Faschingskrapfen are a very well known dessert in austria. You can get them all year long, but most ‘Krapfn’ are usually eaten during carnival time. The recipe is amazing, though quite a lot of work. After finishing tweaking this recipe Ill try to get a faster and easier version down for sure.

Ingredients

Dampferl:

• 150g fine wheat flour
• 20g fresh yeast
• 50g sugar

Main Dough:

• 350g fine wheat flour
• 7g salt
• 225g warm milk
• 60g butter
• 3 egg yolks (maybe use 4)
• 2cl rum
• zest of half a lemon
• seeds of half a vanilla bean

Filling:

• 300g apricot yam

Instructions

Note: For this recipe I sifted the flour. I usually do not bother, but I tried to make this version as fancy as possible.

Dampferl

Start by mixing the ‘Dampferl’ to activate the yeast. To do so heat the milk to 35 degrees and mix in the other ingredients. Let this rest covered at a warm place until it foams up and has doubled in size. This will not take long (ca 10 minutes if you let it rest at 30 degrees).

Main Dough

In the meanwhile you can melt the butter, separate the egg yolks and measure the other ingredients. Once the Dampferl is ready, combine it with the main dough ingredients and knead it until you have a smooth dough. Again let this rest covered in a warm environment. You want the dough to gain at least 50% in size (ca 15 minutes at 30 degrees). Don’t let it rise too much in this step or the dough might over ferment which you will taste in the end.

Forming

Shortly knead the dough again and split it into 16-20 portions (I aimed for ca. 55g each). Form little balls and place them on a baking tray with a lot of space between them. Note that this step is crucial for a good looking result. The smoother the skin of your doughlings is the more pretty the end result will be. Also note that rips in the skin will soak up way more oil than a nice shaped one. So investing time here does pay off in multiple ways.

After shaping the little balls, let them sit covered for 10 minutes at room temperature. This will allow them to rise just a bit, but will make more round and uniform. After that you want to flatten them (using either a lightly oiled cutting board or a pasta roller or an oiled flat bottom cup). Let them rest covered in a warm and humid environment until they doubled in size (20 minutes at 30 degrees). Note that they will rise again, so you should place them far enough appart so they don’t stick to each other.

Baking

Preheat oil in a pot or pan. Note that you need to deep fry this dish, so you do need at least 5cm deep oil. The temperature you are aiming for is 155-170 degrees, not more! If you are below 155 degrees they will not get golden properly. If you are above 170 degrees they will get dark very fast. I found that a light but constant bubbling with some hissing shows that you are in a good spot. If the hissing stops add some more heat. If it starts bubbling wild and hissing more angry remove the heat instantly.

Place the doughlings in the oil upside down and fry them until golden brown with the pot (or pan) covered. After that flip them and fry the other side uncovered. Note that covering the pot during the first side does allow a better rise, but also allows for a faster bake of the Krapfen. With lid open it might not be fully through. You want to fry them for 3 minutes on both sides. If you go shorter they will not be fully baked in the inside.

If you cant hold the wanted temperature and got it too hot, rather fry both sides shorter and get them out while still nice and golden. Place them on a baking tray and finish them in the oven. 180 degrees and 15 minutes (in a preheated oven) should do the trick in any case. This is also a good option in case you do not want to fry them covered on the first side.

Afterward let them rinse on a sheet of kitchen paper and let them cool down a bit. Traditionally Krapen are filled with apricot jam, though there are variants with vanilla cream or other fillings. Fill them with a piping bag and cover them with powdered sugar.

Next Time…

• Reduce the rum to 1cl
• Try to increase the yeast to 30g. This will reduce the times a bit (or rather reduce the temperature to 30-32 degrees instead of 35) but should make them more fluffy.
• Take more time forming. A perfect skin on the doughlings will show afterward. Also, form them, let them sit for 5-10 minutes before pressing them flat. This will allow them to rise a bit in between, which will give them a way more round shape (updated recipe)