I’d never heard of Knee Patches before I found them in the book. I’d also never heard of Amish Wedding Nothings or Elephant Ears-which are other names for them. I chose this recipe for its simplicity but also as a challenge for myself, someone who never bakes or does anything of that nature, to make a dough. Also, the family seems to have tired of so many casseroles.

If you Google knee patches, you’ll find that in German (Bavaria/Franconia) they’re known as “Knieküchle.” knee cakes. (The English word “knee” comes from German, but we lost the hard “K” sound. In German is it pronounced just like it looks: “K-nee.” ) Why are they called knee patches? I promise you’ll find out in a bit.

Gaby and I set out to make these fun little things together. Honestly, I needed some moral and lots of technical support with the dough. And, of course, we love to do cooking projects and experiments together. She wanted to try to make them with some sourdough starter mixed in, so we made two different doughs. Mine was made just as Alma so scantily described.

One thing to note about this recipe; it’s not well written. I mean. It’s not well written for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. After the ingredient list, she simply says, “put in refrigerator for at least 1 hour or longer.” The next line is, “roll a small piece of dough…” So, I guess that means we need to make a dough from all of the ingredients. But, I love this style of recipe writing. It really assumes that the person reading already knows their way around a kitchen -that they’ve made some sort of dough a million times. But I haven’t. I mean, I’ve made some doughs, but not very often. Chef Gaby, on the other hand, has been elbow deep in dough for the past seven months. She started experimenting with making her own sourdough starter in February. Now, she says, she can just feel when the starter and the dough are ready and all of those beautiful things that we are able to learn when we really pay attention. I imagine Alma made thousands of doughs in her lifetime. I bet she made tons of stuff with her intuition guiding the way.

We had just about a half of an 8 oz tub of lard in our pantry, so I put that in our cast iron and then added some canola oil to make it deep enough for frying. We didn’t deep fry, just maybe cover half the height of the patch.

Alma tells us to sprinkle with sugar, but didn’t specify which kind, so we chose powdered.

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If you’re from the area, you might know Rebekah and Russell; they’re siblings and 3 years and one year older than I, respectively. Since they lived just outside of town, we didn’t interact as much as all the other Portland kids who ran around town (and the bar), but we always got along when we did spend time together. Their mom, Nancy, taught me in Bible school, and was always energetic and in a good mood.

I sent Rebekah and Russell a group message asking if they had any memories of knee patches, and thankfully they did. I suppose I should’ve asked Nancy, too, but there’s only so much I can do in a week.

Rebekah told me she remembers making them with her grandma while her grandpa helped roll out the dough. She described a vivid memory of her grandpa sitting on a stool in front of an old portable dishwasher. She said they were in no particular shape, so I felt better about my own making of the item. I just kinda pinched it out until it looked thin. The internet says that they were historically described as needing to be “thin enough to read a love letter through.” Rebekah also told me that they were fried in big pot of oil on the stove, though she didn’t quite know what type of oil.

Russell seemed to has less vivid memories of the cooking process, and I asked if he wasn’t expected to help as much since he was a boy. He said he wasn’t in the kitchen as much, and his grandpa rarely was, too. But, Grandpa helped with apple peeling (for apple butter) and special occasions-like Knee Patches.

The one line that literally stands out in Alma’s recipe is: “This is our family’s special Easter dish.” Russell and Rebekah both confirmed this, and Russell told me that, “Knee Patches were only made once or twice a year, and I really looked forward to those days.” He said there were always leftovers, but they didn’t quite taste the same after they’d been in the Tupperware for a while. From our own experience, I agree.

I promised you’d learn why they’re called Knee Patches or Knieküchle, and it’s because they were originally formed by being stretched over your knees!

Alma was born in 1913 and lived to the amazing age of 101!

Here she is at her 100th birthday party up at the Portland Community Building.

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Gaby loved her sourdough version so much, she wanted to try to make donuts out of them. They were delicious. Everything was delicious, but the donuts were a little too dense to be considered donuts. Overall, the Knee Patches kinda taste like funnel cake or beignets, but that might be because we used powdered sugar and not granulated sugar. Rebekah told me that granulated was definitely what her grandma used, so I guess we need to try again to get the full affect. Sorry, Alma.

The more I’ve read about the Knieküchle, I’ve learned that the traditional recipe contains yeast, so I think Chef Gaby’s instincts were right on target. And, they are generally sprinkled with powdered (confectioner’s sugar), but in some places they are considered Catholic or Protestant depending on if they have sugar on them or not. I have also read that they are eaten on holidays or during the harvest.

Evidence suggests that Alma learned how to make this version of Knee Patches from her very German ancestors. Like all immigrants, they must’ve been searching for a small comfort, using whatever they had to recreate the tastes of home or, heimat.

Next week is the last recipe folks. Stay tuned.

Alma’s

Alma’s Knieküchle

3 eggs

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

maybe 6 cups or more of flour

16 oz fat/lard/oil

Directions: mix the first four things into a bowl and start adding some flour. Keep mixing until you put your hands it and it’s super sticky to the point of annoyance. Then, keep adding flour until you slap it and it sounds like a solid slap. Knead it a little bit. Put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Pull into little balls and roll them thinly, leaving a thicker lip on the outside. Gently place them into the hot oil and watch them bubble! Flip them when the time feels right.

When they look brown like funnel cake or any other fried dough you’ve ever seen, pull them out. Sprinkle on some sugar.

Guten appetit!