Donut Day

SO on fat tuesday, the day before lent begins, u are supposed to eat lots of junk
so that u can be healthy/holy/restricted in the days to come
i worked at a bakery in high school that always made fasnachts (sp?)
for fat tuesday
i think they were mostly twists, but there might have been jelly filled as well
all the catholic schools would order them and various caterers etc
they are at least pennsylvania dutch and maybe old school german
they differ from regular donuts in that they have mashed potatoes in the dough
they are yeasted and deep fried



the recipe i tried was from a vegan book
and im not sure that the recipe is proper
ive never made fried donuts before, but this yeast batter was almost like pancake batter
way more than tender, ultra wet
i added alot of extra flour
and it was super cold in my house
but they still rose very well
(i preheated and then turned off the oven, hoping to get it around 120-130 to start rising)


first rise went about an hr in the oven, turned off
then rolled out with a thermos...
and used an open jar to cut them
recipe was supposed to make 3 dozen
it made at least 50, prolly even more
so we might have been rolling it out too small, def had a cutter that was too small

we cheated and fried some without a second rise
predictably dense
we made some with holes in the center
cuz we were concerned about raw cores...
waited 45 mins for a second rise
and they got very puffy and tender


fried them 4 at a time
about a minute on each side
let them drip on brown paper


and then shook in a bowl of powdered sugar w a lil cinnamon in it