The history of the donut goes back to Medieval Germany, and maybe even further. The donut is described in an ancient German cookbook as a round sandwich made of yeast dough, stuffed and fried in lard - a folksy and filling hot snack for the cold winter. Today it is considered a sweet confection, but originally it was stuffed with savory fillings such as pickled fish puree, ground beef, mushrooms, or cheese.
Sweet fillings captured the donut's heart starting in the 16th century, when a drop in the price of sugar made it feasible to preserve fruit as jams and other concoctions. Only after it was filled with fresh jam did the donut excite the taste buds of the other northern European peoples. The sweet donut proceeded to become a winter holiday dish in such countries as Holland, France, Denmark, Poland, and Russia.
In Germany the donuts are called Berliners and are a popular street food. They're eaten fried, hot, and generally filled with strawberry, black plum, raspberry or apricot jam. Who can forget the speech that John F. Kennedy gave in 1963 to show solidarity with the German people, in which he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." Because of a small grammatical error, the German audience understood the words as "I am a donut" instead of "I am a Berliner."
The Jewish custom of eating donuts during Hanukkah is relatively new, and came to these parts only following the immigration of Polish Jews. They fried the donuts in goose schmaltz (rendered fat ) instead of lard, and consumed them during the Hanukkah holiday, while Europen Gentiles ate Berliners for Christmas.
The Hebrew name for donut, sufganiya, comes from the word "sufganin," a reference in the Mishna to bread that is sponge-like and made from soft batter.
Below is the traditional recipe for Berliners.
Lots of patience necessary
Making a proper donut is a task that requires a little know-how and a lot of patience. To produce airy and soft donuts you should stick to the following rules:
* If using dry yeast, combine it with the flour and other dry ingredients and only then add liquids.
* Allow the dough three risings in a warm place (you can heat the oven to 40 degrees, then turn it off and put the dough inside to rise ), each time for at least half an hour.
* After shaping the dough into balls of the desired size, lay them on an oven tray that has been greased with oil rather than sprinkled with flour - flour absorbs grease.
* Remove the dough balls from the greased tray with a spatula, not your hands, to retain their roundness.
* Adding brandy to the dough reduces the amount of oil absorbed into the dough during frying.
* The ideal temperature for deep-frying is 170-180 degrees Celsius. The preferred oil for frying is canola or sunflower. If available, use a professional kitchen thermometer to check the temperature. If you do not have one, fry one donut as an experiment. The bubbling needs to be gentle; furious bubbling means that the oil is too hot. Frying at too high a temperature will brown and even burn the donut on the outside before the dough can cook on the inside. * The recommended frying time is 6-7 minutes. More than that and the donut will begin to absorb oil. * Adding a piece of carrot to the pot while frying will help control the heat.
After frying, wait several minutes for the donuts to cool and then fill them with the help of a pastry bag or a syringe with a long wide tip.
An award-winning recipe by German master baker Falk Suetfels.
Ingredients (30 donuts ) Starter dough:
150 milliliters milk that has stood outside the fridge for half an hour
150 grams white flour
50 grams fresh yeast
Batter:
Starter dough
500 grams sifted flour
150 milliliters milk
75 grams butter at room temperature
50 grams fresh yeast, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt
75 grams (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon ) cane sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 egg yolks
1 No.1 egg
2 tablespoons cognac
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup jam
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 liters sunflower or canola oil
Piece of carrot
Preparation:
Make the starter dough: Mix yeast and milk by hand with a fork in the bowl of an electric mixer and set aside for 10 minutes. Add flour and beat with the dough hook attachment for 3 minutes until sticky dough forms. Cover and leave the mixture to rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Place all the ingredients for the batter in an electric mixing bowl with a dough hook attachment. Beat for 8 minutes at low speed.
The dough will be a little sticky. Transfer to a greased bowl, place in a warm spot, cover with a towel and let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Punch the dough down to push the air out, and let it rise a second time for 30 minutes. Repeat these steps again for a third rising (the dough will grow in bulk each time ).
Flour your hands and tear off pieces of dough the size of ping-pong balls (40 grams ). Roll these into balls on a floured surface and arrange on a greased oven tray. Cover with a towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
Heat a big pot of oil and place a piece of carrot inside. When the oil begins to bubble around the carrot, carefully place the donuts in the pot with their top sides facing downward. Cover the pot and fry for 3 minutes. Turn over the donuts and fry uncovered for another 3 minutes. Do not fry for more than 7 minutes because the donuts will absorb a lot of oil.
Remove the donuts with a slotted spoon onto paper towel.
Let them cool for a bit before injecting with jam and decorating with powdered sugar.
