• Melt butter in a pan (or in a pyrex cup in the microwave) and add to milk. Check the temperature... it should be around 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit (hotter will kill the yeast, colder won't activate it)
• Stir in the Sugar
• Stir in the dried yeast.
• Let sit for 10 minutes until it begins to bubble so you know the yeast is active.
• Sift flour into a mixing bowl.
• Pour in the milk/butter/yeast mixture. Add the vanilla, salt and eggs. Mix to combine into a sticky dough.
• Then Knead (by hand or with a dough hook) for 10 minutes.
• Put the kneaded dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise. It will take about an hour, and will double in size.
• When dough is doubled...Lightly flour the counter, then take the dough out of the bowl, and knead it a few times. (Just pat it down, and give it a few kneads to wake it back up)
• Roll the dough about 1/2 inch thick
• Here is where you make a choice... I didn't have a smaller round cutter, so I cut mine with a glass. The glass was closer to 4 inches across, so I had BIG Berliner. Not really tragic, it just made fewer, and I had to cook them a few seconds longer.
• Cut out your rounds of dough, and place them on a cookie sheet.
• Re-roll the scraps and cut rounds out of the last bits (no waste!). These ones might look funny, so they are great for double checking cooking time!
• Cover the dough circles with a towel, and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

Get your frying and sugar coating station set up!:

• Heat oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit ... either in a deep fryer or a frying pan.
• If you use a pan, make sure that the the oil is at least 2 inches deep, and use a THERMOMETER. If oil is too hot, it burns, if it's not hot enough, you get greasy food.
• I used a cookie sheet covered with Paper Towels to catch the Berliner as they came out of the oil... that went next to the fryer.
• Next to that cookie sheet I put a bowl with sugar for coating... 1 1/2 cups is more than enough.
• Finally, I put a cooling rack onto another cookie sheet to rest and cool the sugar coated Berliner.

FRYING BERLINER:

• Carefully lower 2 or 3 dough blobs into the oil at a time. Don't crowd them!
• For my 4 inchers, I went 3 minutes on the first side, and 2 1/2 minutes on the second side. Use a timer.
• If you have smaller ones, try 2 minutes on each side.
• They will be golden brown.
• Remove with a slotted spoon to the paper towels. After a minutes, roll the warm Berliner in the sugar to coat completely.
• Move to the rack to cool enough for filling
• (I suggest you put one of the ugly ones in first... make note of how long you left it in. Then cut it open to see if it's DONE. It shouldn't be mushy inside, the dough will be done. If it's mushy, adjust your timing 30 seconds or a minute more or less when you fry the the pretty ones. )
• (BTW. kids don't care what they look like... after you've got your timing right, you can fill the ugly ones with jam, and hand them to the kids who are hovering at your elbow waiting for a taste)
• Use a pastry bag (Or Ziplock Bag) with a piping tip. Fill it with jam or jelly or cream filling.
• Poke into the mostly cooled off Berliner on one side, and carefully squeeze to get the filling inside. You might have to move the tip of the bag around a bit.
• If you are like me, and like LOTS of filling... repeat on the other side of the Berliner.
• If you are using a few different fillings, you can put a blob on top of the Berliner.
• (Although, honestly, I tend to overfill my Berliner, so I can see what kind they are by what is oozing out.)
• Eat them FRESH