Street Bakery Treat · Jam-Filled Doughnut
Berliner
Photo: Sebastian Koppehel / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Berliners call it 'Pfannkuchen' — the word the rest of Germany uses for pancakes — so ordering a 'pancake' in a Berlin bakery gets you a doughnut.
A yeasted dough ball is deep-fried in fat rather than baked, split and piped full of jam (classically plum or rosehip), then dusted with sugar or glazed. Bakeries and street stalls sell them year-round, with a spike around New Year's and Carnival season.
Why it's made this way: Deep-frying instead of oven-baking was originally a workaround credited to an 18th-century Berlin baker who wanted a shape that would still puff up without a proper oven.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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