Traditional Polish doughnuts

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to cook something Polish once a month. Since yesterday was Fat Thursday in Poland, it was a perfect time to make Polish pączki. Let me explain. Fat Thursday is the last Thursday before the Lent, which is celebrated in Poland by eating enormous amounts of Polish doughnuts called pączki. Pączki are similar to American jelly-filled doughnuts, but unlike the American doughnuts, which are usually very sweet and filled with lots of jelly after frying, Polish doughnuts are filled with only a little of the filling which is placed inside the doughnut before it is fried. The most common filling is jam, but there are places in Poland where you can also buy pączki filled with advocaat custard. My grandmother, who makes delicious doughnuts, usually fills them with powidła, which is a common filling for homemade doughnuts. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar or icing and, sometimes, topped with candied orange peel.

Even though pączki are available in Poland all year-round, Fat Thursday is actually the only time in the year when I eat some. My favorite doughnuts are the ones filled with rose hip jam, which is the most popular Fat-Thursday filling. I usually buy the doughnuts in a bakery, but since Tartelette and Peabody have organized Time to Make the Doughnuts food blog event this year, I thought it’s a great opportunity to learn how to make Polish doughnuts myself. They’re probably longer to make and harder to fill than American doughnuts, but believe me that the effort is rewarding. My doughnuts came out wonderful, very light, tender and absolutely delicious!!!

A few notes to the recipe: The recipe calls for fresh yeast, if you have trouble finding them, I suspect active dry yeast might work well, (I haven’t tried it yet). While searching the Internet for Polish doughnuts recipe, I have found many simplified recipes which use less egg yolks and no alcohol. Do not reduce the amount of the egg yolks!!! The doughnuts which contain more yolks eggs absorb less oil. Also alcohol when incorporated into doughnut dough reduces the absorption of frying oil. Most of Polish doughnut recipes call for rectified spirit, feel free to use vodka or rum instead. Before frying, make sure the oil is hot enough. Test the temperature by frying a piece of dough; if it floats up immediately and turns golden quickly, you can start frying. To keep the oil temperature constant while frying, fry only a few doughnuts at a time. Crowding will lower the oil’s temperature and produce greasy doughnuts. I filled my doughnuts with rose hip jam, but feel free to use the filling of your choice.

Pączki (Traditional Polish doughnuts)
Makes 3 dozen medium doughnuts

FOR THE DOUGHNUTS:
1 kg flour
100 g fresh yeast (also known as compressed yeast or cake yeast)
75 g sugar
½ liter (2 cups) milk
8 yolk eggs
100 g unsalted butter, melted
16 g vanilla sugar
50 ml rectified spirit or vodka
orange rind, grated
pinch of salt
1 liter of vegetable oil for deep -frying

FOR THE FILLING:
350 g rose hip jam mixed with 2 tablespoons rum (optional)

FOR THE ICING:
350 g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
water
candied orange peel to decorate

1. Heat 250 ml (1 cup) of the milk over low heat until slightly warm, but not hot (too hot milk will kill the yeast).
2. Crumble the yeast in a large bowl. Add the heated milk, 1 tablespoon of the sugar and 5 tablespoons of the flour. Stir to combine and dissolve. Cover with dishtowel and set aside in a warm place. Let rise until spongy.
3. Place the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and 2 tbsp of slightly warm (but not hot) water in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and pale.
4. Add the egg mixture, the remaining milk, the alcohol, and orange rind to the yeast mixture and stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
5. Pour the liquid into the sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. If the mixture is too dry add more milk.
6.Knead the dough by hand for at least 20 minutes or until smooth and soft. The softer the doughnut dough, the more tender the doughnuts will be.
7. Gradually add the melted butter and continue kneading until the dough incorporates it and is no longer sticky.
8. Shape the dough into a ball. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with a dishtowel and leave in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).
9. Place half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour and, using a rolling pin, roll to a thickness of 1/2-inch.
10. Using a drinking glass or round cookie cutter, cut circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter).
11. Spoon about 3/4 teaspoon of the filling into the center of each circle. Raise edges of dough and pinch together over filling, then roll between palms snowball fashion to form balls.
12. Transfer the doughnuts to a parchment lined baking sheet (do not flour the baking sheet). Cover with a dishtowel, and let rise in warm place until doubled.
13. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
14. Heat the oil over medium heat in a deep heavy frying pan. Use enough oil that doughnuts can float freely (about 2,5 inches). Test the temperature by frying a small piece of dough; it should bubble and float up immediately.
15. Fry 3 doughnuts at a time. Cook on each side until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Then remove to drain on paper towels.
16. To make the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl. Mix through 2 tablespoon lemon juice, then gradually add enough water to obtaining a mixture with a suitable consistency to spread. Spread over the doughnuts with a brush. Top each of the doughnuts with candied orange peel.

Przepis po polsku:
Tradycyjne polskie pączki

Mushroom and Sauerkraut Pierogi

Pierogi are classic Polish dumplings stuffed with a variety of fillings. The most common fillings for savory pierogi include quark cheese with potatoes and onions, minced meat, and sauerkraut with mushrooms. The sweet version of pierogi is usually made with sweet cheese, bilberries, or strawberries. The most common toppings for pierogi are fried onions for the savory version, sour cream with sugar for the sweet version, and melted butter with bread crumbs for both. These are the most popular fillings and toppings in Poland, but you can really make pierogi with anything you want. I’ll try to give you some more ideas in my future posts.

Today’s recipe is with sauerkraut and mushrooms as it’s the version traditionally eaten on Christmas supper in Poland. In my family, it’s always my grandmother who prepares Christmas pierogi. She makes them amazingly thin and light with lots of filling and serves them with delicious melted butter and breadcrumbs. No one else can make as delicious pierogi as she does.

I had cooked pierogi many times before, but it’s the first time I made them with sauerkraut and mushroom. For the filling I adapted a recipe from the Polish food magazine Kuchnia, the December issue number 12 (154). The two major changes I’ve made to the recipe were increasing the amount of sauerkraut and reducing the amount of butter. For the dough I used my grandmother’s recipe. The dough turned out harder too work with than the dough I usually make, but the result was rewarding. The pierogi came out very thin and light, almost transparent, exactly as my grandmother’s ones. The taste of mushroom in the filling was stronger than in my grandmother’s pierogi (I use different recipe after all), but still the pierogi were absolutely delicious and everyone in my family loved them:)

The recipe makes about 80 pierogi, which is, of course, long to make, but it is really worthwhile making them in large quantities as they can be stored frozen without lost of quality. It takes only a few minutes to cook frozen pierogi so they’ll be perfect for a quick lunch or dinner whenever you don’t have much time for cooking.

Sauerkraut & Mushroom Pierogi

Sauerkraut and Mushroom Filling*
(recipe adapted from Kuchnia magazine, December issue number 12 (154))

1,5 kg sauerkraut
150 g assorted dried wild mushrooms
2 onions, finely chopped
125 g butter or margarine
salt
black pepper

1. Place the mushroom in a large bowl. Pour warm water over the mushroom and soak overnight. Next day, place the mushrooms and water mixture in a large pot, simmer for about 10 min. Drain, keep the water.

2. Drain and rinse sauerkraut. Place in another pot, add the water you had used to soak the mushroom and cook until tender. Drain and leave to cool.

3. In a medium pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, until softened. Do not let the onions turn brown.

4. Squeeze the liquid from the mushrooms. Mix the mushrooms, sauerkraut, onion and butter mixture together and grind in meat mincer. If you don’t have meat mince, chop the sauerkraut and the mushroom finely with a knife.

5. Season with salt and lots of black pepper.

*You can prepare the filling in advance and keep it in the fridge up to 2 days.

The dough
(my grandmother's recipe)

1 kg all purpose flour
pinch of salt
about 300 ml boiling water

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
2. Make a whole in the center and pour boiling water into the crater.
3. Stir the mixture together with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour into the whole.
4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or cover with a damp dishtowel and let it rest for at least half an hour at room temperature.
6. Take a workable portion of dough and roll out very thin on a floured surface.
7. Using a drinking glass or round cookie cutter, cut circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter) (see the picture)
8. Roll out each circle a little bit more (you can also stretch the dough with your fingers).
9. Spoon about 1,5 teaspoon of the filling into the center of each circle.
10. Fold each circle in half around filling to form a semicircle, and firmly press edges together with your fingers. The edges should be free of filling.
11. Transfer the pierogi to a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover with a dishtowel.
12. Continue to fill and form pierogi, until all the dough has been used.
13. Now you can cook your pierogi or freeze them for later use.

Cooking pierogi:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
2. Gently place a few pierogi in boiling water (do not cook more than a few pierogi at a time). Boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom.
3. When the pierogi are floating on the surface let them cook 2 minutes more. Be careful to not to overcook them. 4. Remove ready pierogi with a slotted spun or skimmer.
5. Top with melted butter and bread crumbs mixture (see recipe below). Serve immediately.

Freezing Pierogi for later use:
1. Place your pierogi on a lightly floured cookie sheet, make sure the pierogi are not touching each other.
2. Place the dish in the freezer.
3. When the pierogi start to freeze and are not sticky anymore, you can transfer them to plastic bags.

Melted butter and bread crumbs topping

butter
bread crumbs

1. Place the bread crumbs into a pan. Cook on a low heat stirring from time to time until the crumbs turn brown. Be careful to not to burn them.
2. Add the butter and heat until the butter is bubbling. This will take a couple of minutes.
3. Pour the bread crumbs and butter over the pierogi. Serve.

Przepis po polsku:
Pierogi z kapustą i grzybami