Easter Donuts (Cronuts) are a festive and delicious treat! If you like donuts and croissants then this treat is perfect for you.
Easter Donuts Recipe
Easter Donuts are a great way to enjoy a cute and festive dessert that is not chocolate! After all, who doesn’t love a donut?!
They are a great make ahead treat and you can leave the decorating to the kids. Switch of the classic dying of eggs for Easter and decorate donuts instead!
The best part about this recipe is that you don’t have to make the dough! Instead, store-bought puff pastry is used. It is a secret ingredient in the kitchen that is perfect for whipping up quick appetizers and desserts!
What are Cronuts?
These donuts are actually cronuts which combines two classic treats – croissants and donuts. With my shortcut recipe you don’t have to worry about making your own croissant dough. Instead, we will be using store bought puff pastry!
Just when you thought donuts couldn’t get any better, in comes cronuts! They are light and flakey compared to a doughy cake like donut.
What is in Easter Donuts?
- Puff Pastry – my secret ingredient for baking! One of the most versatile ingredients that is not only quick to use but also so delicious. Instead of making your own dough for these donuts you can simply use a pack of store bought puff pastry.
- Egg – puff pastry is a light and flakey dough. To make it a bit thicker and add extra layers to the donuts the sheet is folded to create these layers. To get the layers to stick together whisked egg is brushed between then.
- Oil, for frying – a neutral oil such as vegetable or peanut oil is best for frying. Alternatively, the donuts can be air fried or baked but the texture will be different. See FAQs below.
- Mini Eggs – I love how cute mini egg chocolates look on these donuts, creating the look of a nest. You can use any Easter chocolate you like to decorate these donuts.
- Sprinkles – any type of colorful sprinkles can be used
- Icing Sugar and Milk – the quick glaze for the donuts is a simple mix of icing sugar and milk
How to Make Easter Donuts
Full Printable Recipe at Bottom of Page
Cut the Donuts
1 Thaw and unroll store bought puff pastry.
2 Brush egg wash on 2/3 of the pastry. Fold it back up so that egg wash is between each layer. Gently press the layers together or roll with a rolling pin to seal.
3 Cut the donuts using a cookie cutter or donut cutter. Depending on the size of your cookie cutter/donut cutter you should be able to cut at least 4 donuts from each sheet.
Fry and Decorate the Donuts
1 In a large pot, add enough oil to come 2″ up the sides. Heat on medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, working in batches carefully fry the donuts until golden brown and puffed, about 2-3 minutes per side.
2 Carefully remove the donuts from the oil and drain on a paper towel or wire rack. Allow the donuts to fully cool for about 5 minutes or until cool to the touch.
3 In a small bowl add the icing sugar and milk. Mix until it is a thick icing consistency. If needed, add a splash of milk at a time to desired icing consistency.
4 Dip the cooled donuts in the icing and then in sprinkles. Add 3 mini eggs to the center of each donut.
Serve and enjoy!
Decorating Variations
- Instead of mini eggs try using pastel M&M’s, jelly beans, Smarties, or any small candy.
- Instead of glazing only the top of the donut you can glaze the whole donut and add sprinkles on top!
- Add some food coloring to the icing to make it a pastel color for an extra pop or color!
- Glaze with chocolate icing and top with green sprinkles to make it look like grass and then top with candy eggs.
FAQs Easter Donuts
Yes, you can air fry the donuts but the texture will be slightly different. The dough will be more flakey, like a pastry instead of doughy like a donut.
Decorated donuts can be stored in an air tight container for up to 3 days. Store them out of direct sunlight and in a cool place or else the icing may melt.
Yes, you can bake the donuts instead of deep frying them but the texture will be flakey like a pastry, rather than doughy like a donut.
Instead of puff pastry you can also use store bought biscuits. The dough will not be as light and flakey as puff pastry but the results will be similar.
A cronut is croissant dough shaped into a donut. The dough has layers of butter between each layer of dough making them light and flakey. Whereas a donut is doughy, without flakey layers.
More Easter Desserts!
- Kinder Bueno Fudge – takes a basic three ingredient fudge recipe and makes it 100x better. There are burst of creamy hazelnut from the Kinder Bueno amongst the rich chocolate fudge!
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Nests – not only a super CUTE Easter treat but they are also so simple and delicious! They only require 4 ingredients and 10 minutes of prep!
Enjoy!
– Sab
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission.
Easter Donuts (Mini Egg Cronuts)
Ingredients
- 1 pack puff pastry, 2 sheets, frozen store bought
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1 cup oil, for frying; vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil
- 4 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tsp milk, add more if needed
- 3 cups mini egg chocolates, or Easter candy of choice to decorate
- 1/2 cup sprinkles
Instructions
- Thaw and unroll store bought puff pastry.
- Brush egg wash on 2/3 of the pastry. Fold it back up so that egg wash is between each layer. Gently press the layers together or roll with a rolling pin to seal.
- Cut the donuts using a cookie cutter or donut cutter. Depending on the size of your cookie cutter/donut cutter you should be able to cut at least 4 donuts from each sheet.
- In a large pot, add enough oil to come 2" up the sides. Heat on medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, working in batches carefully fry the donuts until golden brown and puffed, about 2-3 minutes per side.
- Carefully remove the donuts from the oil and drain on a paper towel or wire rack. Allow the donuts to fully cool for about 5 minutes or until cool to the touch.
- In a small bowl add the icing sugar and milk. Mix until it is a thick icing consistency. If needed, add a splash of milk at a time to desired icing consistency.
- Dip the cooled donuts in the icing and then in sprinkles. Add 3 mini eggs to the center of each donut.
- Serve and enjoy!