Berliner

The topping tells you the filling, and the pale band round the middle is the proof it floated.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 60 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 200 ml milk, warm
• 80 g butter, softened
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 kg lard, for frying
• 300 g plum butter, or raspberry, strawberry or cherry jam
• icing sugar, or caster sugar, to finish

Method

1. THE TOPPING TELLS YOU THE FILLING, AND THE PALE BAND ROUND THE MIDDLE IS THE PROOF IT FLOATED. Its article sets out the code: THE FILLING IS RELATED TO THE TOPPING -- FOR PLUM-BUTTER, POWDERED SUGAR; FOR RASPBERRY, STRAWBERRY AND CHERRY JAM, SUGAR; FOR ALL OTHER FILLINGS, SUGAR ICING, SOMETIMES FLAVOURED WITH RUM.
2. SO THE OUTSIDE IS A LABEL, NOT A DECORATION. Icing sugar means plum butter, granulated means a red jam, and poured icing means something else again. Dust the lot in icing sugar and you have thrown the information away.
3. AND THE BAND IS THE OTHER TELL. The dough is ROLLED INTO A BALL, DEEP-FRIED IN LARD, WHEREBY THE DISTINCTIVE BRIGHT BULGE OCCURS. It floats, so a strip round its middle never touches the fat and never colours. No band means it was turned too early or the fat was too deep.
4. THERE IS NO HOLE IN IT, which is the first thing the article says: a GERMAN JAM DOUGHNUT WITH NO CENTRAL HOLE.
5. THE JAM GOES IN AFTERWARDS, THROUGH A SYRINGE. The article is clear that this is the modern way: TODAY THE FILLING USUALLY IS INJECTED WITH A LARGE SYRINGE OR PASTRY BAG AFTER THE DOUGH IS FRIED IN ONE PIECE -- not sealed inside before frying.
6. MAKE A RICH, SOFT DOUGH AND GIVE IT A LONG FIRST RISE. The article's own note is that the yeast dough CONTAINS A GOOD DEAL OF EGGS, MILK AND BUTTER, and that slows the yeast right down. Ninety minutes at least.
7. ROLL BALLS, SET THEM ON FLOURED PAPER AND PROVE THEM UNCOVERED until they wobble. A skin forms, and that is what holds the shape in the fat.
8. THE LARD WANTS TO BE AT A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY AND DEEP ENOUGH TO FLOAT THEM. Too hot and the band closes up; too cool and they drink fat.
9. THREE MINUTES A SIDE, TURNED ONCE ONLY. Turning twice loses the band.
10. FILL THEM WARM AND FINISH THEM TO MATCH, by the code above. The article also records the joke: filling a few with MUSTARD INSTEAD OF JAM and serving them among the real ones.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes