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Mutzen
or Muzen

This is a fun little doughnut like pastry that is served often at the Mardi Gras time or New Years in certain parts of Germany. Depending on where you are in Germany you add different ingredients to the batter. Here is one recipe.

Mutzen seems to be a term from the Rhineland area of Germany

It was 1314 in Cologne. The first fools or “jecken” in German celebrated a parade through the city. How? We don’t know exactly the details, just the date.
200 years later a noble man named Weinsberg wrote about carnival. He describes that there were no differences between the people, everyone was equal. And this is until today the case, no classifications. It was the time of eating, drinking, dancing and celebrating for 6 days before the six week duration of fasting in the mainly catholic Rhineland, would begin.
Even in the convents it was more casual than throughout the year. The oldest carnival song was written by a nun named Anna around 1500.
And in 1728 another nun wrote about a special supper which lasted until two in the morning  and included gourmet tea, coffee and even chocolate. They had cinnamon waffles which were baked with a scissor-like iron over the open fire. The recipe came from a Flemish convent. And from there all the popular carnival pastries called “Mutzen” and “Mutzenmandeln”, baked with rum and rose water, are deriving.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
2 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 / 4 cup sour cream

1-2 cups of vegetable oil for frying.
you'll need about 3 inches in the pan.

1 cup sugar, vanilla sugar or powdered sugar for rolling the mutzen in.

printer friendly

 

Some optional to add to the batter, if you wish:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon chopped lemon peel
2 tablespoons raisins (preferebly soaked in rum)
2 teaspoons rum instead of milk
2 tablespoons toasted almonds

1. I chose to use the basic batter recipe plus the 2 tablespoons of toasted almonds
and I added 2 teaspoons of rum.
Heat your oil up on medium heat. Be very careful not to get the oil too hot. It can catch
on fire. I used a small 2 quart sauce pan, and the oil was 1 inch deep.

2. Add all the ingredients and blend. You can adjust the batter by adding more flour
if it is too thin or some more milk if it is too thick.

 

Using two spoons, dip one spoon into the hot oil then take a small lump of dough
and push it off into the oil with the other spoon.
Try one first and see if your oil temperature is right. If the Mutzen browns
too fast then turn down the oil.
Cook for about 1 minute on each side.

Roll in the sugar, vanilla sugar or powdered sugar.
I cooked them in the morning then reheated them in the evening to serve.

 

An alternative to the spoon drops is a tear drop shape that is popular in Germany.

 


 

 

 

 

 
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Last updated March 2, 2019