Maria – called Midi by everyone – makes the best carnival doughnuts in the Wipptal – of that I can certainly attest, and has been doing so for more than 50 years, as she tells me.

“The Carnival doughnuts do not always turn out equally well, as something can easily go wrong”, relates the 76-year-old farmer’s wife, speaking from experience of her younger days. That’s why she prefers to weigh out the ingredients. To begin you should prepare the “Dampfl” (poolish dough); fill a large bowl with flour, add salt, form a hole and crumble fresh yeast inside; then sprinkle a little sugar on top, pour warm milk (lukewarm) over it, stir the mixture thoroughly and leave to stand.

In a second bowl, mix egg yolk with powdered sugar, rum and lemon peel; stir with a blender until the mixture is extremely light and creamy and pale yellow; mix the flour with the puffy, risen dough, then pour the yolk mixture into the flour bowl and mix gently with a cooking spoon; add melted butter and heated milk (lukewarm) to the dough mixture and then beat it until it is silky smooth and forms a few small bubbles. Afterwards, the dough should be placed, covered, in a warm spot for 20 to 30 minutes.

In the meantime, we will be readying a wooden pastry board, round biscuit cutters (one larger size of ca. 9 cm in diameter and a smaller one of ca. 8 cm) and a rolling pin. Flatten the dough on a floured board to a thickness of about 1 cm, mark out a few circles with the larger cutter and then cut out equally as many circles in a correct form; add a small spoonful of apricot jam to the marked out circles and place a cut out circle inversely on top, press on it and cut out both again with the smaller cutter. Place the finished doughnuts on a flowered baking sheet and again leave to stand until they have roughly doubled in size.

Soften and heat up the coconut oil in a large pot. When it is hot, hold back slightly and then place the doughnuts, upside down, in the hot oil, turn after a short space of time and take them out of the oil when they are nicely browned. Tip: Place the lid on the pot for the first half of the cooking time. After baking, leave to drain and cool down, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Our tip: During the summer season, from mid-May until mid-October, Midi is still in full swing as chef, at the Alpengasthof Kasern in Schmirn. www.gasthof-kasern.at

Recipe for approximately 15 doughnuts – called “Faschingskrapfen” in Tyrol:
• 500 g flour (half double-grain/half smooth)
• 30 g fresh yeast
• 20 g sugar for the dough
• Approx. 50 ml milk for the dough
• ¼ litre milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 50 g powdered sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• Lemon peel
• 3 tablespoons of rum
• 100 g butter

• Apricot jam
• Coconut oil
• Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Good luck and then enjoy 🙂