I want to lose some weight, that’s why initially I didn’t want to participate in Helen’s and Peabody’s doughnut event. As today is a special day – the 5th anniversary of my personal blog and Carnival Fat Monday in my old home town Lucerne – I decided to break my diet and go the whole hog by preparing some Fasnachtschüechli (typical Swiss Carnival pastries). In some regions of Switzerland they are also called Chneublätz which literally means knee (Chneu) patch (Blätz). The name originates from the time as the pieces of dough were pulled and stretched over the knee into their thin form.
Nowadays nobody makes this crisp pastry at home. It can be bought in every Swiss supermarket, but not here in Spain, so I tackled it by myself. I was a little bit scared of the deep-frying, I have no experience with that. It was easier then I thought. The only annoying thing was the frying smell in the house, but the crisp and brittle Fasnachtschüechli compensate all.
Fasnachtschüechli or Chneublätz ( a real tongue twister for foreigners ;-))
makes 12
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
3-4 tbsp Creme
1/4 tsp salt
250 g flour
25 g melted butter
about 05, dl oil for deep-frying
Icing sugar
Whisk egg, sugar, salt and cream together, add flour and butter and knead until you have a smooth but not sticky dough. Let it sit for 1/2 -1 hour at room temperature. Roll it to a 5 cm diameter sausages and cut it in 12 pieces. Roll out with a rolling pin as thin as possible.
I tried the „knee“ version, but I failed. The border was still thick.
The „rolling pin“ version is okay, as long you roll it out very thin. You can stretch the dough also with your hands like Strudel dough. Place the finished dough on a clean paper or kitchen towels.
Deep-fry the thin dough pieces one by one in the hot oil (170C), until golden, turn once in the process. The following slideshow shows how to deep-fry Fasnachtschüechli. As I have no deep fryer I used my Hotpan.
The dough will puff up!
Nice texture, isnt’it?
Drain on paper towels, when cool sprinkle generously with icing sugar.
Remarks: The dough could be a little bit sweeter, so next time I would add 1-2 tbsp additional sugar.
More recipes and entries in English.
This looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and very well explained too!! It somehow reminds me of the oreilletes I’ve seen in here in Catalonia. Check them out!
Lovely texture, it’s crying for a crispy bite!
REPLY:
I think this kind of pastry is eaten all over the world, but is known under a different name. ;-)
Here in Andalusia I’ve never seen them, but I also was not looking for.
definitely i cant pronounce this.but i could definitely eat a lot!! they look soo tempting….btw i already prepared my entry for your valentine’s blog event..just praying for a good weather so that i can finally take a picture of them :-)
Absolutely fabulous! I bet they taste better than the store-bought ones!
I love that great language!
Grüsse,
Rosa
REPLY:
Superbe!
Es schmeckt sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr gut!
Sogar beinahe original übers Knie gezogen, so wissen wir nun alle was das Wort bedeutet, das habe ich mich schon öfter gefragt.
Dafür lohnt es sich, mal kurz die Diät zu unterbrechen.
lg
Wow, those remind me of the „Elephant Ears“ we used to get at the summer fairs in the midwest!
I know what you mean about not wanting to participate in the doughnut event…. all that fried goodness!
Super Teile – auch ich kann den Rezeptnamen zwar nicht aussprechen, aber backen könnte ich das vielleicht. Obwohl, das mit dem Gewicht und dem Abnehmen geht mir so wie Dir. Ich hole mir noch schnell einen Krapfen, bald ist „Fat Monday“ ja leider vorbei.
ich liebe dieses wort :-) wie nett! deine Chneublätz schauen super aus. gratulation :-) hellau nach andalusien
Wo ich herkomme heissen die Fasnachtschüächli Eieröhrli und es gibt sie nicht nur an der Fasnacht sondern auch an der Chilbi.
These remind me of a beignet we make in France for Fat Tuesday called „bugnes“. They are wonderful! Thank you for participating!
REPLY:
Zum Glück gibt es ja auch noch „Fat Tuesday“. ;-)
REPLY:
In Nidwalden?
REPLY:
Knapp daneben.
REPLY:
Uri in dem Fall. Obwalden glaub’s nicht, oder?
REPLY:
Es wird nicht unbedingt wärmer.
REPLY:
Hm, ich dachte ich hätte mal was von Uri gelesen.
Jesses, du hast ernsthaft selber Fasnachtschüechli hergestellt?! Ich erstarre in Ehrfurcht!
[Sieht sehr lecker aus!!]
REPLY:
Wir haben bereits alle „verspachtelt“ und Y. wünscht sich mehr. ;-)
Zorra, these look great! Such a light, bubbly texture, and doused in icing sugar, I bet they taste terrific!
REPLY:
Yes they were delicious! Y. asked me to make them again soon. Unfortunately they are not as light (for the hips) as they look. ;-)
These look delicious! I may not be able to pronounce them, but I would be happy to eat them!!!
Oh my that close up of the doughnut in its fried goodness looks so insanely good! I like the process photos too.
This looks lovely. I just learned something new, never heard of this before.