Josh Smith makes fastnachts at Frecon Farms Bakery in Boyertown. PHOTOS BY WES CIPOLLA
Originally appeared in the Reading Eagle in February 2019.
Josh Smith came into work at 4:40 a.m. today. Smith, the “35 years young” co-owner of Frecon (pronounced Fray-con) Farms Bakery in Boyertown, has no formal training in the kitchen, but he’s spent the last three and a half hours rolling, cutting and frying fasnachts - and has the rest of the day to go. He takes a bite out of one of his creations, nods and says, “I think it’s a good time of year.”
Smith’s mother came to Pennsylvania from Saarbrucken, Germany, but he had no knowledge of the Shrove Tuesday fried dough tradition until he came to Berks County. After that, he realized just how profitable the treats could be.
“We’ve cultivated this product over the last five years to perfect it.” Smith said. “This recipe has been a five year development process.”
Now, wave after wave of amber fasnachts fill the shelves, and the smell of them, along with the breads, rolls, cakes and cookies the bakery must also make every day, fills the air.
“The first time we had ours,” said bakery manager Holly Haas, 26, “I couldn’t stop eating.”
“We proudly sacrifice a couple inches of our waistlines to test these for you each morning.” Smith added. His flour-covered apron reads “Treble in the kitchen.” He borrowed it from his wife, a local piano teacher. His earbuds dangle from his neck - while baking, Smith likes to listen to Queen and the “Meat Eater Podcast,” which broadcasts out of Bozeman, Mont.
“These fasnachts are like perfect little pillows of dough.” Haas said.“ We made waves with our recipe because we made them round with a hole in the middle. It was kind of trial and error, what worked and what didn’t.”
Holly Haas works the giant mixer.
The perfect fasnachts, she said, take time and the right ingredients. The dough is left to rise for 12 hours, and is filled with potatoes, which the bakery is peeling and cooking en masse. No flakes, just “100 percent potato.”
“There’s a lot of emotional attachment to the fasnachts, so we learned over the last few years.” Said Haas, a lifelong baker who remembers her mother buying fasnachts every Shrove Tuesday. “So it was important for us to try to recreate, you know, your grandma’s fasnachts.”
Fastnachts ready for sale.
As Smith rolls out the fasnacht dough to a specific length, flurries of flour pop out from the bottom. All the while, vats of ingredients are beat together in a gargantuan version of a kitchen stand mixer.
“It’s pretty springy.” Smith says with authority, meaning that the dough needs time to relax. When it’s ready for cutting, he uses a contraption that looks like six pizza cutters connected to a metal frame. With this device, he can cut dozens of fasnachts in four strokes. Smith’s goal is to recapture nostalgia for a time when fasnachts were homemade, but the tradition is in no danger of dying out. Each year they sell, on average, between 5,000 and 6,000 fasnachts, one third on Shrove Tuesday.
“There’s a new, younger crowd that is just kind of catching onto the fasnacht program.” He said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or how old you are. A good product is a good product is a good product. It kind of speaks for itself.”
With all that activity, Haas says that Shrove Tuesday will be “craziness” at Frecon Farms, but it only makes her appreciate fasnachts more.
“I think I like them more now than I did when I was a kid.” She said. “It may be because I’m invested in the process now. When I was a kid I didn’t get the tradition of them at all.”
“There are a lot of smiling faces, I can assure you.” Smith said.”
“After the whole week’s said and done and you’ve made about 4,000 fasnachts,” Haas said, “you think you’re kind of tired of seeing them, but since it only comes once a year I love the process of making them.”
After the cut dough rests for 90 minutes, it fries in the industrial frier, a black, shimmering sea of oil. After a toss with some sugar, the fasnachts are done. Smith goes in for a taste test.
“Are they coated?” He asks.
“Not as much.” Haas says.
Unfortunately, Josh happened to take a bite out of the bakery’s low-sugar option.
“I know what they taste like.” He said. “I know they’re fantastic. We worked very hard to make sure every one of them is that way.
To Haas, the greatest compliment she can receive is, “It’s just like how Grandma used to make them.”
“That gives me joy.” she said. “It’s made from scratch, it’s made with love, the time’s taken. It always gives me happiness.”