Shows what I know. I’ve been calling this dessert Mrs. Scherben’s Vogel all week long. It’s called Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben. Got it? The name doesn’t exactly go trippingly off the tongue, and, unfortunately, the dessert itself doesn’t fare well on the tongue. Big disappointment this week, and I’m surprised, because I’m a sucker for sweet, warm, sugary, fried dough.
Exhibit A: When my brother and I were little, we spent summers at my grandparents’ house in Maine. The house was conveniently located about 100 yards from the East Boothbay General Store. On weekends, the general store churned out the most delicious classic donuts. Mike and I would get up in the morning and walk to the store to buy a bag full of chocolate donuts rolled in sugar. They were always warm, soft, and delicious, and I dream of making donuts that will be as good as those. When the store stopped making the donuts, my dad started buying very good Harris-brand boxed donuts, and my favorite were the chocolate covered in coconut. A very noble successor, but not the same as freshly-made, warm donuts that stained our brown paper bag with grease and sugar.
These scherben seemed like a shoo-in with their combination of sweet, warm, sugary, and deep-fried. Alas. It’s not that they were bad, but the fried dough was beyond plain. Plain is a nice word for it. More like stale crackers. If you really plastered them with cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar, they were perfectly decent. But mine weren’t greasy enough to take a thick sugar coating. All my lovely cinnamon sugar slid off the scherben and gathered at the bottom of the bowl, leaving me with the stale crackers.
There is an upside. This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie dessert was chosen by Teanna of Spork or Foon, and she’s one of my favorite TWD’ers, so go check out her site and read about her experience with the vogel, er, scherben. She will make you laugh, I guarantee. And she’ll have the recipe, in case you want to give these a try.
Aw. Sorry to hear this. They were plain, but fried can be nice. On to better things next week!
I’m sorry that these weren’t the fried dough goodness you were expecting. What a disappointment. I did find that if these didn’t have enough sugar they were not tasty at all. They look beautiful, though.
Looks beautiful.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy them.
Just to let you all know that the East Boothbay General Store has resumed making those famous ‘fried this morning’ donuts.
We make them every weekend between Memorial Weekend and Labor Day. They come in the following styles
Honey Glaze
Cinnamon Sugar
Plain Sugar
Plain
Cardamom Sugar
Hand made 5 at a time, fresh each day. it is best to call ahead as they sell out pretty quick. See you in the summer.
Sorry you were disapppointed. I think the dough would benefit from some added flavor, however my kids eat these in record time.
Mimi
I’m sorry that they weren’t what you were hoping for, but at least you tried them. The picture is very pretty, too.
You are so sweet! I am so sorry you didn’t like these
But you are hysterical… I almost spit out my drink when you wrote that you were calling them Mrs. Scherben’s Vogel. Hahahaha I’m still laughing. Thanks for frying along with me this week, though! They look gorgeous!
Bummer that you didn’t like it. I didn’t even try it and went with cake instead.
Mrs Scherben’s Vogel–hilarious! I thought mine looked and tasted like egg roll wrappers until I drowned them in icing sugar. Then they were pretty good:) Sorry you didn’t like them.
They look perfect. Sorry you didn’t care for them.
After hearing you talk about the donuts, no wonder you were disappointed. Sounds like they were really wonderful.
Those donuts sound great! The scherben was easy and snacky, but nothing to write home about. My kids loved them though! Go figure.
I know, I love the mini doughnuts they have at the fairs, fresh with cinnamon/sugar! These are definitely different though.