When I was a child growing up, no one really made anything "nice" in the way of food. Gram absolutely cooked squaw cooking, which was runny tapioca pudding or cake which made me gag.Mom on holidays would make pies which I loved, but Auntie although she made fudges and cakes of chef quality, I never liked chocolate that much so I was forever saddened by my not having my culinary thrill.
One of my earliest memories though is being ill or ill a number of times, and my dad brought me food to cheer me up. I remember orange sherbet which forever made me in love with that. Peppermint stick ice cream once which I .........well let's move on, but the real treat was the time he exposed me to kruellers.
I believe God must eat kruellers non stop as the couple in our community who baked those German goodies must have gotten the recipe from an Angel.
There were cherry jelly filled Bismarks, Long Johns with frosting inside and those kruellers as I just called "twists" like most people.
One of my greatest dilemmas in life was not who was sexiest on Gilligan's Island in Ginger or Mary Ann as of course it was farm girl Dawn Wells, but I constantly weighed the epic balance of, "Where long twisted kruellers my favorite or the round twisted kruellers?"
I invested an immense amount of time in this in eating the long twists, then the round twists, slowly and passionately as I pondered the merits of each, before deciding that several more would be necessary.
I believe after 8 years of this examination and a not passing addiction to kruellers that I decided that the round ones were superior due to their compact nature, a better crunch and they just seemed so much more enjoyable to eat.
Many days my compatriots and I would march from our school to the bakery to eat dinner, instead of that greasy hot lunch, to drink our carton of milk and eat my mandatory krueller.
The couple who made them have retired now, and it is one of the greatest regrets in my life, as I have not had a good krueller, bismark or long john since.........and this coming from me in I make my own.
There is just a quality in certain corn oils which I do not eat, the ways these bakers made their pastries which can not be duplicated. I would give an immense amount of revenue to have one of these peoples kruellers again.
As I write this, this is not about my addiction, but I have a friend who can not eat cinnamon. Cinnamon is of course a major ingredient of kruellers and all good things German like coffee cake.
I share sometimes this problem with cinnamon, due to I suppose something "they" put into cinnamon like they do salt to whatever now.
If you become ill eating things, it takes the joy out of all of this business, so I began looking for things which people could use for flavoring baked goods.
I have used nutmeg and that spice does indeed provide a fresh light flavor to kruellers. It is like a mystery flavor the first time you experience it.
I even resorted to asking an expert who never got back to me for her ideas on what alternatives there were, as it was probably over her pay grade.
The Holy Ghost though did bring something to mind, and it was from one of the candies which I did enjoy as a child in those hard candy anise pieces.
I obtained not the star anise, but anise seed and ran it through my coffee grinder. It turned into a sort of grainy powder, which was quite sweet and licorice.
Licorice is fine as long as I do not have to eat licorice or gum flavored of it, as I do like molasses in cooking which has the same flavor.
In baking my kruellers, I sprinkled the powder on as I do nutmeg, but anise is superior to cinnamon and nutmeg, so even lightly the flavor comes through. It was though delightful with tea in my new kruellers which as I was reading the label of the anise, said can be used in breads.
There is a slight after flavor, but so will nutmeg, and I do not know of cinnamon, as I eat it so often I don't know what a cinnamon after flavor is.
I'm though delighted as I intend to use anise in coffee cake for trials too. I do not know how it would go with fruit kuchens, but suspect it isn't going to be anything I won't eat.
So therefore my good deed is, if you can not eat certain spices like cinnamon, you might find anise as an alternative or nutmeg, or vice versa.
I sit here thinking how nice it would be to go back and have a krueller at the bakery from not that long ago, but then I know I wouldn't want to come back to the present as all of these miraculous times of Obama, just seem nothing to the kruellers of yesterday.
3 cups flour
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast dissolved
(add a teaspoon of sugar to feed the yeast as it rises as that makes it happy)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk or heavy cream
Roll out after making dough to 1/4 inch thickness. (You may need to flour board and top of dough.) Dust with cinnamon, nutmeg or anise, cut in inch strips of one dozen.
The fun part is lift the dough strips, make a loop, then twist the loop, next wrap them into a circle, and place on parchment paper to rise.
(If you do not use parchment paper you need to as it makes cleaning baking pans not cleaning baking pans.)
Let raise, bake approximately 20 minutes at 350 degrees
While hot, mix one 1/4 water with 1 cup sugar in a quart saucepan to form glaze.
Using tongs dip the warm kruellers in glaze and place on parchment to dry.
You may deep fry these which is not a recipe I will divulge here.
enjoy
agtG
