Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heavy-bottomed pot or deep fryer
• •Kitchen thermometer
• •Slotted spoon or spider strainer
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Kitchen scale

Instructions

1. 1

   Activate the yeast

   Warm the milk until it feels like bathwater against your wrist, no hotter. Stir the yeast and a pinch of sugar into the milk and let it sit for ten minutes. It should foam and bubble at the surface. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead and you need to start again with a fresh packet. Don't build a whole dough on yeast that hasn't proven itself.

   If you can get fresh yeast (Germ, as the Austrians call it), use 20g crumbled into the warm milk. Fresh yeast gives a rounder, more complex flavor. Every bakery in Austria still uses it.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Put the flour, sugar, Vanillezucker, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Pour in the yeast mixture, the melted butter, egg yolks, and rum. Stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy mass comes together, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead. This is a soft, sticky dough. It will cling to your hands and you'll want to add more flour. Resist. Knead for a good ten minutes until it becomes smooth, supple, and pulls cleanly away from the surface. The butter and egg yolks need time to work into the flour. If you add too much flour to make your life easier, you'll end up with tough, heavy Krapfen.

3. 3

   First rise

   Shape the dough into a ball and place it back in the bowl. Cover with a clean tea towel and set it somewhere warm, not hot, for about an hour. The dough should double in size. I put mine near the oven or on top of the fridge where the motor gives off gentle warmth. Yeast is alive. It likes a cozy spot, not a sauna.

   If your kitchen is cold, heat your oven to 50 degrees, turn it off, and place the covered bowl inside with the door slightly ajar. Austrian farmhouse kitchens had the Kachelofen for this. We improvise.
4. 4

   Shape the Krapfen

   Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and press it down gently. Divide it into twelve equal pieces, about 70g each. A kitchen scale helps here because even pieces fry evenly. Roll each piece into a smooth ball, tucking the seams underneath. Place them on a floured tea towel, cover, and let them rest for fifteen minutes. This short rest relaxes the gluten so you can shape them without the dough fighting back.

5. 5

   Stretch the centers

   This is where Bauernkrapfen become Bauernkrapfen. Take a ball of dough and press the center flat with your thumbs while keeping the outer rim thick and puffy. Stretch the center gently until it's almost translucent, paper-thin, while the rim stays about two centimeters wide and plump. Imagine a little nest. The thin center will puff and blister in the hot fat, turning crisp and golden, while the rim stays soft and pillowy. Work on a lightly floured surface and be patient. If the dough springs back, let it rest another minute and try again. Place each shaped Krapfen on the floured towel.

   The thin center is not a mistake or a shortcut. It's the whole architecture of the thing. When it hits the fat, it puffs into a crisp, blistered disc surrounded by a soft golden ring. That contrast is what makes Bauernkrapfen different from every other doughnut on earth.
6. 6

   Heat the frying fat

   Pour enough lard or oil into a deep, heavy pot to reach a depth of at least eight centimeters. Heat it to 170 degrees Celsius. Use a thermometer. Guessing the temperature is how people burn Krapfen or, worse, end up with pale, greasy ones that never crisped properly. If you don't have a thermometer, drop a small piece of dough into the fat. It should sink, then rise to the surface within a few seconds, surrounded by steady bubbles. If it browns instantly, the fat is too hot. If it just sits at the bottom, too cold.

   Lard is traditional and gives the best flavor and crispness. If you can get good-quality lard from a butcher, use it. Vegetable oil works well too. Avoid olive oil; the flavor is wrong for sweet dough.
7. 7

   Fry the Krapfen

   Slide the shaped Krapfen into the hot fat, thin center facing down first. Don't crowd the pot; fry two or three at a time. The thin center will puff up and blister immediately. Fry for about two minutes on the first side until deep golden, then flip carefully with a slotted spoon and fry another minute or so on the second side. The rim should be golden brown all around and the center crisp. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain on a rack set over a tray, not on paper towels. Paper towels trap moisture against the bottom and you lose your crisp.

   Check your oil temperature between batches. Cold dough drops the temperature, and if you don't let it recover, each batch comes out greasier than the last.
8. 8

   Fill and dust

   While the Krapfen are still warm, spoon a generous tablespoon of warmed, sieved Marillenmarmelade into the center hollow of each one. The jam should pool in the thin crisp center like a little golden lake. Don't be timid. The apricot jam is not decoration; it's the soul of the thing. That sharp, fruity sweetness against the rich, buttery dough is what makes people line up at Bauernmarkt stalls at seven in the morning. Dust everything generously with powdered sugar. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •The dough should be softer than you're comfortable with. If it's easy to handle, you've added too much flour and your Krapfen will be dense instead of light. Lightly oil your hands if the sticking drives you mad, but don't add more flour to the dough itself.
• •Sieve your Marillenmarmelade while it's warm. You want it smooth and pourable, not chunky. Good Austrian apricot jam, Staud's or d'Arbo from Tyrol, has a sharpness that cuts through the richness of the fried dough. Don't substitute with generic apricot preserves if you can help it.
• •Eat them within an hour of frying. Bauernkrapfen are not pastries that improve with age. They're at their absolute best still warm from the fat, dusted with sugar, standing at a market stall in the cold morning air. At home, that means frying and serving in the same conversation.
• •If you're making these for a crowd, keep finished Krapfen warm on a rack in a low oven (80 degrees Celsius) while you fry the rest. Don't stack them or the crisp centers will go soft.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made the evening before and left to rise slowly overnight in the fridge. Take it out an hour before shaping to let it come to room temperature. Cold dough won't stretch properly.
• •Marillenmarmelade can be sieved and stored in a jar days ahead. Warm it gently before filling.
• •Bauernkrapfen themselves cannot be made ahead. They must be fried and eaten the same day. Reheating a Krapfen is an insult to the original effort.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 110g)