It’s Fastnacht Time!

February 13, 2024 is Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as “Fastnacht Day.”  Those of us of a certain age have memories of waking up early on Shrove Tuesday by the smell of Fastnachts frying on the stove.  The preparations usually started the night before to give the dough enough time to raise to be ready for frying first thing in the morning.

 Most PA Dutch cooks have Fastnacht recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation.  While the ingredients in these recipes are basically the same, measurements and “techniques” may differ.  The historical society library has numerous PA Dutch cookbooks on its shelves.  We’ve chosen three Fastnacht recipes from three different books to share with our readers.  We hope we inspire folks to try one of these recipes (or break out their family recipe) and make Fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday.  (We hope even more that you all share your Fastnachts!)  All recipes are copied verbatim, so you will note some interesting phrasing and word choices along with idiosyncratic cooking methods.  That’s what makes this so much fun.

The first recipe is from the Kutztown Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary Cookbook from 1969.  It is Marcella Gressley’s recipe.

 6 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup margarine (melted)

1 cup warm milk

1 cup potatoes – cooked and mashed

1 cup potato water) water in which the potatoes were cooked)

2 packs dry yeast (dissolved in 1 ½ warm water and 1 ½ teaspoons sugar – allow to rise to double)

5 pounds flour

 All ingredients should be warm (at least room temperature).  Beat eggs and sugar together.  Add mashed potatoes and mx.  Add potato water and mix. Add melted margarine and warm milk and mix.  Transfer to a dish pan and mix in about 3 cups flour, mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.  Add yeast and mix in gently.  Mix in the rest of the flour gradually, until the batter becomes stiff.  When the dough becomes too stiff to stir with a wooden spoon, pour onto floured table and knead in more flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky.  Prepare another dishpan by coating the inside with margarine.  Turn the dough into it and grease the top lightly with margarine.  Cover with a tea towel and set in a very warm place until the dough rises above the top of the dishpan (at least doubles in size).  Pour dough onto a floured table.  Roll out about ¼ of the dough at a time. Cut out your donuts with a large glass or cutter and use a thimble to press out the center hole.  Put cutouts on trays lined with tea towel and place in a very warm place until they rise at least double in size.  Preheat a good vegetable oil in an electric frying pan to the highest setting and fry until golden brown (if donuts are frying too fast, turn back setting), then turn and fry the other side the same way (adding oil when needed and allowing it to reheat before you continue to fry).  Spread finished donuts on tea towels to cool before putting away in airtight containers.

The next recipe comes from “Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery,” compiled by J. George Frederick, President of the Society for Advancement of Better Living in 1935.  (Apparently adding Fastnachts to your diet is a path to better living).  Mr. Frederick also calls Fastnachts “Dutch Festival Doughnuts,” and includes this tidbit with his recipe:

 “Fastnacht Day, Shrove Tuesday (the last day before Lent begins) has always meant, in Dutch country, the baking of Fastnachts, a kind of doughnut.  It once included a fasting period at some obscure ancient time, but the Dutch never fast!  The last Fastnacht Day, March 5, 1935, saw 360,000 Fastnachts made in Lancaster alone.”

 The recipe:

 Boil 3 potatoes in enough water to cover.  With the potato water scald 1 pint of flour and add the potato mashed.  When cool, add 1 Fleischman yeast cake, dissolved in a little lukewarm water.  Start this about 5 P.M.  At bedtime mix a pint of flour with one pint of lukewarm milk.  Stir enough flour into milk to make a batter that will drop readily from the spoon.  To this batter add the first mixture and let rise overnight.  In the morning add 4 beaten eggs, ½ cup of melted butter (or butter and lard mixed), and 1 cup of sugar.  Knead stiff enough to roll; let rise till the dough doubles its size.  Now roll and cut out the dough and let rise again.  When light, swim in hot fat.  The Fastnacht makes extra good “dunking” in coffee or molasses, sometimes both!

The third recipe comes from the Mennonite Community Cookbook: Favorite Family Recipes by Mary Emma Showalter from the Home Economics Department of Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, VA.  The first printing of this book was in June 1950.  This recipe was submitted by Mrs. Paul H Horst of Millersburg, IN and Mrs. Harry Rhodes of Salem, OH.

 1 ¼ cups milk

¼ cup shortening

1 teaspoon salt

1 small yeast cake

3 eggs, beaten

¾ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

4 ½ to 5 cups flour

 Scald the milk, add shortening and salt.  Cool milk until it is lukewarm; then add crumbled yeast cake and stir.  Gradually add 2 2/3 cups sifted flour, beating batter thoroughly.  Put in a warm place and allow to stand until full of bubbles.  Mix sugar with nutmeg and combine with beaten eggs.  Stir into first mixture and add remaining flour.  Knead well, cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.  Turn out lightly on floured board and roll ¾ inch thick.  Cut with doughnut cutter or biscuit cutter shaping into a ball or make into twists.  Cover with a thin cloth and let rise on board until top is springy to touch of finger.  Drop into hot fat (365 degrees) with the raised side down, so the top side will rise while under side cooks.  Drain on absorbent paper.  Yields 3 dozen.

 So there you have it; three different recipes for the same treat.  How do these recipes differ from your family recipe?

 Happy cooking!