Pennsylvania Dutch Fastnachts Donut Food

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH FASNACHT DOUGHNUTS

Steps:

• Using a small saucepan, scald the milk and allow to cool.
• Combine the 2 packets of active dry yeast and the warm water in the mixing bowl of the stand mixer that's fitted with the dough hook attachment. Let the yeast proof (or sit) for 10 minutes.
• Add in the melted butter, cooled milk, salt, granulated sugar, nutmeg, and eggs. Then set the mixer speed to low and add in the flour one cup at a time, until the dough begins to form. There will be a lot of dough and it will be sticky, but it should pull away from the sides of the bowl easily. If you find that the dough is just way too sticky, you can add 1 tbsp. of flour until the dough is slightly tacky.
• Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5-8 minutes until smooth.
• Then place in a lightly greased, medium size bowl, flipping it over once to coat the entire ball of dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap (do NOT use aluminum foil) and also place a clean, dry kitchen towel over top, and place in a warm, draft free spot for about 1 - 1.5 hours or until it's almost doubled in size. That last part is very important!
• Gently punch the dough down in the center, then turn it out on to a clean and lightly floured surface and, using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about a 1/2" thickness. Coat your circle cutter (mine was 2.5" dia in size) with some flour and then cut out the fasnacht doughnuts, placing them onto a parchment lined baking sheet (space them out about 1" a part, they will get bigger). With any leftover dough you may have, you can roll some into balls to make donut holes.
• Cover the fasnacht doughnuts with a clean tea or dish towel and allow to rest for 1 hour or until they've almost doubled in size.
• Meanwhile, line a large baking sheet with about 2-3 layers of paper towels with a cooling rack placed over top. Set aside. Note, the cooling rack part is optional.
• When ready to fry the fasnacht doughnuts, place the canola oil into a deep heavy skillet or stock pot and heat until it reaches 365ºF. Two important notes here: 1. Add in the oil BEFORE you turn on the heat to heat up the oil. 2. Do not guess at what you think the temperature might be - use a candy/deep fryer thermometer.
• Place 2-3 doughnuts in at a time for approx. 45 seconds to 1 minute on each side, turning them over with either tongs or a slotted spoon. You want the donuts to be a nice medium golden brown in color. At the correct temperature, they will fry quickly, so please pay attention while you're doing this part! If you're new to making homemade doughnuts, I would recommend only frying one at a time until you get the hang of it.
• When the doughnuts are ready, carefully remove them from the oil and place them onto the cooling rack or paper towels to let any excess oil drain off of it. Allow them to cool slightly before adding the opening for the filling (optional).
• When doughnuts are still warm and ready for coating, place 2-3 in a large ziplock bag with either the sugar or cinnamon sugar, and toss around until covered. Place them onto a parchment lined baking sheet or just begin to eat them.
• The doughnuts should be cooled before adding the vanilla pastry cream filling.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the vanilla pudding mix and milk until it thickens.
• Using your hand-mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream on high speed for several minutes until medium peaks form.
• Fold the whipped cream into the vanilla pudding mix with a spatula until completely blended.
• Take a large piping bag fitted with a piping tip of your choice (I used the Wilton 1M tip) and fill with the vanilla pastry cream. Pipe into the doughnuts until filled.

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH FASTNACHTS DONUT RECIPE

Steps:

• First, peel potato and cut it into cubes. Boil it until soft. Save the starchy water. Mash potato cubes and measure out one cup.
• Measure the starchy water and add more water until you have 4 cups.
• Proof yeast if you think it is old or wasn't stored properly.
• Then, in a very large bowl (3 gallons or so because it'll rise in this bowl overnight) add two cups of sugar, mashed potatoes, very warm starchy water (temperature should be 110-120F for yeast to rise) and yeast. This is very warm/hot water. It's best to use a thermometer. Stir.
• Check back in a few minutes. You should start to see some foam which means the yeast is working. If there is no foam at all, the yeast could be dead and you should get a new packet. Let it sit for 1 hour. It's o.k. if it sits longer (up to three hours.)
• Add in the butter, eggs, salt, and two cups of flour at a time. Use a mixer or stand mixer with a dough hook. Add enough flour until it's only slightly sticky when you touch the dough. It should spring back a little when you touch it. Place the dough in a 3 gallon or so bowl covered with a clean dish towel to rise overnight.
• This is what the dough looks like after it sits overnight. It will have doubled in size and fill the container.
• Line 5 sheet pans with wax paper.
• Add flour to counter and pull out a handful at a time to roll onto floured surface. Roll out long pieces as shown. Then, pull apart the size donut you want to make. Knead it in your hands and push a hole through the middle. Add it to the sheet pan lined with wax paper.
• After you've rolled out all of the donuts. Let them sit for one hour for the third rise.
• Add oil to a frying pan and turn the fan on high. The oil temperature should reach 400-425F. Line a platter with paper towels to place cooked donuts upon.
• Carefully place the donuts in the hot oil and cook on each side for 2-4 minutes. When you see the bottom edge of donut is brown, it's time to flip it. As soon as you remove each donut, sprinkle sugar on top while the donut oil is still wet so the sugar adheres to it a little better or you can just remove all of the donuts and sprinkle with sugar all at once.
• Change oil midway through frying the donuts. The oil will get brown. Pour it into a glass container (plastic will melt with hot oil) that you can discard. Put new oil in the frying pan or fryer and continue with previous step.

FASTNACHTS PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH STYLE

Steps:

• Mix together all ingredients except flour.
• Gradually add flour, stirring well, using spoon until too thick.
• Then use hands and start kneading, gradually adding more flour until no longer sticky.
• Cover with wet cloth and let rise in warm place for about 4 hours.
• Roll dough on floured board to 1/2 to 3/4-inch thickness.
• Cut into rectangles about 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches.
• Make hole in center.
• Place on floured board and let rise about 1 hour.
• Deep fry in lard or vegetable oil at 360° until golden brown.
• Flip to other side and brown.
• Drain on paper towels.
• (Recipe can easily be doubled).
• Mix some powered sugar with a bit of nutmeg.
• Dust with powdered sugar/nutmeg while still warm.

FASTNACHTS, PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH

Steps:

• Prepare 1 cup freshly riced potatoes.
• Beat well 2 eggs.
• Add very slowly, beating constantly, 2/3 cup sugar.
• Stir in potatoes and 1 cup buttermilk or yogurt, and 2 tblspns melted butter.
• Sift before measuring 4 cups all-purpose flour.
• Resift w/ 2 tspns double acting baking powder, 1 tspn baking soda, 2/3 tspn salt, and 1/3 tspn nutmeg or cinnamon.
• Stir in sifted ingredients into potato/egg mixture until blended.
• Chill dough until easy to handle.
• Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and cut.
• Cook in oil at 375º F.
• It's easiest to add them to the oil w/ a pancake flipper.
• Flip as soon as brown on one side.
• Takes about 3 minutes to cook one fastnacht.