Fried Dough by Another Name …
Posted on September 10, 2008
Filed Under Food | 1 Comment
Posted by Daria
Throughout the world, wherever you travel, chances are you’ll come across a local specialty that’s a variation of fried dough. Call them doughnuts, beignets, sopaipillas, buñuelos, won tons, churros, elephant ears, zeppoles, whatever, someone takes a hunk of dough, drops it in fat, and fries it up. And it usually tastes really good.
Rothenburg has its own version of fried dough, called the schneeballen. That’s German for snowball, and the original schneeballen is made of strips of dough formed into a ball and coated in powdered sugar, which gives them a snowy character. The local legends say that schneeballen are around 150 years old and were originally made for special occasions.
Sierra’s eye was drawn to schneeballen from the moment we first spotted them on one of Rothenburg’s quaint and charming medieval streets. Every five shops or so, we’d run across a backerei, denoted by a pretzel sign hanging over the door, with snowballs in the window. They come in a variety of flavors beyond the original, including cinnamon, nut, chocolate, and coconut. Some are filled with nougat or marzipan or another flavored filling. They come in a variety of sizes, but the standard one is about the size of a fast-pitch softball.
Finally, late one afternoon, Sierra got to try one. After much deliberation over which backerei to visit and which kind to have, she selected a schokoballen—dark chocolate filling, chocolate icing. I went with an original. We got them from one of the outlets belonging to Diller’s, which claims to have invented them and has even named its hotel the Diller Schneeballentraume (snowball dream). There are numerous Diller’s Schneeballen shops and even a small truck that sells them off-premise.
In Sierra’s words, “It was like somebody took this snowy bread and dipped it in chocolate fondue.” Well, OK. I thought the icing tasted like the icing on a chocolate eclair. The dough was like the dough for the Polish cookies chrusciki, only thicker and not as delicate. According to one sign we saw, the dough is made with a lot of egg yolks, just like chrusciki, and prune liqueur, but we couldn’t taste anything pruney.
When we got to Dinkelsbuhl the next day, what did we see but more schneeballen. However, they were referred to as “the Rothenburg specialty,” so maybe they really are that local. If we find them elsewhere, we’ll let you know.
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Ok Ok I’ve just caught up on all your travels, eating and drinking. Now That Picture of the Snowball, & all the talk about gouda cheese & beer you guys have made me hungry again! Boy the only bad thing about this website is after reading everything you write Sierra & Dee, & Stan’s great pictures Boy do I wish I tagged along with you guys. But I guess reading about all the great places thru you Sierra will have to be good enough. Keep up the Good Work! Luv Aunt Barb