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Baked Berliner Recipe (German Donuts)

These baked German donuts are a great alternative to the traditional fried German donuts. They’re calorie friendly, easy to make, not overly sweet, very light and fluffy and absolutely delicious.
Prep Time35 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Rise Time1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time2 hours 45 minutes
Course: afternoon coffee, afternoon tea, Breakfast, Brunch, Snack
Cuisine: Austrian, European, German
Keyword: baked jelly donuts, German Krapfen recipe, how to
Servings: 14 jelly donuts
Author: Ester | esterkocht.com

Equipment

  • 2 Baking sheets
  • 2 Parchment paper
  • Hand mixer/ Stand mixer (OPTIONAL)
  • syringe or a piping bag

Ingredients

For the sweet yeast dough

  • 500 g (4 cups + 2 tablespoons) plain flour (all purpose flour) plus extra for dusting
  • 2 medium eggs Germany, large US 
  • 50 g (1.8 oz/ ¼ cup) sugar
  • 75 g (2.6 oz/ ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon) butter
  • 225 ml (7.6 fl.oz/ 3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons ) milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 ½ teaspoons dry yeast (7 g (0.25 oz)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons rum
  • 1 ½ tablespoons sunflower oil plus extra for greasing

For the filling and topping

  • 340 g (about 12 oz/ 1 cup) jam (hiffenmark (rosehip)/ strawberry /apricot jam or any
  • 60 g (2.1 oz/ ¼ cup) butter to brush the donuts before and after baking
  • Powdered sugar (icing sugar) for dusting

Instructions

  • Activate the dry yeast: Warm milk in the microwave. Pour half of the milk in a jar. Put the butter in the remaining milk in the jar and melt in the microwave. Stir occasionally until butter has melted. You could also warm the milk on the stovetop.
  • In the meantime, add 2 tablespoons flour (from 500 g (4 cups + 2 tablespoons)) 1 tablespoon sugar (from 50 g (about 1.8 oz/ ¼ cup)) and yeast to the jar with lukewarm milk. Stir well and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes. The yeast mixture will become foamy and bubbly after 10 minutes.
    Remove the jar with milk – butter mixture from the microwave and let cool.
  • Add the remaining flour, the remaining sugar, eggs, and salt to a large bowl. Then pour in the yeast - sugar mixture. Start mixing, while adding the lukewarm milk - butter mixture slowly. It’s very important that milk and butter mixture is lukewarm and not hot before using it. Otherwise, hot milk will kill the yeast.
    Once you have used up all the milk butter mixture, add rum while kneading the dough followed by sunflower oil. Then knead the dough very well.
  • I normally knead my dough like this: 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.
    With the kitchen machine (stand mixer) 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).
    With the hands, I knead the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes. 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.
  • Transfer the dough to a greased larger bowl Cover with cling film and then with kitchen towel.
    You could also leave the dough in the same bowl that you’ve used to make it. Just rub it with a few drops of oil, turn it well so that it is completely covered with oil and the cover.
    Let rise for about 1 hour at room temperature or until dough has doubled in size. In the meantime, line two baking sheets with parchment papers and lightly dust the working surface.
  • Tip the dough onto a floured surface and carefully cut it into two equal parts. Cover one part with kitchen towel or cling film, so that it won’t dry out. Then roughly divide the remaining into 7 equal pieces.
    Grease your hands with oil and gently shape into dough balls. Transfer the dough balls on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Cover the baking sheet with the first dough balls aka. donuts with plastic dust sheet or with simply a kitchen towel and let rise for another 30 minutes.
  • Rub your hands once more with a few drops of sunflower oil, divide and the shape the remaining dough half into approximately 7 equal parts. Then put the dough balls on the second baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Let the dough balls rise for 30 minutes.
  • In the meantime, melt the butter in the microwave or on the stovetop. Then take the jelly/ jam, stir it very well and fill the syringe or a pipping bag with it. Afterwards preheat the oven to 180°C (356 °F).
  • After the second rise brush the dough balls on the first baking sheet with butter and bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are lightly golden.
  • Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let cool until you’ll be able to touch them with your hands. In the meantime, brush the dough balls on the second baking sheet after the second rise with butter and bake for about 20 minutes as well.
  • 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. Next brush the donuts with melted butter. Then dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!!
  • These German jelly donuts stay fluffy, moist, and light even after 3 days. Just keep baking sheet with the cake covered with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap. Don’t forget to warm them in the microwave for a few seconds.

Notes

  • This yeast dough recipe calls for rum, but if you’re not a fan or don’t have any at home, feel free to use about 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar. If you’re suing vanilla sugar, just reduce the amount of sugar with 2 tablespoons.