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Fattigmann
Modern Viral Baking · New Wave

Fattigmann

Cardamom-and-cognac dough cut into diamonds, knotted and deep-fried, dusted with icing sugar.

1 hr 30 minAdvanced
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Cultural Context & History

The name means "poor man," an irony given the cream, eggs and cognac inside. Rolled thin, cut into knotted diamonds and fried crisp, fattigmann is a labour-of-love Christmas classic.

Ingredients

  • 5 egg yolks
  • 5 tbsp sugar523 kcal · 10.3 g protein · 31 g fat · 50.5 g carbs per 100 g
  • 5 tbsp double cream282 kcal · 16.2 g protein · 16.2 g fat · 18 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 tbsp butter, melted714 kcal · 0 g protein · 78.6 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 250 g flour333 kcal · 6.7 g protein · 0 g fat · 70 g carbs per 100 g
  • Lard or vegetable oil, for deep frying902 kcal · 0 g protein · 100 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

  • Fluted pastry wheelCuts the diamonds with their traditional crimped edge.
  • Deep-fry thermometerHolds the oil at a steady 180°C for even colour.
  • Long rolling pinRolls the chilled dough thin enough to shatter.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Whip the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick.

  2. 2

    Whip the cream to stiff peaks, then fold it into the yolks with the melted butter, cardamom and flour to make a soft dough. Chill overnight.

  3. 3

    Roll the dough out very thin and cut into diamonds with a fluted pastry wheel.

  4. 4

    Cut a small slit in the centre of each diamond and pull one corner back through the slit to form a loop.

  5. 5

    Fry in hot lard or oil at 180°C (350°F) for about 1 minute, until golden, then drain on kitchen paper.

Chef's Tip

Roll a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest chilled — cold dough stretches thinner and blisters into the signature crisp bubble.

Chef's Tip

Hold the fat steady at 180°C: any cooler and the pastries drink oil, any hotter and the cardamom scorches before the centre sets.

How this page was made

Written by
The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked
— “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context
Modern Viral Baking — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources
No page-level sources are recorded for this recipe yet. The cultural background above is written as general context, not as a sourced historical claim.

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