Berliner Pfannkuchen

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital scale
• •Stand mixer or strong hands and a wide bowl
• •Heavy deep pot or Dutch oven
• •Frying thermometer
• •Spider or slotted spoon
• •Wire rack
• •Piping bag with long filling nozzle

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Warm the milk to 35 to 38C, warm to the finger but not hot, because heat kills yeast and dead yeast gives you fried bread, not Pfannkuchen. Stir in the yeast and a spoon of the sugar, then leave it 10 minutes until creamy and lightly foaming. If you're using instant yeast, it can go straight into the flour, but waking it first tells you whether it's alive before the butter and eggs are wasted.

2. 2

   Knead the dough

   Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, lemon zest if using, egg, yolks, rum if using, and yeast milk until a rough dough forms. Knead 5 minutes, then work in the soft butter piece by piece and knead another 6 to 8 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulling from the bowl. Add the butter after the flour has taken the liquid; fat coats flour and slows structure if it goes in too early, and this dough needs strength to trap gas and float high.

3. 3

   Let it rise

   Cover the bowl and leave the dough somewhere warm until doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes. Watch the dough, not the clock. It should look swollen and soft, and a finger pressed into it should leave a slow dent. If it springs back hard, it hasn't built enough gas; if it collapses, you waited too long.

4. 4

   Shape tight rounds

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and divide it into 12 equal pieces, about 75 to 80g each. Cup each piece under your hand and roll it against the board until the top is tight and smooth, then set it seam side down on floured parchment squares. That tight skin gives the Pfannkuchen an even dome; a loose seam leaks gas and fries lopsided.

5. 5

   Proof for the ring

   Cover the rounds lightly and let them proof 35 to 45 minutes, until they are visibly puffy, soft at the edges, and light when you lift the parchment. This is where the pale ring is made. A properly proofed round floats high, so the middle stays above the fat line while the top and bottom colour. Rush this and the whole thing browns like a ball.

   If your kitchen is cold, give the dough time instead of heat. A hot radiator dries the skin, and a dry skin cracks in the fat.
6. 6

   Heat the fat

   Pour 6 to 7cm of oil into a heavy pot, leaving the pot at least half empty so the bubbling fat has room. Heat to 170C, about 340F, and keep it there. Too cool and the dough soaks up fat before the crust sets; too hot and the outside darkens before the center cooks. Runter mit der Temperatur if it climbs.

   Use a thermometer. Guessing at frying fat is how good dough becomes a greasy lesson.
7. 7

   Fry in batches

   Lift each round on its parchment, turn it gently into the fat top side down, and peel the paper away. Fry only 3 or 4 at a time so the temperature does not crash. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on the first side, turn once, and cook 2 minutes on the second side, keeping the fat between 165 and 175C. The Pfannkuchen should be pale gold with one light belt around the middle; if the first one is doughy inside, lower the heat a little and give the next batch more time.

8. 8

   Sugar and fill

   Drain the Pfannkuchen on a rack, then roll them in fine sugar while still warm so the crystals cling. Let them cool 10 to 15 minutes before filling; jam pumped into a hot center loosens and runs. Spoon the warmed, strained jam into a piping bag with a long filling nozzle, push into the side, and pipe 20 to 25g into each one until it feels heavier and a small dot of jam shows.

9. 9

   Serve the day

   Serve the Pfannkuchen the day they're fried, with sugar still dry on the outside and jam sitting clean in the middle. Yeast fried dough tightens as it sits because the fat firms and the crumb loses its softness, so don't pretend tomorrow will be the same. For Silvester, one mustard-filled prank is a local habit. Put it far from the cook.

Chef Tips

• •Use Type 550 flour if you can get it. Plain flour works, but very strong bread flour gives a chew that belongs in a roll, not in a Pfannkuchen.
• •The pale ring is not decoration. It tells you the dough was proofed enough to float and the fat was steady enough to cook the middle before the outside went dark.
• •Strain the jam while it's warm. Seeds and fruit pieces block the filling nozzle, and then you squeeze harder, split the pastry, and learn nothing useful.
• •Berlin likes red jam and powdered sugar; Bavaria leans toward apricot in its Krapfen; Franconia has a proper claim on rosehip jam, Hiffenmark. Pick your region and don't call it one national rule.
• •Save the two egg whites for another bake or breakfast. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
• •Let the frying oil cool completely, then strain it through a fine sieve if it is still pale and clean-smelling. Keep it for one more sweet fry, not for onions or fish.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be mixed the night before and left covered in the refrigerator after kneading. Bring it out for 30 minutes before dividing, because cold dough shapes stiffly and proofs slowly.
• •The jam can be warmed, strained, and chilled up to 3 days ahead. Bring it back to a soft, pipeable texture before filling.
• •Do not proof the shaped rounds far ahead. Once they are light and ready, they need the fat, not a long wait.
• •Filled Pfannkuchen are best the same day. If you must work ahead, fry them in the morning and fill them shortly before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 120g)