Remembering Donut Day

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

As some of you know, this Tuesday Past, the 28th of February, was Donut Day, or Fastnacht Day for those of us of German Descent. Religiously, it coincides with the last day before Ash Wednesday every year, and is the German equivalent of the spirit of Mardi Gras, one big fling before we traditionally had to "behave ourselves" for lent. Since German Culture revolved largely around food, and not carnivals, it is sensible that a celebration would be about food. Traditionally, a German housewife would mix up the fastnacht dough on Monday Evening, let it rise overnight, and everyone would eat the Fastnachts (donuts) until they were just about sick on Tuesday.

In my family, my Grandmother had a large crock bowl, that was only used for fastnachts. She mixed the potato-raised dough from memory on monday night, and sat it on a chair, next to the coal stove to raise overnight. What you found Tuesday morning was "The blob that ate Mammy's kitchen".

She, my grandfather, and I would start, punching globs of it down, rolling it, and cutting it into donut shapes, until we had enough room to work. Then a big kettle full of real, honest-to-goodness lard went on the stove. Fastnachts were fried. They expanded to twice their size while frying, and in true production line style, they were layed out on every flat surface in the kitchen and dining room (including card tables and ironing boards), dusted with powdered sugar, and allowed to cool. I was in charge of stacking, and quality control (you had to occaisionally taste-test them), after they had all been rolled out, and were waiting to be fried.

When all was said and done, depending on the number of samples for quality control that were consumed, the number was usually in the neighbourhood of 700. 3 dozen each went to relatives, which took the number in half. 12 dozen went to the church for part of their "fastnacht sale" (my grandmother's were the biggest, lightest there, always). 1 dozen each went to a few neighbours, which left about 12 dozen for primarily my grandfather and I to gorge ourselves on. He and I would eat Fastnachts for all three meals that day, as no one else really cared for them all that much (actually, my grandmother loved them, but she loved other people eating them more). If there were any left at bedtime, he and I ate them with molasses for a bedtime snack. The thing we gave up for lent was obviously---donuts, as did most German-American families, I'd venture to guess.

After Mammy was gone, we didn't do the fastnachts anymore. Donut day still held an important place in my heart, though, as, oddly, one of my favourite holidays of the year. I still buy a dozen or two "fastnachts" from the local bakeries every year, they don't taste the same, but they're close enough to bring back a memory or two. Some traditions are worth keeping, I'm afraid, even though it may not be possible in the modern era.

[ljw]

Tom, Years ago, my next door neighbor always baked pastries, cakes, pies, and apple turnovers, especially around Christmas time. To this day I have never tasted a pie crust so light and flaky. They had apple trees and she used their own apples in baking the pies. I don't think there are many people that make crust from scratch anymore.
Seeing how you're German, I was working in Hagerstown, Md a few years ago and there was a German restaurant downtown that had excellent food. My favorites were the goulash and those noodles. Spaectles? sp North of town was a seafood place with crab, shrimp, etc. They seasoned everything with Old Bay Seasoning. I now use the same seasoning at home. I have a pretty good appetite myself, Tom.
Larry

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

Larry,

I used to bake a lot of pies, and had a good reputation at family events for them. My personal favourite is Elderberry, but I understand that it is an acquired taste. Apple pie is a little bland for my taste, but apple dumplings (served with milk) are a different story.

Making your own pie crust is relatively easy. The trick to keeping them flaky is to use either all lard or at least half lard, and, of course, mess with the dough as little as possible. The more you work it, the tougher and less flaky it gets. Here is my method, and it hasn't failed me yet:

2 2/3 Cups of all-purpose, bleached flour
1 Cup of lard or lard and shortening together
1 tsp salt
enough water to hold it all together (varies with humidity and season)

In a large bowl, pinch the lard into the flour and salt until the result is a course meal in texture.

add water by scant teaspoons until you can gather the dough into a mass, and no more (I just add it by splashes) (never attempt to knead dough, not even once)

Divide dough into halves, and roll each half between a plastic grocery bag, cut down the sides (making a clamshell, with the dough inside).

peel the top layer of the grocery bag off the dough, flip dough and bag into pie plate, and gently peel and shake bag from crust to remove.

repeat for top crust, then,

pinch overhang together at edge of pie pan, and then pinch up overhang to form high "edge"....scallop edge with deep scallops, using your finger to make the zigzags, thereby eliminating need to cut away waste. The high edge is very decorative. Cut design into top crust if needed for steam vents.

Same dough works great for apple dumplings, only cut each crust into 4 pieces, and wrap around whole small apple or half a large one, giving it a good squeeze to hold it together, loose ends on top. Add a Tablespoon of sugar, and half a teaspoon of cinamon to each dumpling, and they'll be nice and juicy inside. Bake until apples are soft inside (fork test). We used to eat them for a meal (about 2 large ones apiece, 3 for me), when my grandmother was alive. Sometimes, if she was feeling terribly sensible, we'd have a sandwich first.

Voila

Now, if anyone knows how to make something called "milk pie" whose filling ingredients consisted of flour, brown sugar, and milk, please let me know. I've not had any since my grandmother died, no one remembers exactly how she made it, and my attempts at reproducing it have failed.

[Jim Becker]

If you google "milk pie" all sorts of things show up. You might check out some of them.

[jim turner]

Hey 400 I'm from the Germ decent and my wife from the Dutch and she thinks maybe you are thinking of the milk pie as having eggs as well as the brown sugar and flour & milk she calls it a custard pie if this is indeed what you are looking for she has the fixins in her head and would share it with you.

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

Jim,

That's the thing, it took no eggs.....

Thanks just the same. It was more starchy than custardy, rather like rice pudding without the rice.

Thank you, though.

Jim Becker,

I've not tried a search engine for this in years, but who knows, someone may have added something useful. The last time I tried, AltaVista was the top search engine, and it yielded nothing useful. That was 2 computers ago, though.

[Lurker Carl]

The secret of tender and flaky pie crust - keep all your ingredients cold. Pastry becomes tough if the lard melts before baking. I'm a product of eastern European cooking and ALL holidays revolve around food. Actually, days between holidays revolve around food as well.

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

The secret of tender and flaky pie crust - keep all your ingredients cold. Pastry becomes tough if the lard melts before baking. I'm a product of eastern European cooking and ALL holidays revolve around food. Actually, days between holidays revolve around food as well.

Carl,

I've never found a significant difference in using cold lard, or shortening, or room temperature. The same is true of the water, some people claim that you need to use Ice water. I just use plain tap water in a room-temperature tea cup.

Of course, I will grant you that my "room temperature" is cooler than most people's would be, and that might make the difference. My house never gets above 70 in winter, or 65 in summer. That may or may not lend credence to your theory. If you refrigerate lard down into the 30's, it becomes almost impossible to "pinch into" the flour. I always stored lard and shortening at room temperature, but as I said, my room temperature is at least 6-11 degrees cooler than the definition of the term. My grandmother stored lard in a lard can in the root cellar, probably 55-60 year-round. Certainly lard does melt at human body temperature, the same as butter does, so in a hot kitchen, you would have a greasy mess instead of pastry dough.

I don't know Carl. It's funny how some things work for one person and not for another when it comes to baking.