Carnival doughnuts according to grandma's recipe

The "best" carnival doughnuts in the entire Wipptal

Maria - called Midi by everyone - makes the best carnival doughnuts in the Wipptal - I'll just say that now. And she's been doing it for over 50 years, she tells me. The recipe is from an old cookbook and some of the ingredients are from her own farm - at least the milk, butter and eggs. That can only lead to a particularly good result!

"The carnival doughnuts don't always turn out equally well, and things can easily go wrong. When I was still a young girl and made carnival doughnuts with my sister for the first time, my sister misjudged the quantities and used 400 g of butter instead of 40 g for the dough. The result was a greasy "Toagpatzn" (lump of dough). Oh, what a laugh we had!" says the 76-year-old farmer's wife. She used to make the carnival doughnuts in large quantities and invite family and friends to a carnival doughnut meal on Shrove Tuesday.

• 500 g flour (half double/half plain)
• 30 g fresh yeast
• 20 g sugar for steaming
• Approx. 50 ml milk for steaming
• ¼ l milk
• 6 Yolks
• 1 KL salt
• 50 g powdered sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• Lemon peel
• 3 tablespoons rum
• 100 g butter

What else is needed:

• Apricot jam
• Coconut oil 
• Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Midi always weighs the ingredients to be on the safe side. Basically, you need a soft yeast dough and a little time to make the doughnuts. First you prepare the "Dampfl". Put the flour in a large bowl, salt it, make a well and crumble the fresh yeast into it. Then add a little sugar and pour the warm milk over it. Stir the mixture a little and then leave to stand.

In a second bowl, add the egg yolks, powdered sugar, rum and lemon zest. Mix with a mixer or food processor until the mixture is fluffy and pale yellow. Briefly stir in the flour and steamed mixture, then pour the yolk mixture into the flour bowl and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Add the melted butter and warmed milk to the dough and then beat the dough again with a food processor or by hand until it is silky smooth. The dough should be rather soft and then form a few bubbles. Then cover the dough and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 20 to 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, prepare a wooden pasta board, the round cookie cutters (one larger, one smaller) and a pasta walker. Flour the work surface and remove some of the risen dough from the bowl. Roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 1 cm and then mark it with the larger cutter (e.g. cup or glass) and cut out the same number of circles. Place a small spoonful of apricot jam on the marked circles and then place a cut-out circle upside down on top, press down and cut out both together again with the smaller cutter. Place the finished doughnuts on a floured baking tray and leave to rise again until they have doubled in size.

Melt the coconut oil in a large pan and heat up. When it is hot, turn it down a little and then place the doughnuts upside down in the hot fat, turn after a short time and remove from the fat when they are nicely browned. Tip: Put the lid on the pan for the first half of the cooking time. Once baked, drain and sprinkle with powdered sugar when slightly cooled. The homemade carnival doughnuts are now ready to eat!

Meal time! ?

TIP: Midi is still working as a chef at Alpengasthof Kasern in Schmirn during the summer season from mid-May to mid-October. There you will find a culinary experience not to be missed.