In January 2013 I published a post about our New Year’s Eve 2012. It so happened, that for that New Year’s Eve we had not been able to get Berliners. (In Berlin they are called ‘Pfannkuchen’). When we stopped on New Year’s Day for coffee at the Bake House in Cobargo, voila, there we could get fresh Berliners! Imagine, how joyful this made me feel. Even though I try to avoid white flour and sugar and fat these days, I had to make another exception to the rule for this morning.
https://auntyuta.com/2013/01/22/2464/
We were in Sydney on the 31st of December 2012 and had a good time there as you can see from the pictures in the above post. Here is part of what I wrote in that blog:
” . . . . we looked at the displays of some cake-shops. We were hoping we would find some Berliners. It is our tradition to eat Berliners on New Year’s Eve. We had no luck. We couldn’t find any.
The trip to Dapto (back from Sydney) took nearly two hours. Some shops in Dapto Shopping Center were already about to close when we arrived there. We knew we had a bottle of Bubbly at home in the fridge for our end of year celebrations. But we were still without any Berliners. I felt a bit tired and was sitting down for a while. In the meantime Peter rushed into another shop that was still open. Surprise, surprise, he came out with some delicious looking Berliners in the form of stars! He got them at half price for they were the last ones that were left! At home we watched “Dinner for One”, which is a tradition with us to watch on New Year’s Eve. It is a sketch about Miss Sophie’s 90th Birthday. Very, very funny! We’ve seen it so often and every time we laugh our heads off again.
Peter tried out to take a few pictures from the TV showing Sydney Harbour. At midnight he took also some pictures of the fireworks. Soon after we went to bed. But of course we did have our Bubbly and did eat the heated up little stars with it. They tasted delicious, just as good as the balls, called Berliners, do taste. Of course we did get messages and phone calls from our children before we went to bed, wishing us a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
This is what we call a Berliner or Jam Roll or Pfannkuchen. We got it early in the morning from the Bake House in Cobargo on the first of January this year.
AuntyUta 
It just so happened that that the German ZEIT Magazine published an article about the Berliner (not the people but the jam ball) and here is the link for your German readers.
It turned out the doughnut, jam ball etc has different names in Germ any too.
http://www.zeit.de/zeit-magazin/2014/53/pfannkuchen-berliner-sprache-deutschlandkarte
Here is another link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_(doughnut)
So pleased you managed to continue your tradition this year. Where I lived in the Pfalz, they were known as Fastnachtskichelsche. Berliner is much easier to pronounce!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_%28doughnut%29
I googled ‘Berliner’. Here is some of what it said in Wikipedia:
“Today Berliners (or ‘Pfannkuchen’) can be purchased throughout the year, though they were traditionally eaten to celebrate on New Year’s Eve (Silvester) as well as the carnival holidays (Rosenmontag and Fat Tuesday). A common German practical joke is to secretly fill some Berliners with mustard instead of jam and serve them together with regular Berliners without telling anyone.”
On that Fashing Tuesday (the last day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of lent) we usually were eating Pfannkuchen. More often than not we would bake them ourselves in lard or oil. To trick someone, we would fill one of the Phannkuchen with mustard instead of ‘Pflaumenmus’ (prune jam)..
The Berliner looks wonderfully delicious. Rich and delicious! THis sounds like a very nice tradition, Uta, and I’m glad you weren’t disappointed this year. What a tasty way to start the new year. 🙂
Tasty, oh yes. I like the yeasty flavour. It was a nice surprise for the new year to get Berliners early in the morning at the Bake House where we stopped for coffee.
For me however the fast or lent time does start very early in the year for health reasons. Since I have to do with arthritis it seems to be best for me to stick to very simple vegetable based food.