Fat Tuesday Donuts: Fasnachts

Prepare yourself for the most amazing donut you will ever eat.

Ready?

Okay, here's the story: I grew up watching my dad make these over the course of two days. He would start them Monday night and wake up before the sun to finish them on Tuesday. I would wake up to find every surface in the kitchen covered with cut up dough in a variety of odd shapes. It would take him awhile to get them all fried up and coated in either a glaze or plain sugar. The sugar ones were always my favorite and that's what this recipe is for. Even though he used to make them in two days, they can be done in one if you have the time to let them rise twice. Either way, these are not an instant gratification sort of project, but like the oatmeal bread article from awhile back, they are worth the wait.

INGREDIENTS
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chunked
1/3 cup of lard plus lots more for frying (don't get Crisco, find old school lard if you can)
1 cup of milk (I used whole milk, but anything is fine)
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. salt
2 pkg. dry yeast (this is double the original amount. Trust me.)
2 T. warm water (this is to activate the yeast, so make sure it's not too hot.)
1 cup potato water
2 eggs, beaten
9 cups sifted flour

Here we go.

1. Toss the potatoes in water and boil until soft. It'll probably be about 15-20 minutes. Before draining, make sure to save 1 cup of the potato water. Set that aside and drain the taters. Then transfer them to a big bowl and mash them up. I used a hand mixer to get them really smooth.

2. Mix the yeast with the warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Set it aside to activate. When it's ready, it will look like this:

3. Scald the milk. I'll be honest: I looked this up in The Joy of Cooking to make sure I knew what it meant. It means to heat it on the stove until little bubbles form around the edges. So not to a boil, but just beyond a simmer. :) Now remove the milk from heat and let it cool to lukewarm.

4. Melt the 1/3 cup of lard. I do this in the microwave. Then set it aside and let it cool to lukewarm. It will look like this:

*It's important to let everything cool to lukewarm because you're going to be adding these items to your yeast. If they're too hot, your yeast will die. Not to sound too melodramatic, but it really will. And then you'll get a bunch of donut bricks. I speak from experience here. Wait longer if you're not sure the stuff is cool enough. 

5. In a big (and I mean BIG) bowl, put the active yeast, sugar, salt, milk, egg, potatoes, and potato water. Get that all mixed together. Then gradually add the flour. Add the lard at the end when all the flour is blended in.

6. Knead until well mixed. You're gonna have to get your hands in there and get dirty! Add more flour, a little at a time, as and if needed. Let it sit in a warm room. Here is where you can leave it overnight if you so desire. I let it sit in the kitchen for about 2 hours and turned the oven on to about 300 degrees just to keep the room warm.

7. When it's a) the morning or b) doubled in size, turn it out on a floured surface and divide into smaller balls of dough. The recipe calls for 4, but if your space is smaller, you may want to take smaller bits at a time.

8. Roll each section out to about 1/3 inch thick. No need to measure. Just know that they're going to sit and double again, so you want them fairly thin at this point. Cut them using a pizza cutter or cookie cutter. Mine end up being a variety of odd shapes, but be as perfect or imperfect as you want.

9. Now leave them alone to double in size again. They'll look something like this:

10. Now get ready for some work. Hey, you've had around 4 hours of down-time already! Okay, put a big ol' chunk of lard in the frying pan and heat it up until it melts and starts crackling. It's really between a pop and a crackle, but you'll hear it talkin' to you!

11. When that happens, start setting the donuts in the hot lard and let them get brown on one side. Then flip them over and brown them on the other side. Pull them out and dip in a plate or bowl (I used a pie dish, actually) of sugar. I recommend frying a pan full (about 3-5 depending on size) and then do the sugar. Then fry another round and sugar those.

12. This recipe makes about 5 DOZEN of these amazing things, so alert your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and hungry-looking strangers. The baker's spoils of eating the first one brings particular pleasure in this instance. They are best in the first two days. After that, they're fine another two days if you zap them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

Bon Appetit!   :)