roll kuchen

Something that I grew up with and is very typical Mennonite food is Roll kuchen.

It is eaten with a nice cold Watermelon on a hot day.


Yesterday almost got hot and so out came the whipping cream and the eggs.


I feel like there should be a disclaimer with this recipe for its obvious lack of nutritional value.


No worries. Just don't eat it every day and you'll be fine.


Something else that we learned last summer is that these delicious rich deep fried rolled fritters are delicious with strawberries and whipped cream. Oh the guilt never ends.



The ingredient list is very simple and I'm happy to say that it does have farm fresh eggs included in the recipe so, . . . .well, there are plenty of nutrients in those . . .so, its all good.



Roll kuchen



1 cup whipping cream

3 eggs

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3 cups of flour



Mix these ingredients together and knead into a ball.

Wrap the dough up and refrigerate it for a few hours.

Letting it sit makes it so much easier to roll out.

Rolling it thin, makes a crisper roll kuchen and leaving it a bit thicker makes for a softer roll kuchen. No doubt you'll be making them a few times in summer, so you can experiment on how you prefer them.



Because the dough is rich, its very easy to work with. No sticking problems.

Cut the dough into about 3 -4 long strips and then cut across to make rectangular shapes.

Cut 2 slits in the middle of each so that they don't become one big balloon in the hot fat.



Heat some fat up in a large pot. I use Canola Oil. When the fat has little bubbles coming to the surface, it is likely hot enough, but put in a small piece of dough to test it. I know there are tricks for this but for the life of me I can't think of one of them. Ladies, help me out here.

Also, there are as many different recipes for this as there are Mennonite women. I'd love to know what your recipe ingredients and amounts are. Please let us know your tricks.

I'd love to improve on my attempts.




Eat as many as satisfies. I have no idea how many I ate today but somewhere along the line, I got out the Rogers golden syrup and started to dip the roll kuchen in that . .(for dessert).



So, tell me, how do you eat your roll kuchen. (rolled cookies) Is that the right translation? Tell me if its not . . .please so that I can correct that sooner rather than later.


Comments

  1. oh my...

    and strawberry season is just about on us.

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  2. That looks like pishkee. My mom (russian peasant) made this for a snack for us growing up. Oh yum thanks for sharing your recipe. Perfect with watermelon! I'm putting weight on just looking cuz I know I couldn't stop at just one.

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  3. I am drooling!!! Nothing like roll kuchen in summer! Recipe is the same as mine except for the baking powder, mine calls for 2 tsp.
    And I don't cut the slits as my family likes the "pillow effect".
    I don't have a real test when the oil is hot enough and just go by trial and error, seems to work and I've made these for many summers!
    Oh and Roger's corn syrup is the best for dipping roll kuchen.
    Your translation to "roll cookies" sounds about right to me.

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  4. I imagine them with powdered sugar on top...more mess,more fun,more embarrasing pictures!

    So if I understand this right, if I cut a slit into the top before frying it will not cause a pillow effect. Does that mean that with a slit the roll kuchen will not billow up AND that my tummy and hips will not billow up either if I indulge? PLEASE say both...(smile)

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  5. the funny thing is I've always wanted to try making them without the slits, because I like the pillow effect too. Next time I'm going to make them "lighter" and shave a few calories off. woohoo.

    Oh and icing sugar just makes them more cloud like. (especially nice with the strawberries and whipped cream)

    ellen, I was talking to Terry this morning about our similar recipes, you from a russian peasant background and me from a russian mennonite background. I'm sure they must have shared recipes back and forth in the neighborhoods even back then. How interesting.

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  6. They're also very good with soup!!
    If you want to enjoy them all year long =).
    I haven't made them for a long time, but now I will have to ... as soon as we get summer! My Mom's recipe calls for milk with a few TBSP vinegar and a few TBSp oil. I guess the end result in calories is the same, but her take is that vinegar helps not to absorb the oil. (?) She also used more BP and when she cut the slit in the centre she pulled one side through to make the shape of a bow tie. YOur Rollkuchen picture should inspire anyone to try to make them! I think I may just go and get that watermellon today yet.

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  7. Hi Lovella:

    I came across your blog a few months ago and have really enjoyed it. I've even seen people I know in your pictures! Also have made some of your recipes and they're very good.

    Anyway, when making Rollkuchen this is how you can check if the oil is hot enough - when you put in one of your dough pieces it should be browned in a couple of seconds, turn it over for a couple of seconds and take it out. If it takes longer, your oil is not hot enough. You get the best results if the dough is thin and the frying is really quick.

    Thanks for your great recipes!
    Elsie

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  8. Those roll kuchen look good. With watermelon or cabbage borscht they are tasty! I will try your recipe since I've had success with a couple of your other recipes. I grew up with them having a slit in the middle with the dough twisted through so they look like a twist. My mouth is watering looking at the pictures...

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  9. Lovella, yes the direct translation is 'rolled cookies' although our english 'cookie' is always sweet and baked, isn't it...So it is really best called by its original,"Roll Kuchen" name! smile

    I like the pillow effect too...so I cut my Roll Kuchen in 1" strips and then the puffed result is just right!! And makes a nice pocket when you want to eat them with fresh freezer strawberry jam!!

    Who needs to eat 'healthy' when tradition tastes soooooo good!!
    And is soooo good for the soul!!!smile

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  10. This recipe sounds (and looks) very similar to a wonderful little deep fried pastry that my tiny, but pleasingly plump, German grandma would make. We usually had them with soup, sometimes with jelly or preserves, and sometimes with powdered sugar sprinkled over them. She called them "keuchles" and pronounced them sort of like "kee-kuls."

    I may have to try her old recipe again...I sure miss her wonderful German cooking/baking!

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  11. I have never made them myself, but my mother-in-law & my grandmother make them. At Grandma's house we eat them with Rogers Golden syrup & watermelon. And my in-laws house they SALT them. I think the salt version is a total crime and has caused marital problems between my husband and I :)

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  12. Wow. And here I sit eating my fiber filled cereal topped with bananas, which I thought was tasting rather tasty, but you just brought tasty to a whole nuther playing field! I am envious of you! Enjoy one for me! They look great however you pronounce them!

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  13. I am now having a serious craving. My mom makes them for me as doing any cooking with hot oil freaks me out :) I think I shall have to let her know it's roll kuchen season!
    Love them with watermelon...or just plain. YUM!

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  14. yummy those look good. ellie already mentioned that we ate our rollkuchen with a twisty through the slit. our kids love putting jam in the middle of the little pillows that puff. i usually don't twist all of mine. some people like them thin and crunchy other like them thick and chewy...me i will eat them any old way. these are definately one of the things about summer i look forward to. my moms also serves them with cabbage borscht, but i don't go to all that effort. i only make them in the summer. LASS GUT SCHMECKEN!!!!!!oLOAT GOEAT SCHMAECKE .

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  15. thanks Lovella-it looks yummy....come over to my place, I just tagged you for a Restaurant Meme.

    no pressure
    Kimmie
    mama to 6
    one homemade and 5 adopted

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  16. My recipe is pretty similar to yours, but I "twist" mine through the holes to create a bit of a different effect. It's hard to explain, but you've probably seen them this way. And I always use cream. Once I tried making them with milk and they weren't that great. Our family also likes to bring out the Roger's Golden Syrup for an extra boost of badness. I love rollkuchen and it's something I'll never quit making.

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  17. I still have never tried this treat! I don't get all the hoooplaa about it!?! I think you'll have to make it a summer tradition. You make the roll kuchen and have everyone BYOW!
    One of these days I'm sure I'll get to savour the flavour. Have a great day!

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  18. The picture of watermellon and roll Kuchen is the epitome of summer. Thanks for the rejuvenation! Summer is almost here; I can taste it!

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  19. I am not mennonite, so I must say that this whole roll kuchen thing mystifies me. How can deep fried "bread" and watermelon be a meal? I am astounded. But alas, I have never tasted the "meal" that everyone states is the most delicious thing ever. I guess until I try it, I should not judge. But honestly, I just don't get it.

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  20. this looks soo good! I love the mennonite recipe traditions.

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  21. I gave you an award on my blog.
    http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/rockin-girl-blogger-thanks-bee/
    Blessings...

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  22. hi lovella. well it looks like i'm out numbered here. I don't like watermelon or roll kuchen. I was once forced into making it by my family but only once. I just don't taste what every one else does I guess. I also don't like borscht so I guess I'm just partly mennonite and maybe the other part is mexican since I love their food. your pictures are nice though.

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  23. I love all the responses!! =)
    Well, I grew up Mennonite, and have several of the cookbooks, but I haven't made Roll Kuchen much at all!! I do make sopapillas, and they seem similar, even lighter than RK, and you don't make a slit in them because you want them to put up in the oil so you can bite a corner off, and fill the inside with honey!! That is a New Mexican recipe.
    Living in the States, we don't have Roger's syrup here, either, except that I buy some whenever I get up to Abbotsford!

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  24. I meant "puff up", not put up!!

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  25. OH I am drooling!! I grew up with roll kuchen too. I think that the water melon cancels out all the deep friedness which is why it works so well together! my mom did the twisty way as well but I think how ever you make them they are delicious! I haven't made them myself but I think I'll call my mom now and put in an order. I'm sure she'll be thanking you. :)

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  26. Why didn't I think to ask for Roll Kuchen, too, when I was at my parents place? ha ha I love it dipped in syrup. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.

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  27. Lovella,
    I came here via Island Sparrow to see your roll kuchen and now that I see what it is and how you make it, it reminds me of what I make. I got the "recipe" from my Grandma Schumacher, German homemaker. She called it keuchle (like Vicki mentioned). I was just ecstatic to read her post because I have never heard anyone else call fried bread that. I think my grandma made her keuchle with regular yeasted bread dough, she took globs of dough, stretched it out flat, poked a hole in the middle and deep fried it. Most of the time she served it with tomato soup. This meal was common for Lent. We have it with honey, peanut butter, dipped in sugar, and I also use it for Indian Tacos (with Mexican toppings, like tacos). I'd love to try it with strawberries and cream too.

    Thank you so much for sharing this and Vicki..... I feel a kinship knowing that we share the same German heritage.
    ~Jody

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  28. I tried your recipe today! They are AMAZING! The Perfect texture! I borrowed the commercial deep fryer at work and they were golden brown and delicious. Thank you so much for sharing - and specifically for having a recipe that DOESN'T say "and enough flour for a soft dough!" I served them at work - with a choice of corn syrup, liquid honey, icing sugar or strawberry jam - and yes, of course, watermelon!
    Thanks again.

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  29. Yes, I have made Roll Kuchen before. And in our community from around Beaver Flat/Main Centre/Turnhill, Sk...you do have the Roll Kuchen with Watermelon AND Roger's Golden Syrup. It's a must. It's a crime not to have all three together. I remember growing up In Winnipeg, Mb, and coming to Saskatchewan to visit the family, and we would have reunions galore with all the Mennonite relations (Klaassens, Klassens, Friesens etc). It was a joy for us children to run around and eat when we were hungry. One of my mother's cousins lived in Southern Manitoba and she would make wonderful Farmer's sausage, and we would save the cracklings and spread it on bread. Or she would make "Pluememeuse" kind of like a borscht with Plums and dates and fruit. It was delicious!

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  30. I have very fond memories of making roll kuchen with my Oma every summer. It's very, VERY hard to beat with watermelon on a hot summer day.

    One trick we use to see if the oil is at the right temperature is to dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If bubbles form around the spoon, the oil is hot enough.

    Happy frying!

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  31. I usually don’t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful …

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  32. Haven't read all the comments, so someone might've suggested this already.

    Dessert roll kuchen.....
    Mix 2 cups sugar and 1 heaping tbsp flour together.

    After rolling out dough, put a pile of strawberries in the middle, add a heaping tsp of the sugar/flour mixture, fold dough in half and pinch together before frying.

    Hmmmmmm!

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