German Berliner Donuts (Krapfen) – Authentic Jelly Donuts
★★★★★4.8· 49 ratings · by Vanessa Pur
Popular recipe for jelly donuts, also called pancakes, doughnuts or Berliner Ballen, homemade jelly donuts recipe for unbeatable fresh and delicious doughnuts recipe. Anyone who has ever prepared donuts themselves will compare any store-bought doughnut with the fluffy self-fried doughnuts. The doughnuts can be decorated as desired and are perfect for children’s birthday parties, New Year’s Eve and, of course, Carnival or Mardi Gras.
🇩🇪🇺🇸One recipe, two kitchens — grams ⇄ cups, switch right in the card.
Best jelly donuts recipe, jelly doughnuts or Bismark donuts and Berliner recipe that won me over right away. I can hardly remember when I ate my first jelly donut. They were just always there. Whether for carnival, for a child’s birthday or just as a coffee and cake pastry. The little powdered sugar balls with jam filling have always been a part of it. However, I remember exactly when I ate my first home-baked Berliner according to a traditional Berliner recipe. I’d rather not tell you how many I ate that afternoon.
German Berliner are jelly donuts, but not the ones in an American donut case. There is no hole, the dough is a rich yeast dough rather than a cake batter, and the jam goes in after frying through a small hole in the side, so the donut stays sealed and light.
Timing in the fryer is everything. A properly proofed Berliner floats and develops a pale band around its middle where it never touched the oil — that ring is the sign of a good one. Fry at around 340°F; hotter and the outside darkens before the center cooks. They are eaten at New Year and Karneval in Germany, but there is no rule against a Tuesday. More in our German recipes.
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Cakes, muffins, brownies & co · by Vanessa Pur
German Berliner Donuts (Krapfen) – Authentic Jelly Donuts
Mix ingredients in a stand mixer and leave covered in a warm place for one hour. Start 60 minutes timer here
Knead the dough with your hands and roll out on a floured work surface to a thickness of approx. 1.5 cm. Now cut out rings with round cookie cutters with a diameter of approx. 6.8cm Ø.
Let the cut out donuts rest on a board or baking tray. Roll out dough remnants again and again until no dough remains at the end.
Heat pan with about a liter of oil, when small bubbles appear on a wooden stick, turn the stove top down to medium (i.e., bring from 170 °C to about 150 °C).
Now add donuts to pan and brown for about 2 minutes per side, depending on desired browning. It may be that the fat cools down a little due to the donuts and then a little more time is needed in the pan.Start 2 minutes timer here
Transfer donuts from the pan directly to a sugared plate and then place on a wire rack. If you prefer a different decoration such as icing or powdered sugar, then give the donuts without sugar on the grid. I always put some more kitchen paper underneath to remove some of the fat.
Now poke a hole in the side of the donut with a wooden stick and create some space by gently swirling back and forth in the doughnut.
Then use a piping bag with a long shaft to squeeze the jam (without pieces and rather liquid consistency) into the jelly donut.
Nutrition per serving
235kcal
5 gFat
42 gCarbs
4 gProtein
11 gSugar
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Instructions for homemade jelly donuts recipe – Berliner recipe
Mix ingredients for the yeast dough in a food processor and let it rise for an hour in a warm place, covered, until it has doubled in size.
Knead the dough with your hands and roll out on a floured work surface until about 1.5 cm thick. Now cut out rings with round cookie cutters or a large glass with a diameter of about 7cm Ø. Let the cut out donut blanks rest on a board or baking sheet.
Now heat a pan with about a liter of oil, when small bubbles appear on a wooden stick, turn the stove top down to medium heat (i.e. bring from 170° degrees to about 150° degrees).
Now add about 3-4 doughnut blanks to the pan and brown for about 2 minutes per side, depending on the desired browning. It may be that the doughnuts will cool the fat a bit and then a little more time is needed in the pan. The fact that the doughnuts float in the pan creates the so-called light collar, which does not disappear even when carefully turned.
Transfer the finished doughnuts from the pan directly onto a sugared plate, then continue to cool and dry on a wire rack. If you prefer a different decoration like icing or powdered sugar, then place the doughnut on the wire rack without sugar. I always put kitchen paper underneath to remove further fat.
Now poke a hole in the side of the donut with a wooden stick and create some space by gently swirling back and forth in the doughnut. Then use a piping bag with a long shaft to press the jam into the donut. The jam should be without chunks and rather a bit runnier.
Who would have thought that it is so easy to bake donuts yourself?
For the filling, instead of jam, you can also try all the usual variants from whipped cream to custard, applesauce, turnip greens, Nutella and much more. Some sugar or powdered sugar, or icing, fondant or chocolate icing can be chosen as desired. The jelly donuts recipe knows no limits here.
Hardly any pastry has more names than jelly donuts. For me, who grew up in Düsseldorf Germany, they are simply called “Berliner”. But as soon as you leave your radius at home, the sales clerks in the bakery then often look strange at you when you want a Berliner. I’ll tell you the secret of jelly donuts in my jelly donuts recipe.
Frequently asked questions about donuts and jelly donuts recipe
What other names do jelly donuts have? What do you call the little round balls of powdered sugar with jelly or custard inside?
For me, the yeast particles fried in fat in the pan with jam are “Berliner“. However, in Berlin they are called “Pfannkuchen” which means pancake and typical pancake in Berlin is called “Eierkuchen”. The jelly donut is called Krapfen in Bavaria, Kreppel in Hesse, and Berliner Ballen in the Ruhr area. Aacheners call it Puffel and the Saarland as well as Baden-Wuerttemberg Schmalzgreben or Fastnachtsküchle.
Beyond the borders the jelly doughnut is also known as:
Faschingskrapfen (Austria)
Glaskrapfen (Austria)
Jelly Doghnut (Great Britain)
Bismark and Jelly Donut (USA)
Burlington Bun and Jambuster (Canada)
Sufganiyah (Jewish Church)
Boules de Berlin bzw. Beignet (France)
Berlijnse bollen (Belgium)
Berliner bollen or Berlijnse bollen (Netherlands)
Ponitschki (Bulgaria)
Bombolone bzw. Bomba (Italy)
Bola de Berlim (Portugal)
The variants filled with whipped cream are called Kitchener bun in Australia, Bavarian Creme Donut in the USA and sonhos in Brazil.
I didn’t realize how easy it actually is to bake jelly donuts myself. However, the doughnuts are not baked in an oven, but baked in a pan in fat. That’s why they often have it in their names, because you don’t need an oven to make them. This is one of the biggest differences from the jelly donuts recipe to classic cake recipes.
Basically, in the jelly donuts recipe, you deep fry the yeast dough and the yeast particles. However, you don’t use a deep fryer for this, but a pan or a large pot. Due to the high egg content, the doughnut does not completely fill up with fat during baking.
Only after baking in the pan is the jam filling injected into the doughnut. To do this, use the light side edge, also called the collar. It is best to use a piping bag for dosing and filling.
I was amazed at how easy it is to bake jelly doughnuts. They really taste best freshly baked. I love them with homemade strawberry jam or plum jam and sugar as a coating. Powdered sugar looks nicer, however it seems even sweeter to me.
When I bake my jelly donuts recipe, I don’t just use the pan for jelly doughnuts, I bake a few classic donuts beforehand. The dough is identical, so you can also bake jelly donuts and classic doughnuts at the same time from one dough then. So it’s no wonder that the doughnuts recipe and jelly doughnuts recipe are among my favorites.
If you want to fill the doughnuts differently, make sure that some of the filling is still peeking out of the collar. If you can see what filling is inside from the outside, you’ll avoid surprises.
You can still eat the jelly doughnuts a day later, but they will continue to grease out. I always put some kitchen paper in the box with them to soak up the grease further. The powdered sugar coating is unfortunately no longer visible after a day and you have to powder again additionally.
By the way, donuts and this jelly donuts recipe go very well with muffins on the cake table. Have fun trying out my jelly donuts recipe and filling it according to your preferences.
What is the name of the jelly donut “Berliner” in your region and do you also have a special jelly donuts recipe that you like to bake regularly?
I have been baking and cooking for my family and community for years — honest recipes, all tested in my own kitchen and explained step by step so they turn out reliably for you too.
I never would have thought of the piping bag idea. Ordered one right away.
Thank you so much!
3
MMyGermanBakeryTeam4 years ago
Thank you so much, Natascha,
you’re very welcome – and I just tried swapping the piping bag for a piping syringe – they make them at Kaiser’s and places like that, and it’s even easier and less of it leaks out.
Best wishes,
Vanessa
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Comments 2
Great instructions and a delicious recipe.
I never would have thought of the piping bag idea. Ordered one right away.
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much, Natascha,
you’re very welcome – and I just tried swapping the piping bag for a piping syringe – they make them at Kaiser’s and places like that, and it’s even easier and less of it leaks out.
Best wishes,
Vanessa