Bunny and I made a trio of varieties this year, starting with a Milano Cortina 2026 fusion flavor that was filled with cannoli filling in honor of the host country of the Olympics:
We also made plum butter Berliner, filled with homemade Pflaumenmus, which was sehr lecker!
And our final variety was filled with our favorite Guinness mousse and topped with a chocolate glaze:
It was a tasty trio!
As long as I was already frying donuts, I also made German Mutzen from the Rhineland, which turned out very much like beignets:
And here’s a bonus look at our Mardi Gras dinner of “Bayou Queen Punch” and “Tiana’s Famous Gumbo” from Entertaining with Disney:
We had a nice day of feasting, and now we’re ready for Lent!
Now that I’ve been making Berliner for a few years, I feel pretty comfortable with the process of frying and filling them, so this year, I decided to focus on creating new flavor combinations! First I made a Black Forest variety, filled with the cherry topping from my Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte and topped with a chocolate glaze. Next up was s’mores, filled with marshmallow fluff and topped with the same chocolate glaze plus crushed graham crackers. Finally, I made Lebkuchen-inspired Berliner, filled with a gingerbread mousse and topped with a white chocolate glaze and crushed spice cookies.
I also made some traditional jelly filled donuts with blackberry jam:
I’m looking forward to coming up with more flavors in the future!
Making donuts during the Karneval season is no longer a surprise around here (I started by trying my hand at Pączki in 2021, and then moved on to Berliner, which I’ve been making ever since), but I’ve never made three varieties at once before! This year, I decided to make a double batch of Zitronen Berliner (lemon donuts), and since I had 24 of them to work with, I thought we should try some different fillings. I started with homemade lemon pudding, and dusted the donuts with powdered sugar:
Next I made a homemade vanilla custard filing, and also a chocolate glaze for the top:
And finally, an old classic, filled with plum jam and sprinkled with granulated sugar:
They were all delicious, and honestly, I’m not even sure which ones I liked best, but I’m always thinking of even more tasty fillings!
As hard as it is to believe (since it seems like we just celebrated Christmas), Lent is upon us already. But first, let’s take a look at Mardi Gras 2023 in the Markel house!
As I did last year, I made plum Berliner instead of pączki. I’m not saving myself any work by doing so, but I like the Berliner a little more.
I don’t understand why the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale event is on Monday and not either the weekend or Tuesday, but I had a fun time hanging out with Pavé!
For dinner, I turned back to two of our favorite recipes from the Entertaining with Disney cookbook…Tiana’s Famous Gumbo and Bayou Queen Punch:
For dessert I made a King cake. I couldn’t find quite the shade of green sugar I wanted, but it was still pretty and tasted great!
Now that the celebration is over, I guess it’s time to really buckle down for Lent.
Today’s mani is inspired by Mardi Gras! I alternated Sally Hansen Miracle Gel “Anything is Popsicle” (purple) with “Me, My Elf and I” (green) and topped them with the gold glitter of “Sunken Treasure.” Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Happy Mardi Gras! I decided to do something a little different this year, so instead of buying or making Pączki, I made Berliner. They’re practically the same donut (I think the main difference is that the Berliner dough is made with less eggs), and they reflect our family’s ethnic heritage, plus they’re super delicious! I filled them with homemade custard, and made a chocolate glaze to go on top:
For dinner, I made cajun stuffed peppers with a side of hush puppies:
I baked a King Cake for dessert…it’s been many years since I attempted this, and I don’t remember being impressed with it the last time, but this year, it was a huge hit!
Of all of the things I would have thought would have been relatively unchanged for us during the pandemic, I would have guessed Mardi Gras would be it. Ironically, it was a much different holiday for us this year!
The church we’ve been attending since we were able to resume in-person worship last summer is located in the part of St. Louis known for its Mardi Gras celebration. While the festivities had to be cancelled this year, we did enjoy seeing all of the houses decorated for the holiday over the last few Sundays:
We always have pączki for breakfast on “Fat Tuesday,” but since I’m still limiting my grocery outings (plus we had a snow storm yesterday), I decided that this would finally be the year I actually made them from scratch. It was a lot of fun, and they were really delicious!
For dinner I made gumbo with chicken, sausage and shrimp, plus roast okra. Okra isn’t something we normally eat, and we were a little concerned about it, but it was delicious and not at all slimy. It turns out we were lucky to have it at all, because last week, the produce man at Schnucks said I was getting the first package from the first shipment they had had in over a month.
So, that was our Mardi Gras celebration in the time of COVID-19. Lent begins tomorrow, and I’m not going to lie…I still kind of feel like last Lent never really ended, so I’m not really planning on doing anything differently this year…I’m just hoping that this Easter might actually feel a bit like Easter should!
