Thursday, November 01, 2007

Austria. Winter Carnival Doughnuts.

You will be surprised, like me, that the tomato, cauliflower, horseradish and plum puree all have Austrian names. Even coffee has its own Austrian name: Hitch, Coachman, Monk or Big Brown. Soon winter and I want to post about famous Austrian "Krapfen"- winter carnival doughnuts.


The world "Krapfen" is used for deep fried in hot butter pastries. The jam-filled Carnival Doughnuts has a ring around its middle. The Tirole Krapfen is triangular piece of dough filled with fat, milk, sugar, butter and honey. There are a lot of legends of how Doughnuts came to the Austrian culinary. In Baroque times there was a popular tradition of filling a doughnut with a jam and this came to a rage in Vienna in the 18th and 19th centuries. "Krapfen" were even good as royal meat, there were served at the Habsburg Monarchy.

Winter Carnival Doughnuts.
ingredients:

  • 300 g flour
  • 50 g sugar
  • 125 ml milk
  • 20 g yeast
  • 60 g butter
  • salt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 150 g jam
  • peel of lemon
  • 1 tablespoon rum
  • powdered sugar
  • oil for frying
Warm milk and in first half add yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and a little flour. let it rise untill double size. Melt butter and remaining sugar in another part of milk. Mix salt, egg yolk rum, lemon peel and remaining flour with the butter-sugar-milk mixture and make a smooth dough.Let it stand and make bubbles for about 20 minutes. Roll the dough out to a 1 cm thickness and using a glass cut out circles. Spoon 1 teaspoon of jam onto a half of each circle, cover with another circle and lightly press. Lay the Carnival Doughnuts - "Krapfens" on a floured surface and let them rise for 20 minutes. Fry 3-4 minutes in hot oil. Drain, cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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