Krapfen Recipe – Jam or Cream Filled Donuts Recipe

The cream or jam krapfens are one of the many recipes that we make during the Carnival period in Italy. According to history, the krapfens would originate in Graz, an Austrian town where it has always been customary to prepare and sell them hot on the street during the Carnival period. In Italy, they arrived centuries ago, thanks to the proximity to Austria, and if initially, they spread mainly in the northern regions, Trentino Alto Adige in primis, today the krapfens are found throughout Italy.

Once landed in Italy, it has taken many different names and today it’s also called “bombolone”, which means big bomb filled, ready to explode in your mouth! For an American, the word “krapfen” doesn’t mean anything so just think about your donuts but without a hole and you’ll have an idea of what a krapfen is (and why it is so delicious!).

There are two theories about krapfen: you can fill them with jam or cream, or even both (spoiler alert), before frying or after having fried them. I usually prefer to add the cream or the jam before frying my krapfen so that I won’t touch the dough risking to ruin it before frying.

In any case, the most important thing when it comes to these krapfens is the temperature of the oil: it has to be hot but not too much, otherwise your pastries will burn on the outside and they will be still raw on the inside. The ideal temperature is 170°C/338°F and you should always use vegetable oil to cook them.

The recipe that you find below is to make krapfen with apricot jam; if you want to stuff them with some custard, just follow the same identical method but instead of filling the disks with the jam, just fill them with the custard. In the Polish version, these krapfen are stuffed with jam and custard, for an even more delicious dessert (see the image below the recipe).

Krapfen with jam and custard