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5 from 1 vote

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!
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time1 hour
Rising Time1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time2 hours
Course: afternoon coffee, afternoon tea, Beignets, Breakfast, Brunch
Cuisine: Austrian, European, German
Keyword: berliner, berliner donut recipe, berliner pfannkuchen, donuts, Faschingskrapfen, German Krapfen recipe, how to, krafne, krapfen, krapfen recipe, step by step photo recipe
Servings: 40 German donuts
Author: Ester | esterkocht.com

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 1 kg (2.2 lbs/ 8 cups) plain flour (all purpose flour) plus extra for dusting
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 100  g (3.5 oz/ ½ cup) sugar
  • 150 (about 5.3 oz/ ⅔ cup) butter room temperature
  • 450 ml (15.2 fl.oz/ about 1 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons) milk
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 43 g (1 ½ oz) fresh yeast or 5 teaspoons dry yeast (14 g/ ½ oz)
  • 3 tablespoons rum
  • 2 tablespoons  sunflower oil plus extra 2 tablespoons to grease the bowl and the dough
  • 1 ½ kg (3.3 lbs clarified butter (1.5 liter (about 6 ¼ cups) sunflower oil or any oil of your choice)

For the filling and topping

  • 680 g (1 ½ lbs) jam (hiffenmark (rosehip)/ strawberry /aprikot jam or any
  • 100  g (½ cup) suagr
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • icing sugar to dust the doughnuts

Instructions

  • 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. 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 (¼ cup+ 2 tbs) sugar) and yeast to the jar with 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 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.
  • 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.
  • In the meantime, mix cinnamon and sugar. Then take the jam, stir it very well and fill the syringe or pipping bag with it. Afterwards lightly flour the cutting boards.
  • After 1 hour, kip the dough on a lightly floured surface and gently shape it into a round form. Cut off a bit of the dough, roll it out (2 cm (0,79 inch) thick). Using a water glass with thin edge or a round cookie cutter, cut the rolled out dough into doughnuts. 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. 
  •  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. Turn the doughnuts and bake for another 3 minutes, without a cover.
  •  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 and 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 pastry bag, poke a hole in the doughnut with a toothpick and fill with jam. Dust with icing sugar before serving. Coat mini doughnut sticks with cinnamon sugar or with jam. 

Video

Notes

  • If you're using dry yeast, add 2 tablespoons flour (from the 1 kg flour), 1 tablespoon sugar (from the 100 g sugar) and yeast to the jar with with half of lukewarm milk. Stir well and let the mixture stand for at least 5 minutes.
  • The remaining dough between the cut out 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.)
  • When frying, 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.
  • If you're using a pipping bag, poke a hole in the doughnut with a toothpick and fill with jam.