I have prepared.
This is also a great moment to announce that I will be making step-by-step guides for select recipes, kicking it off with one for this recipe below.
Extra bonus, if you only need the cliff notes, there is a 60 second TikTok version as well, enjoy and bon appetite!
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RECIPE
Ingredients
Doughnut Base
227 g of whole milk (approx. 1 cup)
113 g of unsalted butter (approx. 0.5 cups)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
130 g of bread flour (approx. 1 cup)*
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
Oil for frying (at least several cups)
*If you don’t have bread flour, you could certainly go with all-purpose four. Though the higher gluten content of bread flour is preferable.
Glaze
1.5 cups of confectioners sugar
Pinch kosher salt
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp maple extract
2 tbsp dark maple syrup
2 tbsp hot water
Steps
Mise en place: Measure out all your ingredients and get your work area ready. As always, I prefer to use a kitchen scale for all the ingredients of the doughnut base.
Combine the milk + butter + sugar + salt in a sauce pot and bring it to a boil over medium height. Stir occasionally
Once boiling, mix in your flour and continue stirring until a firm dough is formed. Remove from the heat.
Transfer the dough to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat at medium speed until the dough cools to around room temperature (about 5-7 minutes). Do not be alarmed as you see steam escaping.
Once cool, continue to beat at medium speed. Add in your eggs (+ egg white), one at a time. Ensure the egg is completely mixed before adding in the next one. You may notice your dough starting to separate, but that is fine. Trust the process! It will all come together in the end. After the last egg is added, you will start to have a thicker and sticky choux dough come together. Transfer this to an airtight container and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
While the dough is cooling, we will prepare for the next steps. Heat your oil for frying (360F). Cut 8 square pieces of parchment paper down to 4 in x 4 in. Brush each side with oil OR spray each side with some pam and brush with a pastry brush. Arrange the squares onto a large baking tray.
Once the dough has cooled in the refrigerator. Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a star tip (watch my tutorial posted above for tips on how to get the dough into the bag more easily). Pipe a cruller onto each square. To finish a cruller circle, simply come over the beginning end to have a little overlap and lift up and away.
Once all crullers have been shaped, transfer them into the freezer uncovered. Freeze for 15 minutes.
While the little angles are cooling off in the freezer, we can make our glaze! Grab a large bowl and mix in your confectioners sugar + salt + corn syrup + vanilla extract + maple extract + maple syrup. Once the ingredients are roughly incorporated (i.e., it will be very tough). Mix in your hot water and continue stirring until the syrup comes together. You may need to play with adding a little more water to get it to a thick by workable consistency.
After the 15 minutes are up, get ready to fry! Depending on your fryer (or pot if you are using that to fry) you will be able to accomdate about 2-3 crullers at time. Slip a cruller into the hot oil upside down (i.e., parchment paper should be on top). The cruller should slip off the parchment paper at which point you can remove the parchment paper with a kitchen tong. Let the doughnuts cook 2.5 minutes on the first side. Then flip and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Finally flip it back once more, and cook for an additional 30-60 seconds. Cool the crullers on a wire rack. Make sure there are some paper towels beneath to catch the oil. Repeat with the other doughnuts.
After a few minutes of cooling, dip the doughnuts in your glaze and return to the wire rack to let the excess drip off.
Enjoy! These are best eaten fresh, but you can also store these in a container left ajar. If they are covered completely, you may find your doughnuts become too soggy.
