Weinrich's Opens Early on Fat Tuesday ... for the Fastnacht Doughnut

Some may only be celebrating Mardi Gras, but the Pennsylvania Dutch brought fastnacht doughnuts to the area hundreds of years ago, and that’s what Weinrich Bakery is celebrating this week, said owner Stephen Weinrich.

Mardi Gras is the traditional feast where revelers indulge the day before Lent begins, Ash Wednesday in the Catholic calendar. The German tradition that the Pennsylvania Dutch brought to the Abington area is to eat fastnacht doughnuts, which are made from potato flour and shaped like diamonds.

The shape and main ingredient makes the doughnuts special, Weinrich said. The story goes that fastnacht doughnuts are made from potato flour because of practical needs.

“Back when you had to grow everything yourself, you would have had leftover potatoes about right now coming out of winter and going into spring, so they made the doughnuts with potato flour,” Weinrich said.

According to Weinrich, the doughnuts are diamond-shaped to represent jewels, which symbolize that Jesus was the king.

The doughnuts were eaten in the morning the day before Lent because people would begin fasting on the first day of Lent. Hundreds of years ago, before electricity and modern schedules, people ate bigger breakfasts and lunches and went to bed much earlier, so they had to get the feasting out of the way in the morning, he said.

This year, the big day falls today, Tuesday, March 8, and the bakery will open early to sell the hot pastries. Weinrich Bakery makes fastnacht doughnuts for the entire month up until Easter, but Weinrich said Tuesday will be the biggest day for them.

“We’ll sell 500 to 600 dozen doughnuts on Tuesday,” he said.

Many organizations already have them preordered. The Upper Dublin High School German Club reserved six dozen to pick up before school, and several German social clubs have dozens reserved.

“Our regular customers come into the coffee shop that we opened about five years ago, and they drink coffee and eat the doughnuts in the morning,” Weinrich said.

The bakery has been making the special doughnuts for 50 years since it moved to its current location from Philadelphia. The family enjoys keeping community traditions alive, and it looked to the donuts as a way of keeping its bakery alive when it relocated.

“We’re known for the doughnuts, so everybody comes here from far and wide to get them,” Weinrich said.

When the bakery was located in Philadelphia, it did not make fastnacht doughnuts, he said, but when it moved to the suburbs, his father decided to reinvent it a little.

“When we were in the city, it was a different kind of business, open 18 hours a day, and when things came out to the suburbs, we had to pick the traditions we wanted to focus on. You can’t celebrate everything,” he said.

Fifty years ago, there were five to 10 bakeries within walking distance of Weinrich. Now, there is a 10-minute drive to the closest bakery.

“You have to distinguish yourself, and we did it with fastnacht doughnuts,” Weinrich said.

Today, Weinrich cranks out fastnacht doughnuts in all varieties, but the most traditional type is plain and dusted with cinnamon sugar. The bakery makes the doughnuts with all types of fillings, such as buttercream and custard, and dusts them in confectioners’ sugar or slathers them in icing, from chocolate to glaze.

Once Easter approaches, Weinrich will offer other special delicacies for the spring holiday, including all-butter pound cakes shaped like lambs and bunnies, and petit fours with hand-painted decorations.

For more information, visit www.weinrichbakery.com, or stop by the bakery at 55 Easton Road. Call 215-659-7062 to reserve donuts.