French Cruller
A traditional cruller (or twister) is a fried pastry often made from a rectangle of dough, with a cut made in the middle that allows it to be pulled over and through itself producing twists in the sides of the pastry. Crullers have been described as resembling "a small, braided torpedo" and having been "a staple of the New England diet since the Pilgrims' day". Some other cruller styles are made of a denser dough somewhat like that of a cake doughnut formed in a small loaf or stick shape, but not always twisted.[2] Crullers may be topped with plain powdered sugar; powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon; or icing. However, a "French cruller" is a fluted, ring-shaped doughnut made from choux pastry with a light airy texture. The French cruller in German is called a Spritzkuchen (Wikpedia).
These pasteries a labor intensive to make. Today most commercial pastry shops make something cruller which is more of a molded formed cake doughnut (looks something like an Old Fashion) (Wikpedia).