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Crullers
1/4 cup butter or shortening 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 cup milk 3 1/2 teaspoons baking-powder 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt Flour Cream the butter or shortening. Add sugar; then the well-beaten eggs. Sift the baking-powder, nutmeg, and salt with one cup of flour and add alternately with the milk to the first mixture. Add additional flour to make a dough stiff enough to handle. Toss on floured board, roll one-half inch thick and cut into strips. Twist and fry in deep fat. Test temperature of fat as in sweet-milk doughnuts. Drain on unglazed paper and when cold roll in powdered sugar. This recipe makes about three dozen crullers.
A straightforward baking-powder cruller dough, twisted rather than cut into rings. The recipe leaves the flour open-ended, which is normal for the period but means the cook has to judge the dough.
- Fat temperatureThe original defers to its "sweet-milk doughnuts" entry for the test, which is not reproduced here. A thermometer is easier: 365-375F. Below that the dough soaks fat, above it the outside colors before the center sets.
- Flour quantityOnly the first cup is measured; the rest is by feel. Expect roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups total for a dough stiff enough to roll. Add it in small increments and stop as soon as the dough leaves the bowl clean, since excess flour makes the crullers tough and dry.
- Baking-powder3 1/2 teaspoons works out at roughly a teaspoon per cup of the flour this dough takes. Use double-acting powder, which is what is on the shelf today, and do not let the dough sit long before frying.
- Unglazed paperThis means plain absorbent paper, not the glazed or waxed kind. A wire rack set over a sheet pan, or paper towels, does the job.
- Rolling and cuttingHalf an inch thick is thicker than it sounds and gives the soft interior these are meant to have. Cut strips about 3/4 inch wide and 6 inches long, twist each two or three turns, and pinch the ends so they hold in the fat.
- SugaringRoll in powdered sugar only when fully cold, as the recipe says. On a warm cruller the sugar dissolves into a sticky film.
- Yield and keepingAbout three dozen, as stated. They are best the day they are made.
Crullers reached American kitchens through Dutch settlement, and the name is generally traced to the Dutch krulle, a curl or twist, which is what the shape describes. Older versions were raised with yeast or leavened only by eggs; by the time this book appeared, chemical leavening had made the dough a quick one.