These Honey Cruller Waffles are great for breakfast or dessert. Made from choux pastry, they match the texture and flavor of honey cruller donuts.
Honey cruller doughnuts are a big favorite in our house. However, our favorite doughnut shop doesn't make them, and except for "that" famous Canadian giant chain doughnut shop, it's hard to find them on our side of the city.
While I'd normally have no problem trying to make them myself, I have a strong dislike for deep-frying in my kitchen. The mess, the smell, the leftover oil clean-up. It's just all-around a drag.
So I came up with the idea to try making them in waffle form. Guess what - it worked! Today I bring you Honey Cruller Waffles.
What are honey crullers?
There are many different pastries around the world that go by the name "cruller" or a similar version of the word.
However, the crullers that I'm referring to are also known as French Crullers, often called Honey Crullers in Canada and North America.
A French or Honey cruller is a deep-fried type of doughnut that's made from choux pastry instead of a yeasted dough or cake batter. The choux pastry gives them an airy texture that is slightly custardy on the inside.
French crullers are typically made in a ridged ring shape, with the pastry being piped into a ring before frying. After frying, French crullers are dipped into a sweet glaze that may or may not have honey added to it.
How to make Honey Cruller Waffles:
The first step to making honey cruller waffles is to make choux pastry. This starts with mixing water, butter, sugar, and a little salt in a saucepan and bringing it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and stir in the flour. The mixture will become very thick, pasty, and sticky.
Remove the flour mixture from the heat and transfer it to a bowl to cool. This is also a good time to start heating up your waffle iron and mix up the glaze.
Then use a hand mixer to beat in the eggs. Note that when you do this, the dough will first look kind of separated or curdled. Keep mixing. It will come together to form a very stiff, sticky ball. Make sure you keep a very firm grip on your hand mixer here because the dough is so sticky. Once the dough forms a uniform ball, stop mixing.
Spray or brush your waffle iron with oil to prevent sticking, and use a spoon to drop a ball of batter (about 2 Tablespoons) into the center of each waffle mold (my waffle iron makes 2 waffles at once, so I put 2 balls of batter in the waffle iron at a time).
Close the lid, and let the waffles cook until it is no longer steaming. Note that this may not coordinate with the built-in timer of your waffle maker - mine take a little longer.
Once the waffles are done, let them cool slightly and refill the waffle maker with more batter. Once the waffles are cool enough to handle, dip them in the glaze. Serve immediately - these waffles are best if they're eaten as quickly as possible, or at least within a few hours.
Honey Cruller Waffles Ingredients:
- Water
- Unsalted butter or replace with a dairy-free butter alternative to make these waffles dairy-free
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Honey (if using creamed honey, or honey that has crystallized, heat in a microwave-safe bowl for 10-15 seconds until it becomes liquid)
- Milk or use dairy-free milk or water to make these waffles dairy-free
- Powdered sugar
- Canola oil or non-stick spray to grease the waffle maker
Want more Waffle recipes?
Honey Cruller Waffle Nutrition Notes:
Because honey cruller waffles aren't deep-fried, they will have less fat and are free of trans fats compared to regular honey cruller doughnuts.
Note that the nutrition information in the recipe below assumes that you use all of the glaze. However, you will likely have a little bit left over after dipping all of your waffles, so the actual sugar and calorie contents of your waffles will be a little lower than what is listed here.
The nutrition information in the recipe is for one waffle if you make 10 waffles from the recipe.
Honey Cruller Waffles
Equipment
Ingredients
Waffles
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup unsalted butter or replace with dairy-free butter alternative to make these waffles dairy-free
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- canola oil to grease the waffle maker
Honey Glaze
- 1 Tablespoon honey (if using creamed honey, or honey that has crystallized, heat in a microwave-safe bowl for 10-15 seconds until it becomes liquid)
- 2 Tablespoons milk or use dairy-free milk or water to make these waffles dairy-free
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Honey Glaze
- Whisk together the honey, milk or water, and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
Waffles
- Set a wire rack over a baking sheet. Set aside.
- Add the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the flour. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula, smoothing out any lumps of dry flour. Continue to cook and stir until the mixture is mostly smooth, with a thick, paste-like consistency, about 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer the flour mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool for 5-10 minutes.
- In the meantime, crack the eggs into a small bowl or measuring cup. Add the vanilla and gently whisk them together with a fork. Now's also the time to get out your waffle maker and start pre-heating it.
- Add the egg mixture to the bowl with the flour mixture. Beat together with a hand mixer until the egg is fully incorporated. Note that the batter will intitially separate and look curdled. Keep mixing until the batter comes together. It will still be quite thick and pasty.
- When the waffle maker is hot, brush or spray the surface of the waffle maker generously with canola oil. Spoon about 1-2 tablespoons of the batter into the center of each section of the waffle maker (eg mine makes two square waffles at once, so I put a total of two scoops of the batter into the waffle maker at a time). Note that with this amount of batter, the waffles will be small and irregular-shaped. If you want to make full-sized waffles, you will need to use more batter and carefully spread the batter over the surface of the waffle maker, but then the recipe will make fewer waffles.
- The waffles are done cooking when the waffle maker stops steaming and the waffles are golden brown on the outside. They may take a little longer to cook than the timer on your waffle maker indicates, if it has one.
- Let the waffles cool slightly before glazing. While the waffles are still warm, dip both sides of them into the glaze mixture, allowing any excess glaze to drip back into the bowl. Once they've stopped dripping, set them on the prepared wire rack. Serve immediately, or at room temperature.
Nutrition
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