Sweet schuerzkuchen cake

Schürzkuchen, also called Schürzkauken, are a lard pastry similar to Berlin pancakes. Freshly baked, it was and is popular in Mecklenburg for Shrovetide or at the fair all year round. (Kauken = cake)

A distinctive feature is the shape of the pastry. Through a slit in the middle of a piece of dough, one end is pulled through – or pursed. While still warm, these lard cakes are sprinkled with sugar or powdered sugar and served or eaten immediately.

This pastry is also available with a baking powder dough, which is also baked in fat. We present you the variant with a yeast dough.

Recipe German Cake Schuerzkuchen

An unfilled lard pastry with a special shape

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Course: pastries

Cuisine: Germany

Keyword: sweet

Difficulty: Experienced

Total Time: 2 hours

Servings: 12 pieces

Ingredients & Shopping list

• ▢ 500 g flour
• ▢ 125 ml milk
• ▢ 2 eggs
• ▢ 100 g soft butter
• ▢ 30 g sugar
• ▢ 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• ▢ 1 package dry baker's yeast
• ▢ 1 tsp salt
• ▢ clarified butter or a neutral oil for frying (e.g. sunflower oil)  
• ▢ powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preparation

Yeast dough

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  Heat the milk in a small saucepan and melt the butter in it.
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  Sift flour into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with the yeast. Add remaining ingredients and warm milk-fat mixture.
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  Mix everything together briefly with a hand mixer on low speed, then mix on high speed for about 5 minutes until smooth.
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  Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it has visibly increased in size. That's about 60 minutes.
• ▢
  In the meantime, heat the vegetable oil in a pot to about 180°C.
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  Dust the dough lightly with flour, remove from the bowl and knead again briefly on the work surface.
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  Divide the dough into 12 rectangles of equal size. Slit each piece of dough in the center. Pull one end through the slot. See photo.
• ▢
  Let the dough pieces rise again until they have visibly increased in size.
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  Place the dough pieces one by one, top side down, into the simmering shortening; bake until light brown on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels.

Complete

• ▢
  Sprinkle the pinafore cakes with powdered sugar while they are still hot and let them cool on a kitchen rack.

Tips & Hints

The apron cakes can be prepared all year round, but they are also a popular Shrovetide pastry.