Carnival Doughnuts (Berliners) with Vanilla Cream

Put 500 g of flour into a large bowl and make a well in the center.

Mix the fresh yeast with 60 g sugar and 250 ml milk until smooth, pour into the well and gently mix with a little flour from the edge.

Cover the bowl and let the pre-dough rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes.

Scatter the salt, 4 egg yolks and the soft butter around the edge of the bowl and knead everything into a smooth, elastic yeast dough.

Cover the dough again and let it rise until it has roughly doubled in size.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 4 cm thickness and cut out circles of approx. 5 cm diameter.

Heat the frying fat and fry the dough pieces in batches until golden brown, then drain on kitchen paper.

For the vanilla cream, bring 200 ml milk with vanilla sugar, finely grated lemon zest and a pinch of salt to a boil.

In a bowl, whisk the remaining milk with 2 egg yolks, 60 g sugar and 30 g flour until lump-free. Pour the boiling milk into the egg mixture while stirring, return everything to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, for 1–2 minutes until the cream thickens.

Let the vanilla cream cool.

Slice the doughnuts horizontally, fill them with the vanilla cream and dust with powdered sugar before serving.