von Nicolas Lair
22 January 2024
KITCHEN
The Five-Star Carnival Doughnut
What would summer be without ice cream? What would winter be without mulled wine? Unimaginable, right? Every season has its classic indulgences that simply belong. It's the same with the often lovingly referred to as the "fifth season" - carnival time. In Tyrol and many other regions, this clearly belongs to the carnival doughnut. Whenever I crave a real five-star carnival doughnut at home, I can always rely on the recipe from Chef Pastry Chef Michael Hollaus at the Interalpen Hotel in Mösern. And here's how it's done!
A curious-royal origin story
The carnival doughnut, often referred to as Berliner or Pfannkuchen in Germany, is a sweet pastry made from yeast dough that is deep-fried. In Austria, it is traditionally filled with apricot jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It is difficult to determine whether the doughnut has its origins in Roman times or only in the Middle Ages. However, Austria has a curious royal story about the origin of the doughnut: Cecilie Krapf, a court chef in the 17th century, is considered to have given her name to it. Out of anger at her apprentice, she threw a ball of dough at him. However, this ball of dough missed its target and ended up in a pot of hot fat. At first, Cecilie Krapf thought the result was inedible, but when she tasted the creation, she was immediately taken by the flavor of the pastry. The "Cilly ball" was filled with preserved fruits, and the carnival doughnut was born!
The Preparation
Today there are countless different recipes and preparation variations of carnival pastries, but my favorite is the Five Star variant. Here you will find the ingredients needed for this royal doughnut. First, I make a pre-dough, a so-called "Dampfl".
- 130 g flour
- 130 g (1/2 cup) milk
- 42 g yeast (baking yeast)
Warm the milk, dissolve the yeast in it, and mix thoroughly with the flour. Let it rise at room temperature (about 25 °C) for 20 minutes.
Now let's go to the main character
Ingredients for the dough:
- 380 g flour
- 100 g soft butter
- 50 g rum
- 40 g fine sugar
- 10 g salt
- 10 g vanilla sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- lemon zest
One can't help but have their mouth water...
And so the royal doughnut is successfully made: Whisk sugar with egg yolk and egg, rum, vanilla sugar, and lemon zest until frothy using a hand mixer. Combine the yeast mixture with the remaining flour and the egg mixture, and knead for 4 minutes. Then add the soft butter and salt. Knead the dough for another 6 minutes. Divide the dough into small pieces of 50 g each and knead them on a smooth surface with your palms to form round balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet dusted with flour and let them rise in the oven with only the light on at temperatures between 27 °C and 30 °C for 30 minutes. After they have risen, carefully fry the doughnuts in hot fat at a temperature of about 170 °C until they are golden brown. Make sure to turn the doughnuts once during frying so that they brown evenly.
The Final
Now we have almost finished doughnuts, which should be carefully lifted out of the oil and drained on kitchen paper or a rack to cool slightly. The only thing left is the filling: The lukewarm doughnuts are filled with apricot jam mixed with rum using a piping bag, and (almost) completed. The icing on the cake, so to speak, is the powdered sugar, which can be sprinkled on according to taste.
Afterwards, a tip for variation: Instead of apricot jam, the doughnuts can also be filled with cranberries or applesauce.
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