What we have to offer during the carnival season - “Fastnacht” in Rhine-Hessian - is home-made crepes. Many people also know them as Berliners.
Our favorite recipe comes from a dear colleague Melanie Ebling, who runs a blog about her garden and her life under the Instagram profile “gartenaugenblicke”. It's worth following.
Ingredients:
21g fresh yeast
100ml lukewarm milk
300g flour (I always use type 550)
40g sugar and a packet of vanilla sugar (and more sugar for turning)
3 yolks and 1 egg
1 pinch of salt
40g soft butter
Frying fat (e.g. Biskin)
Preparation:
Make a yeast dough from the ingredients listed. Let the dough rise until it has visibly increased in size. Then knead well again and roll out about 1 cm thin. For us, good kneading and long rest periods are essential for a good yeast dough. Cut out the crepe using a round shape (e.g. a glass) depending on the desired size. Cover and let rise again on a floured cloth or board. Heat the frying fat in the deep fryer or a pot to 170 degrees. Place the crepes in portions with the bottom facing up in the hot fat and cover with a lid for about 2 minutes. Then turn the pancakes in the fat bath with a fork and bake them without a lid for another 2 minutes. This is how you get the nice white collar around the middle.
Then remove the crepes from the hot fat and place them on kitchen paper to drain. Finally, toss in sugar or dust with powdered sugar. We like to enjoy them with jam spread.
