Krapfen (German Jelly Donuts)

Instructions

1. Add the flour, salt, and sugar to a medium-sized mixing bowl.

2. Stir everything together with a spoon.

3. Add the yeast and stir again.

4. Then add the egg yolks and butter.

5. Mix everything together using the spiral dough hooks of your electric mixer.

6. While mixing with your mixer, slowly pour in the warm (not hot!) milk and keep mixing until the dough has an elastic consistency and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl anymore.

7. Form the dough into a ball with your hands, then place it back into the bowl.

8. Cover the bowl with a lid or dish towel and place it in a warm spot without a draft in your home.

9. Let the dough rise for approximately 45 minutes.

10. Once the dough has noticeably increased in size, sprinkle some flour onto the countertop and briefly knead the dough with your hands.

11. Cut or rip the dough into 6 (for big donuts which is what we typically make), 8 (normal-sized), or 12 (mini-sized) pieces of equal size.

12. Shape the small pieces of dough into round balls, then flatten the top and the bottom slightly so that they get their typical Krapfen shape.

13. Try to avoid as many seams as possible and have them at the bottom.

14. This can take a bit of practice.

15. Once you have shaped all of the dough into small Krapfen (don’t worry, they’ll increase their size quite a bit when you fry them), place a dish towel over them and let them rest for another 20 minutes.

16. In the meantime, take a pot with high sides and fill it with quite a bit of oil.

17. You’ll want enough oil so that the donuts would be floating in the oil and not touch the bottom.

18. So, the exact amount depends on your pot and the size of your Krapfen.

19. Heat the oil in the pot on medium heat until there are visible bubbles when you place a wooden spoon into the hot oil.

20. Then turn down the heat just a little bit.

21. When the 20 minutes are up, add one "test donut" to the pot.

22. Make sure that there is enough oil in the pot so that the donut is not touching the bottom of the pot (otherwise part of it might burn).

23. Fry the donut on medium-low heat for around 3-4 minutes (for small donuts 2-3 minutes might be sufficient) until that side is nicely brown, then flip it over and fry the other side for the same amount of time.

24. It’s necessary to do this on medium-low heat so that the inside of the Krapfen can cook without the outside getting burned.

25. This is especially important when you’re making large Krapfen.

26. Once the Krapfen is cooked, remove it from the pot with a straining spoon and place it on a plate lined with paper towels to catch excess oil.

27. Let the Krapfen sit for a minute or two, then fill it with the jam while it is still warm.

28. For this step, you can use a piping bag with a small tip or a plastic "squeeze bottle" container (this is what we used), for example.

29. Gently poke a hole in the middle "seam" of the donut and insert the jam.

30. You can put as much jam or as little jam as you like, just make sure that not too much jam is dripping out of the hole.

31. After filling the donut, dust it in powdered sugar.

32. Then set it aside and fry, fill, and dust the rest of the Krapfen.