Skip to main content
Dessert

German Fritters

German fritters are brioche-paste finger-shaped pastries soaked in vanilla cream, breaded, fried, and dusted with vanilla sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

German Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Divide the brioche paste into twenty-four equal parts.

  2. Mold these into small finger shapes and bake until very light in color.

Soak

  1. Place the baked fingers in a deep dish and pour the boiled cream with vanilla over them.

  2. Allow the fingers to soak in the cream until completely cold.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the soaked fingers in beaten egg, then roll them in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the breaded fingers in heated hog's lard until bright light in color.

  3. Sprinkle vanilla sugar over the fritters and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Brioche + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brioche paste
Forms the light, rich dough that becomes the fritter's soft interior.
Cream
Soaks into the baked fingers, adding moisture and richness.
Beaten egg
Helps the bread crumbs adhere to the fingers as a coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.
Hog's lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating a crisp, golden surface.
Vanilla sugar
Adds sweetness and aroma to the finished fritters.

The step that matters

Let the fingers soak until completely cold. The baked fingers must absorb the cream fully so they stay moist inside. Breading and frying soaked pieces that are still warm can make the coating soggy and the centre unevenly textured.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipes