What is a cruller? The pastry Tarte is known for

If you have walked past our counter and wondered what the ridged, ring shaped pastries are, they are crullers, and they are the thing people drive across the Gold Coast for.

So what is a cruller?

A cruller is made from choux, the same light egg dough behind eclairs and profiteroles. The dough is piped into a ring with a fluted nozzle, which gives it those signature ridges, then fried until the outside is crisp and the inside puffs up hollow and airy. Because it is choux rather than a yeast dough, a cruller is nowhere near as heavy as a doughnut. It is closer to a crisp shell around almost nothing, which is why the glaze and filling matter so much.

The style has French roots and became a diner classic in North America. Ours is our own take: made in small batches every morning at Burleigh, and never sitting around.

Cruller vs churro vs doughnut

People often ask, so here is the short version.

A doughnut is yeast or cake dough, dense and soft, usually filled or iced.

A churro is a straight rope of choux, fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Same family as the cruller, different shape and finish.

A cruller is a ring of choux with ridges, glazed or filled. Lighter than a doughnut, more delicate than a churro.

Ours are crullers. If you have called them churros at the counter, we forgive you.

The flavours we bake

The lineup rotates a little with the seasons, but the three you will nearly always find are vanilla bean and custard, with our house made vanilla custard piped through the centre; cinnamon, glazed and dusted, the closest to the classic; and dulce de leche, with our own slow cooked caramel.

They are 4 each on the pastry bar at Burleigh, and they turn up on the sweet tier of high tea at the Tea Garden in Currumbin. When a flavour is gone for the day, it is gone. We would rather run out than serve one that has sat.

How to eat one

Fresh, ideally with a coffee, ideally within the hour. A cruller is at its best while the shell is still crisp. If you are taking a box home, they will keep until the afternoon but do not refrigerate them, it softens the shell.

Where to find them

Tarte Bakery and Cafe, 1748 Gold Coast Highway, Burleigh Heads, from 6:30am daily and a short walk from the new Burleigh Heads tram station. Crullers also feature on high tea at the Tarte Tea Garden in Currumbin. The full Burleigh menu is on our menu page.