Croquesignoles Or French Donuts

These Cajun French donuts are a delicious old-fashioned fried treat. With a hint of nutmeg, this sweet, crunchy pastry pairs well with a cup of steamy hot coffee. 

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Grandma George's Croquesignoles (French Donuts)

I didn't know my great-grandma, Grandma George, who was called after her husband's first name. That's how the married women used to be referred to in South Louisiana, by their husbands' first names. My daddy's mama was "Madame Bill," and my mama was "Madame Bill, Jr," or "Madame T-Bill," as the cowhands at Outside Island used to call her.

Grandma George was short, a mother of 12, and a very meticulous cook. She died when I was a baby, so I only know her from pictures and what's been told to me by those who knew and loved her. However, I have sampled her French donuts called croquesignoles (pronounced "cro-see-alls") made from her recipe on more than one occasion. Her version of the fried pastry does not contain yeast like Louisiana's popular beignet (pronounced "ben-YAY") so I am guessing that is why they were called donuts.

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Donut Making

We lived in the country on a dead-end gravel road, not far from Grandpa and Grandma George's home place. One of their 12 children, Uncle Red, his wife, Aunt Lou, and their 5 children were our neighbors down the road. Those 5 cousins were as close to us as siblings raised under the same roof. It wasn't unusual for us to spend our days helping Daddy work cows, riding bikes up and down that dusty road, fishing, playing in the yard until dark, or even getting to enjoy an occasional swim in the canal. Sharing meals and spending the night at each other's houses were also common. We even rode the same school bus. When we were home, we played hard until dark, and Daddy would announce, "It's snake-time, time to come inside!"

One fond memory I have is of our mamas getting together to make those donuts. I recently started asking around for the recipe, and finally, Aunt Lou's daughter, Liz, sent me this:

Hmm, flour for hard dough? Well, this makes a mess of donuts, and that's just how I remember seeing them. A whole lot of fried rectangles (with 2 slits each) doused with powdered sugar and piled into a multitude of Tupperware containers, covering the kitchen table. While Mama rolled and cut the dough, Aunt Lou fried, turned, and drained the doughnuts. As we cousins played outside, we'd run in and out of the house, circling the table, grabbing and gobbling up fresh donuts.

"Da Donut Touch"

Since the recipe had no instructions, my experimenting began, and it was not pretty. I'm a messy cook. With the flour flying while the dough was being made and dropped into spattering hot oil, a lot of extra clean-up was needed. I had trouble keeping the oil at an even temperature, too. The first batch did not taste good, so I threw it out. It was much to my husband's amazement that I could spend so much time on something and then call it rubbish so easily! It was also to his disappointment that there were no donuts to eat.

So after I cooled off a bit, I adjusted the recipe and decided to try again. It was better, but still messy and not quite, and if it's not quite, it's not right! I ended up calling Aunt Lou, and after going through the steps and a few questions, she simply stated, "Well, you just don't have 'da touch'. MaMa Greene had 'da touch'!" I quickly agreed and wondered how I could possess such a thing, and she replied, "I guess she gave it to me!" We laughed, and I decided that because they each had large families, "da touch" had to have come from lots of practice.

So I practiced and practiced making the French donuts, but only after I went to the store and bought a simple electric fryer with a temperature setting. The whole process was much easier and not so messy. (I wonder how they ever got along with frying those donuts in a big pot of hog lard over a hot stove, GOOD LORD!) Finally, I developed my own recipe with reduced amounts of ingredients. I don't have to feed as many people as they did. Here's my version of Grandma George Greene's original donut recipe:

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📖 Recipe

Many empty calories here, but it's fun learning and sharing how the Cajun people fed their families back then by taking simple ingredients they had, combining them and thrilling their loved ones with these special treats. No Kryspy Kreme down the road for them.

I enjoyed these as a child, and I also enjoyed learning how to make them and getting to taste my Grandma George's donuts again.

"The price of greatness is responsibility."  Winston Churchill