Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Curd Doughnuts with Cranberries


Curd Doughnuts
© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2010


During the time of Carnival you will find all different kinds of doughnuts in Germany. Big ones, small ones, filed ones and with all different flavors. These one here are different in their own way: there is curd in the dough. Curd (German: Quark) is very special. It adds such a nice fresh note, something between jogurt and a cream cheese. Cranberries in the dough are not typical for German but they go so well together with the flavor of the curd.

Carnival season in Germany starts on 11th of November at exactly 11.11am each year (called the 5th season) and ends with Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch). The high season for Carnival in Germany starts thursday before ash wednesday called Alt-Weiber-Donnerstag (Old Hag's day). On sunday the street carnival has in many cities of the rhine region a first highlight with parades in the quarters of the cities. In Cologne and Bonn they are called Veedelszoch and it is must to participate in the parade of your own quarter. On carnival monday there are the big parades in the cities. Famous is the carnival monday parade in Cologne, which is one of the biggest ones in Germany.
I have to apologize: I live in Bonn (near Cologne), so my opinion might be influenced in some way.
You can find some more information on Cologne Carnival on Wikipedia. Or you might like to visit the information presented by the City of Cologne.


Curd Doughnuts with Cranberries
(35-40)
250g Curd
3 eggs (medium size)
60g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
1 dash salt
50ml sunflower oil
2 tablespoons raspberry fruit brandy
250g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
40g dried cranberries (chopped)

150g sugar mixed with
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
in a bowl for dusting the fried doughnuts

oil for deep frying


Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt until creamy. Add the curd and mix until blended. Add sunflower oil and mix until blended. Add fruit brandy and mix until blended.

Mix flour, baking powder and chopped cranberries. Add to the egg mixture and mix just until blended. Do not overmix.

Heat oil for deep frying in a suited pot. Carefully put walnut sized pieces of dough into the oil and fry them for 2-4 minutes from each side or until slightly golden. The doughnuts will double in size during frying.

Take the doughnuts out with a slotted spoon and dry on kitchen paper. While still warm roll the doughnuts in the sugar cinnamon mixture.

They are best when they are still warm. Serve them the same day.

8 comments:

Snooky doodle said...

WHAT AN INTERESTING RECIPE!

Unknown said...

I have never heard of curd doughnuts before. I also did not know that Germany celebrated Carnival. I must try these but I will have to substitute with cream cheese for the Quark.

Thorsten said...

Thank you both for your feedback

Wizzy, curd doughnuts are not that common, but I like curd (Quark) very much, so I give it a try.

Where I live (region of Cologne) Carnival is the 5th season of the year and the parades, especially on carnival monday, are big events. Especially kids like it a lot, because they get candies (we call them Kamelle) and all other sweet stuff. And of cause the give away of Strüssche (little bouqets of flowers) are special for Cologne Carnival. I will add a link to Cologne Carnival in my post.

Anonymous said...

they look really yummy. I got some dried cranberries back from Vienna, so I could try them soon ;-)

Thorsten said...

angelanddevilsfood, hope you will like it.

Ketchup said...

Did you say 'donuts'?! These look scrumptious!

Thorsten said...

ketchup, hope you will like them.

Check your credit said...

Yum! They look delicious. Is it better than Krispy Kreme?