cruller

1. Chiefly Northeastern, Central Atlantic, & Upper Northern U.S. A small, usually ring-shaped or twisted cake of sweet dough fried in deep fat.
2. Chiefly New England & Pennsylvania. An unraised doughnut, usually twisted but also shaped into rings or oblongs.

[From obsolete Dutch krulle-koken, rolled-up cake, from Middle Dutch crulle-koken, to curl, from crulle, curly.]

American; deep-fried bun made from baking powder dough. Similar to a doughnut.

[KRUHL-uhr] A doughnut-style dough (usually leavened with baking powder) that's shaped into a long twist, fried and sprinkled with granulated sugar or brushed with a sweet glaze. The extremely light French cruller is made with choux pastry (cream-puff dough). The word "cruller" comes from the Dutch krulle, meaning "twisted cake."

Once again we have to thank the Dutch, who brought us Cookies (1703), for a tasteful innovation in our language and our cuisine. They had undoubtedly been baking crullers for well over a century in their settlements in the Hudson River valley, but it was by the early nineteenth century that their Yankee neighbors were taking note. Washington Irving mentions the cruller lovingly in his 1818 Legend of Sleepy Hollow as he describes the object of Ichabod Crane's affection:

A similar, though less eloquent sentiment was expressed in the Boston Transcript in December 1842: "The ole-kochen, crullers and cookies were of a quality that proved the skilful hand of some genuine Dutch housewife in the manufacture."

Crullers nowadays are familiar throughout the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and California. But what are they? An early recipe from Massachusetts for "Crullers, Matrimony or Love Knots" says to "Roll thin, cut in strips and tie in knots, or braid three strips together." Others use the term cruller for an unraised doughnut without a hole, also called a fried cake or cake doughnut. The author of A Word Geography of the Eastern United States (1949) found that the difference in usage "gives rise to many a lively discussion in New England." Among the opinions recorded there in the 1930s: "Cruller contains more egg and less milk than a doughnut" (Shrewsbury, Massachusetts); "Crullers are nothing more than doughnuts, only they're twisted" (Boston); "Anybody that would call a cruller a doughnut would be laughed out of court" (New Milford, Connecticut).

Chocolate covered French cruller

A traditional cruller (or twister) is a twisted, oblong, fried pastry made of dough somewhat like that of a cake doughnut, often topped with plain powdered sugar; powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon; or icing.

The name can also refer to the French cruller, a fluted, ring-shaped doughnut made from choux pastry with a light airy texture.

The name comes from early 19th century Dutch kruller, from krullen "to curl". Crullers are traditionally eaten in Germany and some other European countries on Shrove Tuesday, to use up fat before Lent.

Crullers are most commonly found in Canada, New England and the Mid-Atlantic and North Central states of the USA, but are also common in California. The German origin is probably why traditional crullers can be found more easily in the Midwest, where many German immigrants settled. Some family-owned bakeries, such as "Grebe's Bakery" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, still call them "krullers." In other parts of the U.S., crullers may be called "dunking sticks" or simply "sticks."

In 2003, the Dunkin' Donuts chain of doughnut shops stopped carrying traditional crullers, claiming that the hand-shaped treats were too labor-intensive, and couldn't be simulated with new machines for mixing doughnut batter.^[1]

Tim Hortons,^[2] Honey Dew Donuts,^[3] and Krispy Kreme^[4] still sell the Cruller, while Dunkin' Donuts only carries the French Cruller. In place of the traditional cruller, Dunkin' Donuts now sells several variations of a substitute product it calls a "cake stick" which is a simplified, machine-made version of the more elaborately twisted hand-made variety.^[5]

The term "Chinese cruller" is occasionally applied to the youtiao, a similar-looking fried dough food eaten in East and Southeast Asia.^[6]

References

1. ^ Joseph P. Kahn, "With Progress, a Cruel Twist", Boston Globe, 25 October 2003.
2. ^ Tim Hortons Snacks & Baked Goods
3. ^ http://www.honeydewdonuts.com/food/products.html#
4. ^ Krispy Kreme Product List
5. ^ Dunkin' Donuts Product List
6. ^ "Chinese Breakfast" at About.com. Accessed 1 May 2008.

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