Whether you call them Berliner or carnival doughnuts, these deliciously fluffy and fudgy filled pastries, a treat typically served carnival season or New Year’s Eve, taste dainty all year round. They come with a variety of fillings, allowing you to choose from nut butter, chocolate cream, and fruit spreads made from aromatic apricots, flavorful raspberries, or candied lemon. With our recipe, you can easily bake these doughnuts at home in the oven of your kitchen’s range.

1. Pour 250 ml cold milk into a large bowl and dissolve 75 g of sugar. Next, add the egg, yeast, wheat flour, and spices and knead for a few minutes until the ingredients combine well to form a dough.

2. Cut the cooled butter into cubes, add it, and knead until fully incorporated into the dough.

3. Add the salt. Knead the dough more vigorously now, as it will become more elastic. The yeast dough is ready for the next steps when you can stretch it thinly without tearing it.

4. Cover the dough and leave to rest at room temperature for at least 45 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. (The recipe yields 1080 g of dough for 12 Berliners with
   a weight of 90 g each.)

6. Fold each piece of dough several times. Repeated folding and stretching contribute to a more consistent texture in the dough. Cover the pieces, and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to approximately 190 °C (top/bottom heat), prepare a baking tray, and bake the dough pieces for about 15 minutes.

8. Heat 50 ml water in a small saucepan, add 50 g sugar, and cook down the mixture while stirring. After removing the pastries from the oven, brush the still-hot Berliners directly with the sugar syrup. Then fill and garnish as you like.