Krepfelin

This fascinating recipe comes from the 14th century German cookbook, Ein Buch von Guter Spise published in 1345. I used a network copy provided by Alia Atlas ©1993 and 1995, which is available on the WWW at http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/akatlas/Buch/. This work was based upon a transcription published in 1844, the original manuscript was part of a household manual which Michael de Leone, the proto-notary of the Bishop of Würzburg, had organized. The original is in the university library of Munich. The manuscript was dated between 1345 and 1354, and contains 101 recipes. The recipe used to create this dish was #44:

This particular recipe brings back lots of warm memories for me as Krepfel are a pastry that my German grandmother used to make for me as a child. This recipe uses a egg and cheese filling whereas the grandmother would make Krepfel with a marmalade filling much like a modern donut. Alia gives a redaction for this recipe which she calls a “Cheese and Bacon Pasty” which she bakes on a sheet in the oven. I simply disagree with this redaction based upon the specific wording of the recipie above “…und backe sie in butern oder smaltze” which translates to “bake them in butter or lard” which clearly indicates frying the krepfelin rather than baking them. Add to this the fact that my grandmother’s grandmother had been making the same basic recipe by the same name by deep-frying the krepfel, I believe that a fundamental aspect of krepfel(in) is their being deep-fried in fat.

The Redaction

The redaction I used for this recipe is based upon recipes for Krapfen & Krepfel that I found in modern German cookbooks and that use a yeast-dough that has eggs added to it. As I am basically a lazy cook, I adapted the amounts of the recipe so that the dough could be prepared by an electronic kitchen drudge (a bread-maker), making the recipe simple and easy to prepare. (Obviously this same recipe can be prepared without the breadmaker, but that almost seems like work!)

Effectively, Krepfelin are filled donuts similar to what you might buy at your local donut shop. They can be served with a sweet filling or with a meat and cheese filling. Some of the more exotic fillings were fish and even eels during period, but I’m afraid that might not appeal to modern palates. I have not found any evidence of Krepfelin or Krapfen sprinkled with sugar the way I have suggested. However, Ein Buch von Gute Spise does contain a number of recipes in which they do sprinkle sugar on top of the food, and since this is a long established tradition within my German family, it is reasonable to assume they did this in some locals as well.