Most European countries have some version of a doughnut, which is typically associated with Carnival. See carnival. In Venice, fritelle di carnevale are fried dough balls enriched with dried fruit and spices. To make Lyons’s sugar-dusted bugne, a yeast dough is tied in a knot. In Spain, rosquillas de anis are doughnut-shaped and flavored with anisette.
In Central Europe, Krapfen (one of many terms for a jelly doughnut) are documented as early as the thirteenth-century epic Parzifal. The fourteenth-century cookbook Das Buch von guter speise includes four recipes for fillings—all based on spiced apples—though none for the dough. A hundred years later, a Czech manuscript cookbook suggests a stuffing of figs, stewed pears, peaches, and sour cherries. Other sources recommend meat, fish, and vegetables. In Vienna, an ordinance from 1486 makes clear that the city was already supplied by professional doughnut bakers. By the late eighteenth century, jam-filled doughnuts were commonplace but, due to the cost of sugar, were expensive and accordingly not out of place at the fanciest occasions. According to contemporary press accounts, some 10 million Krapfen were served to the attendees of the Congress of Vienna during the 1815 carnival season alone. Today, jelly doughnuts are ubiquitous across Central Europe under an assortment of regional names and with a variety of fillings that may include jam, fruit butter, custard, chocolate, or liqueur-spiked cream. Israelis have adapted the carnival doughnut tradition for Hanukkah, serving jelly doughnuts (renamed sufganyiot) for the Festival of Lights. See hanukkah.
