Next door to Munich’s sprawling Viktualienmarkt stands Cafe Frischhut. But forget the name; all you need to know is just above the door: Schmalznudeln.
There’s fried dough in every culture that fries, but for me, this is the winner.
The name, literally translated, is a lard or fat noodle, but that hardly does it justice. In other parts of Germany, it goes by other names, including Knieküchle, or knee cookies—supposedly because Franconian bakers stretched the dough over their knees to make the dough dent so thin that it could be read through (above right in picture above).
Once they go into the thin vat of fat, on a grid, the center puffs up into a dome, and only slowly subsides when they’re taken out to cool. Most people add powdered sugar as soon as it’s out of the fat, but I’m happier without. But no one seemed unhappy in any case, although the dough is also fried in other forms, below, for those who want to be different!
