Yummy!
Naturally I heated up 2 right away and sprinkled some sugar on top (then I worked out for an hour...). So good!
Futges is a tradition in our family and it comes from my maternal Grandma's German heritage. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any info to support the German providence. My uncle had very similar fritters on a train when he was traveling through Denmark in the late 50's so it could be a Danish food. I was told that the word Futges is Old German for fritter. If any of my German friends would like to weigh in, that would be great. Regardless I'm sharing the recipe.
Futges: Irene Thompsen Goodoien
(makes approx 40)
1 lb of pitted prunes, soften in hot water drain and set aside
1 heaping cup of raisins, plumped in hot water, drained and set aside
For dough:
dissolve 1 pkg regular yeast (do not use rapid rise) in 1/4 cup warm water
Heat 2 cups of milk to luke warm and add to the yeast
Add 1 cup of sugar
Add 1/4 c. softened butter
Mix well and add the following:
1 T (or more to taste) ground cardamon (fresh ground is best)
1 t salt
2 beaten eggs
4 cups all purpose flour with 1/3 cup removed and added to the raisins. Incorporate the flour covered raisins to the dough and let the mixture rise for 1 1/2 hours. Stir down gently and let rise again, roughly a second hour.
The futges is deep fried in 3 lbs of heated oil, smoking stage approx 400 degrees.
Take a medium sized spoon, scoop up a portion of dough and place a prune into the center of the dough and flip the edges over it to cover. The dough blob is pushed into the hot oil and cooked until brown. Test with fork to make sure it is not doughy in the center. To eat, break open the warm fritter and sprinkle with sugar.
6 comments:
Sounds delicious. What a great surprise.
That sounds awesome! I need to come to terms with my fear of hot oil although it is probably better for my general well-being that I don't
glad u got them.my german teacher couldnt place the name either and she did her thesis on old german.also checked with the scandinavian studies prof at the u to no avail. mom traced the genealogy back to schleswig- hostein which was fought over by germany and denmark but grandma thomsen was adament that they were german, not danish even tho it was under danish rule when they came to usa.you've changed grandma's recipem does it work better 4 u?
I have not heard the opinions of my friends from the GAI yet. I got this recipe from Mom, I assumed it was the same you used. How is your's different? They are delicious as always!
They are "Æbleskiver", danish tradition. In Denmark it is made in a special fryingpan with holes for the dough. The word means appleslices and I think that from the beginning it had a just that inside instead of prunes.
The fact that you have them with prunes in it indicate that the person who started the tradition in your family have connections with a small danish island called Ærø, in the archipelago of southern Denmark.
It is usually made without anything in it and you eat it with strawberry jam and icing sugar upon it:)
Here you have two links:
1.Æbleskivepande(the special fryingpan)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons
/a/a8/AebleskiverFront.jpg
2. The small island of Ærø:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ærø
Have a nice day :)
//Ymse
Greetings Ymse!
Great info about the island of Ærø, that could be the link we have been looking for.
Having had Æbleskiver and Futges I guess I never thought to compare the 2. To me they really are a very different animal. It's my understanding that the Æbleskiver is made with a batter, more like pancakes, while the futges really is a rich dough, more like a dohnut.
The presence of fritters in German cooking can be found in surviving recipe books from the 16th c so I don't see fritters being uniquely German or Danish. The info on the prunes is very cool. Thanks.
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