New Year’s Eve Doughnuts

Ending the old year and beginning the new one is connected to a lot of traditions which can be different from country to country. This time, we would like to share a German tradition with you. Every year, Germans celebrate the new year with a delicious pastry they call “Berliner”. Translated into English, they are called doughnuts.

Those doughnuts are traditionally filled with jam but nowadays you can also get them with Baileys or chocolate cream. In earlier days, German bakers would even fill a small number of doughnuts with mustard so you could never be sure how it is filled and just had to try!

We received the traditional recipe from a friends mother and adjusted it just slightly and here is the result!

While this pastry is traditional in Germany for New Year’s Eve, we think they can be enjoyed throughout the year because they are so delicious.

Have a good start into a happy new year everyone!

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

Total ingredients

All these ingredients will yield approximately 20 doughnuts depending on how big you want to make them. You can easily double or triple the ingredients (except the oil), if you want to make more.

Take whatever jam you like. You can also use different ones for each doughnut. We prefer raspberry as it gives a nice contrast to the sweet glaze.

Difficulty

Baking tools

You will need a big pot suitable as we are going to fry the doughnuts instead of using an oven and baking them. Also a syringe is needed to fill the doughnuts with jam. A baking grill and baking plate can come in handy for cooling the doughnuts after frying.

You can have a look at our nice to have baking tools for the tools we regularly use.

Steps

1. Mix

• Mix salt, sugar and crumbled yeast with milk in a separate bowl
• Heat it up in the microwave on the highest heat for 30 seconds
• Put aside for 10 minutes
• Tip: Use a bowl that fits at least 500 g as the mixture will start to rise

• Start to mix the sugar and eggs until creamy
• Afterwards add the softened butter and mix further
• Next add the dissolved salt, sugar, yeast and milk mixture and also mix further
• As the last step add the all-purpose flour step by step and mix until well combined
• Tip: If you take your butter directly out of the fridge, you can cut the butter into smaller chunks into a bowl and melt in the microwave for about 45 seconds

2. Bulk Fermentation

• Cover the dough and let it ferment for 30 minutes at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
• Images of the dough before and after bulk fermentation

3. Shape

• Get the whole dough into nice rolls by following this short guide:

1. Divide the dough into 20 small dough balls
2. On a very lightly floured surface flatten the dough ball a bit
3. Pull the edges from the sides in the air and then in the middle of the dough to create a smooth outer skin on all sides of the dough ball
4. Flip the dough upside down
5. Cover the dough with your hand forming a claw around it
6. Start rotating little circles with your hand on the dough for about 10 to 15 seconds
7. Again flatten the dough a bit
8. Place it aside on a floured surface

• Repeat the process for each dough ball

• You can check this short video from us on how this is done from our sunday morning breakfast rolls recipe:

4. Proof

• Cover all dough balls with a kitchen towel
• Let them proof for 30 minutes at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)

5. Fry & Cool

• Prepare something where you can place the deep-fried doughnuts to cool
• We used a baking grill placed on a baking plate for that
• Pour the oil in a big pot and heat it up
• Lower the heat to medium and place 4 to 5 dough balls in it
• Turn them upside down after 3 minutes and fry for another 4 minutes
• Afterwards take the doughnuts out on the baking grill and let them cool for 15 minutes
• Repeat the process for the other dough balls
• Tip: You can put a wooden spoon into the oil and if small bubbles appear around it, the oil has the right temperature

6. Fill

• Take a syringe and fill it with jam
• Inject the syringe in each doughnut and fill it with about 20 g jam

7. Glaze

• Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar
• The glaze should be quite thick, therefore you should just add a bit of water to the powdered sugar and stir until well combined
• If it is too thick, add a bit more water but be careful
• After you get your preferred thickness you are ready for glazing
• Simply dunk each doughnut with the top side in the glaze for a second and put it back to harden
• Tip: You can also just add powdered sugar on top of the doughnuts if you don’t want to glaze them

Conclusion

Taste

These New Year’s Eve Doughnuts taste like traditional fried pastries. They are filling due to the high amount of dough combined with delicious jam and the glaze on top but so delicious.

As already outlined in our recipe, the jam gives a nice contrast to the glaze. If you are feeling adventurous, you can also covert hem with sprinkles, gummy bears or cover them with a bit of chocolate if you like.

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