Fasnacht Day at Tabora!

Tuesday, February 25…. All day 7 –6 PM. Order your fresh delicious potato donuts! Sugared, powdered, or glazed… mmm delicious!

Place your order for your Fasnachts today!!


Fasnacht Day is an annual Pennsylvania Dutch celebration that falls on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The word translates to “Fasting Night” in English. The tradition is to eat the very best foods, which are part of the German tradition, and lots of it, before the Lenten fast. Fasnachts (pronounced fost-nokts in German) are doughnuts. There are three types of Fasnachts, one made with yeast, one made with baking powder, and one made with potatoes and yeast. All are slightly crispy on the outside and not as sweet as standard doughnuts.

One popular recipe is the one that calls for mixing the dough with mashed potatoes, which gives the yeast raised fastnachts a flavor all its own, not be confused with commercial donuts. Since Pennsylvania Dutch farm families were quite large, when the “Haus Frau” (housewife) began to fry the raised fastnachts in her warm kitchen the tantalizing smell of these raised donut-like cakes lingered throughout the farmhouse. Naturally, the wiser members of the family were awoken, and realized that if they got up early they could share in Mother’s fastnacht treats. But the less wise ones or lazy ones may have continued in their slumber, while the siblings enjoyed fresh fastnachts with a beverage. The last person up on Shrove Tuesday was called the “Fastnacht” and kidded all day long for being late for this wonderful breakfast. In the same way, the last person up on Ash Wednesday was also teased, and called the “Ashepuddle”, whose chore for the day was to carry the ashes in the stoves and ovens outside to the ash pile. Fastnachts were a winter staple of the Dutch housewife and could be eaten long past Ash Wednesday, even though originally fried in pork lard, the day before Lent. Shrove Tuesday fastnacht baking was a way of life in which the Pennsylvania Dutch people celebrated its ethnicity, more than going to church; it was a folk-life practice that was more personal. These yeast raised cakes had been rolled out and then cut into squares, triangles, or rectangles to rise near an old cast iron kitchen stove. Older Church congregations in the East Penn Valley still have Fastnacht Church Socials or suppers in which natives gather for fellowship, enjoying their Pennsylvania Dutch heritage.[3] In today’s time several large corporations are also producing fastnacht doughnuts in a unique way. The substitution of coke in for the milk or coffee of the original recipe; it gave the doughnut a special/unique flavor. This was later to become the Coca-Cola recipe of the fastnacht doughnut.[4] Traditionally the fastnacht didn’t have a hole in it, it was cut, or slit, through the middle (like a bagel) to allow air and the placement of condiments such as jelly, and butter. Some cultures add molasses (king syrup) or “Turkey Brand” syrup to enhance the flavor.[5]

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