Before you go thinking that you’re getting the Frank family fasnacht kuechle recipe, I’ll let you know this comes from my Irish upbringing.
This is different to this recipe or this recipe.
There was a bit of a heritage identity crisis in my childhood. My mother, the original reduction rebel in my life, would make special cultural culinary creations that didn’t necessarily align with our nationality. Unfortunately the Irish corn beef and cabbage meal was not a crowd-pleaser amongst my four siblings and me (the neighbor kids loved it). However, on Fat Tuesday, we had no problem partaking in the fasnacht festivities. I guess it would make sense that later in life I’d find out I was part German on my dad’s side…and my real German love, my husband.
I’ll now take you back to my early childhood in the late 70’s, early 80’s when my mother would fill up the mini deep frier. I remember sitting on the kitchen table watching over the fryer like it was a magic wishing well….
Note: for those of you who want to make easy peasy fasnachts, there’s a shortcut for you at the end!
This also makes a great hobby for women during times of being stuck at home.
Fasnacht Recipe
If you’re not familiar with fasnachts, that is the German word for doughnut. They are much like fried dough that you can get at the fair.
As you can see these are not 4″x4″ – if only there was a ruler on my rolling pin!
5 cups of flour (*You might need more flour. Your dough should be sticky, but not too wet like batter)
1 cake of yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1tb salt
1tb shortening – melted
2tb butter – melted
2 cups milk – scald, then cool
Put flour in bowl, make hole in middle. Set aside. In a separate bowl, break up yeast and sprinkle 1/2 tb sugar. Let the sugar start to break down yeast. Then add 1/2 of warm milk. Mix. Pour into the hole in flour. Set aside to let yeast foam.
Add milk, eggs, salt, sugar, shortening and butter. Mix the dough. cover and set in warm place until double in bulk – about 1 hour.
Roll out, cut into 4″ squares (the best you can) and let rise for a few minutes.
Pull dough a little so it’s thinner in the middle. Deep fry 1 minute on each side. Cool and sprinkle with confectioner sugar.
If you don’t have a deep fryer, you could use a Dutch oven (that’s what I used) or even just put an inch of vegetable oil in a pan.
Now that we just went through all that, I’ll tell you that an easy substitution for this recipe would be to fry pizza dough that you can buy in the frozen food section of your grocery store. Yes, it’s not authentic, but it will still be delicious and the kids can help.
I loved sharing the experience of making fasnachts with my kids! I explained to my 8 year-old that if the milk is too hot it will kill the yeast. He proceeded to say, “I think we killed the yeast” at least ten times. He was so concerned about the yeast!
And if you’re confused why I put a fried doughnut recipe in the “Wellness” category, I consider family traditions and quality time to be a wellness value – even if it’s fattening. Enjoy! Fat Tuesday comes only once a year!
Reuse Your Cooking Oil
When you’re done, you’ll have a bunch of used cooking oil left in your pot. Because this was just used for dough, I poured mine into a recycled pickle jar and will reuse it. Here are some more tips for reusing and disposing of used cooking oil.
What special treats are a tradition in your house?
Leave me a comment and let me know!