Widely popular in Chile, Berliners arrived with German immigrants to the south of Chile around the 1900s. And they are still a popular snack bought after the office or school, on the way home.
Berliners are a pastry that is typically round or spherical, with a sweet filling in the center. The dough is made from yeast, flour, milk, eggs, and sugar and is deep-fried until golden brown. After frying, the pastry is filled.
Berliners are similar to other filled pastries, such as jelly doughnuts, but they lack the hole in the center since you cut the Berliner to fill it.
They are not difficult to make, but like any yeasted recipe, time and organize yourself properly. This recipe is abundant enough for a family gathering. I highly recommend them. They are spectacularly fresh.
Berliner’s Pastries are traditionally filled with Pastry cream in Chile. Other options include jams, Nutella, or Dulce de Leche.
Remember to make the pastry cream the day before. It needs to be very cold and hard.
What can I do to avoid so much foam when frying the Berliners?
The foam can be for two reasons: too hot oil, ideally use a thermometer in the oil, it must be at 350F, or there is a lot of residual flour. Shake them before. Also, the wider the pan or pot, the less foam.
Can Berliners be baked?
Yes, but they don’t look or taste like classic Berliners.
Berliners Chilean Recipe
A delicious fried pastry filled with pastry cream.
Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Yield: 30 1x
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in warm milk with sugar, let stand 10 minutes, you should see some bubbles, so you know the yeast is alive.
- In a large bowl with a mixer, beat butter until creamy, add eggs, and beat until well blended. Add the flour and beat on low speed while also incorporating the milk with the yeast. You will get a very soft dough.
- Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. It should double in size.
- With floured hands, remove dough from the bowl to a well-floured board. Flattened gently with your hands and roll the dough until it is about 8 mm thick.
- Cut with a round cutter. I use one of 6 cm in diameter well-floured. They mustn’t stick.
- Let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, heat the oil to 350F or 180C.
- Fry about 4-6 at a time, about 2 minutes per side, until golden, turning with a stick.
- Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.
- Cut a hole with a knife and fill it with pastry cream. For this, it is easiest to place the pastry cream into a pastry bag with a round tip and bury the tip in the middle of Berliner and fill.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Cooking Popular Mariana Bravo Walker.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Sweets
- Method: Fried
- Cuisine: Chilean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 293
- Sugar: 8.5 g
- Sodium: 37.9 mg
- Fat: 21.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 3.8 g
- Cholesterol: 32.4 mg
Keywords: berlines, fried pastry, chilean cuisine
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