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Dessert

German Fritters

German fritters are small, baked brioche fingers soaked in vanilla cream, then fried and dusted with vanilla sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Shape and bake

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

  2. Mould the pieces into small finger shapes.

  3. Bake the fingers until very light in color.

Soak

  1. Place the baked fingers in a deep pan.

  2. Pour the boiled cream with vanilla over the fingers.

  3. Allow the fingers to soak until completely cold.

Coat, fry and serve

  1. Dip each finger in beaten egg.

  2. Roll each finger in bread crumbs.

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

  4. Sprinkle the fried fingers with vanilla sugar.

  5. 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
Rich dough that bakes into the light, tender body of each finger.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness as the baked fingers soak in it.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to each finger.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that fries to a crisp, golden outer layer.
Hog's lard
Frying fat that conducts heat and browns the coating.
Vanilla sugar
Adds sweetness and vanilla aroma to the finished fritters.

The step that matters

Fry the fingers in heated hog's lard until bright light in color.. The lard must be hot before the fingers go in. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Frying only until light in color keeps the crumb tender.

“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.

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