What French doughnut is made from choux pastry and usually has a ridged ring shape?

The French doughnut made from choux pastry and usually shaped as a ridged ring is a French cruller.

Unlike yeast-raised doughnuts, a French cruller uses pâte à choux, the light dough also used for éclairs and profiteroles. The dough is piped into a ring, commonly with pronounced ridges, then fried until expanded and airy. It is often coated with a thin glaze.

The ridges are not just decorative: they come from piping the soft choux dough through a star-shaped nozzle. This gives the finished cruller its characteristic fluted surface and helps distinguish it from a plain cake or yeast doughnut.

The name can cause confusion because cruller is also used more broadly for several fried pastries, including twisted varieties. A French cruller specifically refers to the light, ring-shaped choux-pastry style. It should also not be confused with the cronut, which combines croissant-style laminated dough with a doughnut form.