Sourdough Crullers

These homemade sourdough crullers are the lightest, airiest sourdough donuts you’ll ever make!

Inspired by classic French crullers, these fried treats have a crisp, golden exterior and a soft, custardy interior—similar to the texture of sourdough churros, but even lighter. Each one is dipped in a simple vanilla glaze for the perfect sweet finish.

While crullers might seem intimidating at first, the sourdough pâte à choux (or choux pastry) dough is surprisingly simple, forgiving, and made with basic pantry ingredients. The sourdough discard adds a subtle tang that makes these donuts extra special.

I’ll walk you through every step, including helpful frying tips, troubleshooting advice, and plenty of glaze variations so you can customize these sourdough discard crullers with your favorite flavors.

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What are Crullers?

Crullers are a type of fried French donut traditionally made with choux pastry (pâte à choux, pronounced PAT-uh-shoo). Instead of relying on yeast or chemical leaveners, choux pastry gets its incredible light and airy texture from eggs, creating a delicate interior similar to éclairs and cream puffs.

Classic French crullers are piped into rings with a large open-star tip, creating their signature ridges and deep crevices. These grooves help capture a thin layer of glaze, although crullers can also be coated in cinnamon sugar, dipped in honey, or flavored with other sweet toppings.

The earliest versions of crullers trace back to Northern Germany and the Netherlands, where they were made as braided fried doughs. The name comes from the Dutch word kruller, meaning “to curl,” referring to their twisted shape.

Today, crullers are especially popular in the United States thanks to classic bakery versions like the French-style cruller sold at Dunkin’. Some modern variations are even filled with pastry cream or jam and sometimes referred to as chouxnuts.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Light and airy with a crispy exterior and a soft, custardy interior.
• Great as a breakfast treat with coffee or dessert.
• Choose to toss in cinnamon sugar, fill with pastry cream or jam, or dip in other flavored glazes.
• Can easily double the recipe to make more and can even let the batter rest in the refrigerator overnight.
• Melt-in-your-mouth texture from the eggy choux dough.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Crullers

• Use a candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer for frying so you can keep your frying oil at the right temperature.
• Whenever you’re frying, never walk away from the hot oil and wear gloves to prevent burning.
• Dip the crullers into the glaze while warm.
• I recommend using a large open star tip for crullers like the Ateco 869 tip. This way, the ridges are visible when piped.
• Use small square pieces of parchment paper for piping the crullers and making for easy transport into the hot frying oil.
• Adjust the whole eggs as necessary depending on the dough consistency. If your dough appears too thick after 2 eggs you may need the third egg (I usually do!).

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🛠 Tools Needed

You only need a few basic tools to make these sourdough discard crullers.

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients is the best option! Weighing your ingredients by weight will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
• Piping Bag and Large Star Tip
  • If you don’t have a piping or pastry bag, you can use a large plastic bag and cut a corner off.
  • I recommend a large closed star tip for the best ridges like the Ateco 869 tip.
• Large pot for frying
  • I use a Dutch oven for frying, but you can use any large stainless steel pot as well.
• Hand mixer or stand mixer
  • I find mixing the eggs in the choux pastry to be a little easier with a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, but you can also mix the eggs into the pastry by hand with a spatula.
• Spatula for frying
  • Slotted spatulas or spider spatulas are very helpful when frying donuts to let oil drip.
• Parchment Paper
  • For easiest piping and transport to the hot frying oil, cut squares of parchment paper for each individual cruller. It makes all the difference!

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions.

• All-purpose flour
  • All-purpose flour yields the best results for a sturdy cruller that is soft on the inside and can be fried. I don’t recommend whole wheat flour or other flours for these donuts.
• Salt
• Whole Milk
  • Adds more richness to the dough. Substitute with water or nut milk.
• Unsalted butter
  • I like using butter for a little richness and more flavor in the batter, but you could substitute with a neutral oil like coconut oil or vegetable oil.
  • The fat helps the choux pastry crisp and contributes to the puffing in the fryer.
• Granulated sugar
  • You don’t need much sugar in this dough but it helps with browning and flavor.
• Eggs
  • Adds structure to help bind the ingredients together and helps the choux pastry steam and puff in the fryer. You can’t substitute the eggs in this recipe as they’re essential.
  • Since there is no baking powder or baking soda in this recipe, the eggs are the primary leavening agent.
• Sourdough Discard
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week by following my how-to guide. See my top sourdough starter tips.
• Oil for frying
  • I typically use a neutral frying oil, such as vegetable or canola oil for donuts. You can use peanut oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, or another high-smoke-point frying oil.

Glaze Variations

• Classic vanilla glaze: Uses water, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
• Chocolate: Use cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and water or milk.
• Strawberry or other fruit glazes like raspberry or blueberry: substitute the water with your favorite fruit jam.
• Maple cruller: make a maple glaze with powdered sugar and maple syrup.
• Citrus: use lemon juice, blood orange, orange, lime, or grapefruit juice.

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🍩 How to Make Sourdough Crullers

This recipe makes about 11-12 crullers.

1. Make the Panade

In a small saucepan, bring the water, milk, unsalted butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer on medium heat.

Add the flour and sourdough discard, then turn the heat down to low.

Constantly stir with a spatula or wooden spoon for a few minutes until the dough comes together to a thick paste and leaves a slight film on the bottom of the saucepan (this is called the panade in French).

Transfer to a large bowl if using an electric hand mixer or bowl of a stand mixer to cool for a few minutes.

2. Add the Eggs and Mix

Once cooled for a few minutes, beat the egg white and one egg in at a time at medium speed until completely incorporated into the mixture. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.

At first, the eggs will be loose/slimy and separate in the dough, but should slowly incorporate into the batter. It may break at first which is normal.

After beating in the second egg the the dough should become glossy and thick.

Test if you should add the additional third egg (I usually need to since the dough can be thick). To test if it’s ready, the dough should leave a V shape on a spatula or tine marks of a fork when the surface is scraped. Beat in the third egg if it seems too thick.

The pâte à choux, or sourdough choux pastry, should be smooth and thick enough to pipe.

At this point, you can refrigerate the dough to fry later.

3. Pipe the Sourdough Crullers

Cut out and grease 5″ squares of parchment paper to pipe the crullers on.

Scrape the choux pastry into a large piping bag with a large open star tip attachment. Pipe the dough into rings, 3 ½-4 inches across.

Let the rings of dough sit at room temperature while you heat the frying oil.

4. Fry the Sourdough Crullers

Heat three inches of frying oil in a large pot to 365-370ºF (188ºC) and set a sheet pan lined with paper towels and a wire rack beside the oil.

When the oil is at frying temperature, use a slotted spoon or spatula to lift a few crullers into the oil, piped side down. The parchment paper will naturally come off as they fry, which you can remove and discard.

Wear heat-proof gloves to protect yourself while frying. You’ll fry in a few batches so the oil doesn’t cool too much and so there’s enough room in the pot.

Fry the crullers for two minutes on each side, turning them with tongs or a spatula until crisp golden brown.

Carefully remove the crullers from the hot oil and set on the wire rack lined with paper towels to let any excess oil drip off.

Check the frying temperature (let it come back to temperature if it’s too cool) and continue frying the remaining crullers in batches.

5. Make the Glaze

While the crullers are still warm, mix the powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract in a bowl.

The glaze should be thinner and runnier than an icing.

6. Dip in Glaze

Finally, dip the warm crullers into the small bowl of glaze and let them sit until they cool to room temperature on the wire rack.

The glaze should set slightly after about 10 minutes. Crullers are best eaten warm on the day they’re made!

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How to Store and Serve

Sourdough crullers are best served while warm and crispy shortly after they’re made.

However, you can make in advance by a few hours and store at room temperature. Refresh in the oven for a few minutes.

I don’t recommend freezing crullers as they get mushy as they thaw.

Crullers are excellent served with coffee or tea, with fresh berries, or served for dessert with a drizzle of salted caramel or chocolate sauce.

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❓ FAQs