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Here is my family's recipe for fastnacht's. They're a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, and are supposed to be eaten on Fastnacht Day, the Tuesday before Lent starts (most people know this as Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday). The best description of a fastnacht is that it's a potato based donut, almost the consistency of a cake donut. Much in the same way as the British celebrate Pancake Day on the same day, it was a way to empty your larder of all the fat and butter and good stuff that you weren't allowed to eat during Lent, and have one last day of good eating before the Lenten fast. A few notes on making them- if you're like me and don't have a ricer, you can use a fork to smash the potatoes through the tines (once they've been boiled, that is). That's always worked well for me. To cut out the donut shapes, a pint glass works well for the big circle, and a shot glass works well for the hole (the pint glass doubled to roll out the dough when I was in college and didn't have a proper rolling pin). Once the fastnachts have been fried, I usually put some powdered sugar into one ziploc bag, and a mix of granulated sugar and cinamon into another, and then drop a fastnacht into one of those bags and toss it around to coat it before I eat it. Fastnacht Recipe
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