I’m here trying to find out how Dunkin Donuts got those sugar flakes on their crullers. So far, no luck.

But Luis asked if this dough can be made without a paddle attachment – I’ve made choux paste like this many times, for profiteroles and other delights.

You don’t need ANY machine at all! Just beat well by hand. I don’t think any machine is going to give you much time-saving here. Especially since you have to find, attach, use, remove and then wash the beaters. A good wooden spoon is much faster to use.

Nor would you HAVE to adhere to the classic shape, although it IS desirable, filling the bag and piping the dough out, to give it those little ridges that crisp up so well. You could just form them into sticks or balls.

One thing I would do with these, though, is that after the piping or forming is done, I’d let the dough dry out some before plunking it into the oil.

I might try to get those flakes by frying them only till they’re solid enough to remove from the oil. Then I’d coat them with a 1/2-1/2 mixture of butter and sugar, and bake them till done. Don’t know if it’ll work, though. Maybe all that needs doing is to take the cooked crullers, coat them with sugar, and briefly redunk them in the hot oil, after making it VERY hot. You’d have to do this only AFTER all the crullers are fried, because your oil would get a lot of sugar in it. It could not be reused for anything. If you used a lot of oil and don’t want it all to go to waste, you could pour off just enough to immerse the crullers about halfway, save the rest of the oil for some other sweet you’ll fry, and just use that smaller amount of oil to put the flakes on the crullers.

None of this have I tried – it’s all speculation. But Luis – just use a wooden spoon; it works as well as a machine for choux paste.