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German Fritters, or Brioche Fritters
Take as much brioche paste (see BRIOCHE PASTE) as may be required. Roll it out till it is a quarter of an inch in thickness. Stamp it into small rounds with the top of a wine glass, put a small piece of jam on half of these, moisten the edges, and cover each one with a similar round to that on which the jam is laid. Press the two pieces of paste securely together, lay the wine-glass or cutter once more over them, to trim them evenly; then put the fritters gently and carefully into a pan of hot fat, and fry them until lightly browned. When done, drain them from the fat, and serve as hot as possible. They should be piled on a hot napkin, with a little sifted sugar and powdered cinnamon strewn over them.
A jam doughnut in all but name, built from brioche dough rather than a plain sweet dough. Most of the work is in the sealing.
- The hinge: seal, then restAny gap in the seam lets jam escape into the fat, where it burns and spits. Moisten only a narrow band of the edge, press firmly all round, and use the glass a second time as the recipe says, which cuts a clean welded rim. Let the assembled fritters prove 20-30 minutes before frying so the yeast dough is light.
- Brioche pasteThe cross-reference is to a yeast-raised butter-and-egg dough, not a modern puff or short paste. A rich brioche with roughly half its weight in butter to flour works; chill it hard before rolling, or it will be unmanageable at a quarter inch.
- The wine glassWine glasses of the period were generally smaller than modern ones, but sizes varied and the recipe gives no measurement. A cutter of around 2 to 2.5 inches gives fritters of a sensible size; anything larger risks a raw centre.
- Jam quantityA rounded teaspoon per fritter is the practical maximum. Use a thick, set preserve rather than a loose conserve, which will thin in the heat and force the seam.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe says only 'a pan of hot fat', with the heat judged by eye. Aim for 340-350F. Hotter and the brioche browns before the dough sets around the jam; cooler and it drinks fat. Expect about 2 minutes a side.
- Draining and the hot napkinDrain on paper first, then pile on the folded napkin for serving as directed. Sugar and cinnamon should go on while the surface is still hot enough to hold them.
- Yield and timingA pound of brioche dough gives roughly 12 to 16 fritters. They are genuinely only good within about ten minutes of frying, which is why the original insists twice on heat.
The dish is the same idea as the German Krapfen or Berliner and the Polish pączek, all of them enriched yeast doughs sealed round a spoonful of preserve and fried, and all traditionally associated with the eating-up of butter, eggs and sugar before Lent. Calling it a fritter rather than a doughnut reflects nineteenth-century English usage, in which "fritter" covered a wide range of things fried in deep fat; the choice of brioche paste and the instruction to trim each one with the cutter for a neat edge suggest a professional French rather than a domestic German model, though the recipe itself says nothing of its origin.