German Doughnuts (Berliner)

Learn how make these German doughnuts aka. Berliner from my German mum in law, Beate. The German doughnuts are made with a sweet yeast dough that’s flavored with rum.  After baking they are filled with jam/ jelly, coated with cinnamon sugar at the bottom and dusted with icing sugar. So good!

German jelly filled doughnuts aka. Kreppel, Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Krapfen, Faschingskrapfen or whatever you call them, are ”MUST haves” for carnival. Carnival or fasching is a German tradition, celebrated once a year in February or March (6 weeks before Easter).

This year carnival started on the 28th of Feb and will end on the 06th of March 2019. Around this time, people wear masks and costumes, drink lots of alcohol and eat rich and hearty food, before the fasting season of Lent begins. The school kids, at least in Bavaria even get a week off, to celebrate carnival.

Each family has their own recipe when it comes to making jelly doughnuts. Therefore today I would like to share with you how my mum in law makes her doughnuts, that she bakes each and every year, shortly before or during carnival. This year I joined her make them, since we double the recipe.

The kind of jelly or jam used to fill the doughnuts differs, based on where you are in Germany. Typical Franconian jelly doughnuts aka. Krapfen or Faschingskrapfen are filled with Hiffenmark (rosehip) jam, while in other regions they use strawberry, apricot jam (flavored with rum) and so on.

But which ever jam you will use, I guarantee you that they will still taste incredible. In this recipe, the doughnuts are coated with cinnamon sugar at the bottom and dusted lightly with icing sugar on top.

Just like the best cheesecake ever recipe, I’ve tasted different doughnuts, but I must say that none could beat this recipe from my mum in law. My very picky husband hardly eats jelly filled doughnuts made by someone other than his mum or wife.

This recipe is easy and tastes insanely delicious, (not too sweet). You can have the doughnuts as a snack, for breakfast, brunch or coffee time. You can also use this recipe as a base and fill your doughnuts with any filing of your choice from chocolate mousse to vanilla pudding.

Making German jelly filled donuts is very time consuming, but it’s worth it. You must definitely have a helping hand, to speed up everything a bit.

What you’ll need for German donut recipe

For the sweet yeast dough

• 1 kg (about 2.2 lbs/ 8 cups ) plain flour (all purpose flour), plus extra for dusting
• 4 medium eggs, room temperature
• 100 g (3.5 oz/ ½ cup) sugar
• 150 g (about 5.3 oz/ ⅔ cup) butter
• 450 ml (15.2 fl.oz/ about 1 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons) milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 42 g (1.5 oz) fresh yeast/ 5 teaspoons (14 g/ ½ oz) dry yeast 
• 3 tablespoons rum
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil plus extra to grease the bowl and the dough

For the donut filling

• 680 g (1.5 lbs) jam (hiffenmark (rosehip)/ strawberry /aprikot jam or any

For the topping

• 100 g (3.5 oz/ ½ cup) sugar 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• icing sugar to dust the doughnuts

You’ll also need:

• 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) clarified butter/ 1.5 liters (about 6 ¼ cups) sunflower oil or any oil of your choice
• 2 bowls
• cooling rack
• spoon/ fork
• pot + cover
• syringe / pipping bag
• cutting boards
• kitchen machine or a hand mixer
• cookie cutter/ water glass with thin edge (with 7 ½ cm diameter or approx 3 inches)

How to make German donuts

How to make sweet yeast dough

Warm the milk and melt the butter in a microwave or pot separately and let cool. Then crack the eggs in a bowl and mix well using a fork.

My mum in law always warms milk and butter separately, because she just takes milk and use based on her instincts. This time we measured everything precisely.

Next combine fresh yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a bowl. Using a spoon break the yeast into small pieces and mix well. Leave the mixture for 10 minutes or until you have a watery mixture.

• If you’re using dry yeast, add 2 tablespoons flour (from the 1 kg (8 cups) flour), 1 tablespoon sugar (from the 100 g sugar (¼ cup+ 2 tbs)) and yeast to the jar with half of lukewarm milk. Stir well and let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes.

Put the flour, the remaining sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well. Make a hole in the middle, then pour in the yeast – sugar mixture in the middle.

Cover the yeast with flour, so that the yeast will not come in contact with the following ingredients. Add the eggs, followed by melted and lukewarm butter.

Start mixing, while adding the lukewarm milk slowly. Add rum while the dough is busy kneading, then sunflower oil and knead.

Knead the yeast dough

Knead the dough very well. I normally knead my dough like this:

1) If I’m kneading it with the hand mixer, I knead the dough for about 8 minutes at low speed and then for 5 minutes on medium high speed.

2) With the kitchen machine I knead the dough for 7 minutes at low speed (speed 1, on Bosch kitchen machine) and for 3 more minutes at medium high speed (speed 3).

3) With the hands, I knead the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes. If the dough is sticky when kneading with the hands, just oil them with few drops of vegetable oil.

If you’re using a heavy duty kitchen machine, please knead your dough for maximum 7 minutes in total. Otherwise you will be overworking the dough.

Let the dough rise

Put the dough in the greased bowl. Pour few drops of oil on the dough, so that the dough will not dry out. Using your hands, apply the oil evenly and cover with a kitchen cloth. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour in a warm place.

Make sure that the dough is in a large bowl, since it will double it’s size after rising.

Prepare the German doughnut filling

In the meantime, mix cinnamon and sugar. Then take the jam, stir it very well and fill the syringe or a pipping bag with it. Afterwards lightly flour the cutting boards.

Shape yeast doughnuts and let rise

After 1 hour, kip the dough on a lightly floured surface. Gently shape it into a round form and cut off a bit of the dough

Roll out the dough (2 cm (0,79 inch) thick). Using a lightly floured water glass or a round cookie cutter, cut the rolled out dough into flat balls. Put the doughnuts on a floured board.

Pour few drops of oil on the doughnuts and rub them nicely. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for another 15 minutes. Repeat the process until you have used up the dough. 

The remaining dough between the cut doughnuts, you can either re-roll it or you cut it into small pieces and let it rise as well. (when deep fried, it will look like mini doughnut sticks.)

How to fry German doughnuts

In the meantime heat the oil in the pot at medium-low heat. Insert the wooden spoon handle in oil to see if the oil is ready.

If bubbles start forming around the spoon, then the oil is ready. If you have a kitchen thermometer, then start frying when the oil has 150 °C (302 °F ).

Using your hands pick up one doughnut at a time and put it in a pot. Once you have 4 doughnuts in the pot, cover it and wait for exactly 3 minutes.

• The pot must be nicely filled with the doughnuts, depending on the size. So that the doughnuts won’t have a chance to turn while in the pot.

Turn the doughnuts and bake for another 3 minutes, without a cover.

• When the doughnuts are having a beautiful white ring around them shows that the dough rose nicely.

How to fill German doughnuts with jam

Remove the doughnut from the fat, let cool a bit on the cooling rack, until you’ll be able to touch it with your hands. Then coat the bottom of the doughnuts with cinnamon sugar that you’ve previously prepared.

Using a syringe fill the doughnuts with jam. If you’re using a pipping bag, poke a hole in the doughnut with a toothpick and fill with jam.

Mini doughnut sticks topped with cinnamon sugar or jam.

Before serving dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

More authentic German doughnuts recipes

• Apfelkrapfen
• Ausgezogene Krapfen
• Baked berliner

Did you make this German doughnut recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Simply write a review and add rating to it.