Pączki
So I sprained my knee doing nothing (like a boss) and can't go to work today, so I have unexpected free time without being able to do/move too much, so I thought "hey LJ exists".
Last week I made Polish donuts to bring at work, and I'm going to put the recipe here both for people who might want to try it and for me for future reference.
Pączki
Ingredients for 40~45 pączki:
-1kg of flour
-1 pack (42g) of fresh yeast
-a pinch of salt
-5 eggs
-5 tablespoons of sugar
-125g of molten butter
-some milk (welcome to Polish recipes, "some" is a legitimate amount here)
-1 orange
-4 teaspoons of vodka (better if Polish =p)
-icing sugar or super-fine sugar
-a round cookie/pastry cutter or a glass, around 6cm diameter
-Plum or rose jam
Put the flour, salt and sugar in a big bowl (like a salad bowl). Put some warm milk in a small bowl and crumble the yeast in it with a pinch of sugar, let it rise for a while in a warm place.
In the big bowl with the flour/sugar/salt, add the eggs one by one while mixing (it works best by hand) and the juice and zest of an orange, the motlen butter, the vodka and the milk+yeast mix once risen.
Knead it until the dough is homogeneous and comes off the bowl easily. Leave it to rise for 1h30 to 2h in a warm place with a cloth over it, it should more than double in volume.
Once risen and elastic, (gently) flatten the dough with a rolling pin on a flat table covered with flour, to about 2cm thick, and cut round shapes with the pastry cutter or glass, you may shape them a bit like balls, but it's not necessary as it will rise. Place them on your table and leave them to rise for 45mn-1h30, make sure to leave some space between them so that they don't join when rising.
Fill a fryer or a big pan with frying oil and heat to about 170°C (I personally don't have a thermometer so I took the last donut I made that had an ugly shape and I tried it and basically judged by the color), fry your donuts for a few minutes on each face (they float so you'll have to turn them around), they should be medium brown and you can use a knife or a pick to check it's cooked inside. When still hot, cover them with extra-fine sugar, or if you use icing sugar wait until they're cold and dust it on them.
For the stuffed ones:
With a pick, carve a hole in a donut, then, put jam in a pastry bag, fill it with jam. I do recommend using jelly or filtering the jam for this technique however, since jam has big bits that clog the tip. I stuffed 20 pączki in 2 hours because of that u_u
A technique that I havent tried is filling them before frying, as seen on several videos it seems pretty standard for Polish bakers, but I was afraid it would leak and ruin the oil.
.
They get dry pretty fast but you can limit that by keeping them in a hermetic box, and I haven't tested it yet but according to my mother they stay good if frozen and re-heated.
Last week I made Polish donuts to bring at work, and I'm going to put the recipe here both for people who might want to try it and for me for future reference.
Pączki
Ingredients for 40~45 pączki:
-1kg of flour
-1 pack (42g) of fresh yeast
-a pinch of salt
-5 eggs
-5 tablespoons of sugar
-125g of molten butter
-some milk (welcome to Polish recipes, "some" is a legitimate amount here)
-1 orange
-4 teaspoons of vodka (better if Polish =p)
-icing sugar or super-fine sugar
-a round cookie/pastry cutter or a glass, around 6cm diameter
-Plum or rose jam
Put the flour, salt and sugar in a big bowl (like a salad bowl). Put some warm milk in a small bowl and crumble the yeast in it with a pinch of sugar, let it rise for a while in a warm place.
In the big bowl with the flour/sugar/salt, add the eggs one by one while mixing (it works best by hand) and the juice and zest of an orange, the motlen butter, the vodka and the milk+yeast mix once risen.
Knead it until the dough is homogeneous and comes off the bowl easily. Leave it to rise for 1h30 to 2h in a warm place with a cloth over it, it should more than double in volume.
Once risen and elastic, (gently) flatten the dough with a rolling pin on a flat table covered with flour, to about 2cm thick, and cut round shapes with the pastry cutter or glass, you may shape them a bit like balls, but it's not necessary as it will rise. Place them on your table and leave them to rise for 45mn-1h30, make sure to leave some space between them so that they don't join when rising.
Fill a fryer or a big pan with frying oil and heat to about 170°C (I personally don't have a thermometer so I took the last donut I made that had an ugly shape and I tried it and basically judged by the color), fry your donuts for a few minutes on each face (they float so you'll have to turn them around), they should be medium brown and you can use a knife or a pick to check it's cooked inside. When still hot, cover them with extra-fine sugar, or if you use icing sugar wait until they're cold and dust it on them.
For the stuffed ones:
With a pick, carve a hole in a donut, then, put jam in a pastry bag, fill it with jam. I do recommend using jelly or filtering the jam for this technique however, since jam has big bits that clog the tip. I stuffed 20 pączki in 2 hours because of that u_u
A technique that I havent tried is filling them before frying, as seen on several videos it seems pretty standard for Polish bakers, but I was afraid it would leak and ruin the oil.
.
They get dry pretty fast but you can limit that by keeping them in a hermetic box, and I haven't tested it yet but according to my mother they stay good if frozen and re-heated.
