Homemade Fasnachtschüechli
I want to lose some weight, that's why initially I didn't want to participate in Helen's and Peabody's doughnut event. As today is a special day - the 5th anniversary of my personal blog and Carnival Fat Monday in my old home town Lucerne - I decided to break my diet and go the whole hog by preparing some Fasnachtschüechli (typical Swiss Carnival pastries). In some regions of Switzerland they are also called Chneublätz which literally means knee (Chneu) patch (Blätz). The name originates from the time as the pieces of dough were pulled and stretched over the knee into their thin form.
Nowadays nobody makes this crisp pastry at home. It can be bought in every Swiss supermarket, but not here in Spain, so I tackled it by myself. I was a little bit scared of the deep-frying, I have no experience with that. It was easier then I thought. The only annoying thing was the frying smell in the house, but the crisp and brittle Fasnachtschüechli compensate all.
Fasnachtschüechli or Chneublätz ( a real tongue twister for foreigners ;-))
makes 12
2 tbsp sugar
3-4 tbsp Creme
1/4 tsp salt
250 g flour
25 g melted butter
about 05, dl oil for deep-frying
Icing sugar
Whisk egg, sugar, salt and cream together, add flour and butter and knead until you have a smooth but not sticky dough. Let it sit for 1/2 -1 hour at room temperature. Roll it to a 5 cm diameter sausages and cut it in 12 pieces. Roll out with a rolling pin as thin as possible.
Deep-fry the thin dough pieces one by one in the hot oil (170C), until golden, turn once in the process. The following slideshow shows how to deep-fry Fasnachtschüechli. As I have no deep fryer I used my Hotpan. The dough will puff up!
Drain on paper towels, when cool sprinkle generously with icing sugar.
Remarks: The dough could be a little bit sweeter, so next time I would add 1-2 tbsp additional sugar.
More recipes and entries in English.
Nowadays nobody makes this crisp pastry at home. It can be bought in every Swiss supermarket, but not here in Spain, so I tackled it by myself. I was a little bit scared of the deep-frying, I have no experience with that. It was easier then I thought. The only annoying thing was the frying smell in the house, but the crisp and brittle Fasnachtschüechli compensate all.
Fasnachtschüechli or Chneublätz ( a real tongue twister for foreigners ;-))
makes 12
2 tbsp sugar
3-4 tbsp Creme
1/4 tsp salt
250 g flour
25 g melted butter
about 05, dl oil for deep-frying
Icing sugar
Whisk egg, sugar, salt and cream together, add flour and butter and knead until you have a smooth but not sticky dough. Let it sit for 1/2 -1 hour at room temperature. Roll it to a 5 cm diameter sausages and cut it in 12 pieces. Roll out with a rolling pin as thin as possible.
 Dough after about 1 hour. |
 1 piece of dough of about 40 g. |
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Deep-fry the thin dough pieces one by one in the hot oil (170C), until golden, turn once in the process. The following slideshow shows how to deep-fry Fasnachtschüechli. As I have no deep fryer I used my Hotpan. The dough will puff up!
Drain on paper towels, when cool sprinkle generously with icing sugar.
Remarks: The dough could be a little bit sweeter, so next time I would add 1-2 tbsp additional sugar.
More recipes and entries in English.
