Bratschenfee's Rhenish Mutzen, plain or with ground almonds or rum raisins

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 300 g spelt flour, 630
• 250 ml milk
• 100 g butter
• 1 egg(s)
• 1 cube of yeast
• 120 g sugar
• 2 packs of vanilla sugar, bourbon
• ½ pack of lemon peel
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100 g almond(s), ground
• 300 g milk
• 60 g raisins, soaked in rum
• Fat (frying fat)
• Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 3 hours; Total time approx. 3 hours 30 minutes

my mother’s carnival pastries

Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, salt, and egg into a dough. Melt the butter, pour in the cold milk, and dissolve the yeast. Add the flour to the sugar and egg mixture. Then stir the butter, milk, and yeast mixture into the flour. The dough can be a bit runny. If it’s too runny, you can add more flour. 1st variation: Mix the ground almonds into the flour. However, you’ll need a bit more milk. 2nd variation: Place 60g or more of raisins in a closed container a few days in advance, covered with rum to allow them to soak in properly. Carefully sieve out the raisins before use and knead them into the dough. Let the dough rise at room temperature. Scoop out the dough with teaspoons and place them in the hot oil. As the dough sinks into the oil, the bizarre shapes emerge. If the dough is firmer, you can also cut out balls with a spoon. I deep-fried them in a pan. Each piece takes 5 minutes to cook. The oil shouldn’t be too hot, otherwise the dumplings will brown too quickly without being cooked inside. This recipe yields approximately 35 dumplings. Sprinkle with powdered sugar at the end.