When I was really young, the only doughnuts I knew were called pączki. Delicious yeasty, eggy fried dough, most often filled with plum butter, rose jam or custard (my personal fav being a toss up between plum butter and Advocat-flavoured custard) and covered in a sweet citrusy glaze. Insert drool emoji!! We moved to Canada when I was young so as I grew up, I was exposed to the more typical North American doughnuts that you get at Tim’s or Krispy Kreme…but pączki are hard to beat! I thought Mother’s Day would be a perfect time to make pączki and surprise my mom with a special delivery!
INGREDIENTS
Dough
*This recipe yields 9-10 doughnuts
500g all purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
4 egg yolks
40g sugar (just over 2 1/2 tbps)
7g dry yeast
50g butter (approx. 1/4 cup)
pinch of salt
canola, grapeseed or coconut oil for frying
Glaze
3 tbsp lemon juice or 2 tbsp water (or half and half)
120g powdered sugar
Filling
Your choice, or none! Typically made with plum butter, rose jam or custard, but any type of jam will work equally well.
DIRECTIONS
- Melt the butter on your stove top or in the microwave, and put aside to cool.
- Warm the milk on the stovetop until warm to the touch (be careful not to over-heat as this will kill your yeast).
- Separate your eggs. You only need the egg yolks for this recipe, but you can save the egg whites for easy meringues!
- Place yeast, sugar and milk in bowl of your stand mixer. Let sit for 2-3 minutes.
- Add egg yolks, butter, and flour and work the dough with the hook attachment for about 5 minutes until the dough starts separating from the sides of the bowl.
- Get your muscles warmed up! Remove bowl from your stand mixer and knead by hand for another 5 minutes. You will noticed that the dough will be resisting at first, but this will ease up as you keep kneading. Kneading is a really important step, especially with this dough, because it helps yield a fluffy doughnut.
- Cover with a cotton tea towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour in a warm place until the dough has about doubled in size. Patience is key here so that the dough has enough time to rise!
- Prepare your rolling pin by lightly coating it in flour. Remove dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and roll out until about 2.5cm (1″) thick.
- Cut out circles. This can be done using circle cookie cutters or simply use the rim of a glass from your cupboard!
- For leftover dough, gently knead again, roll and cut out circles. Repeat this process until you have used most of the dough. Cover the cut out circles of dough with a cotton tea towel while resting.
- Heat oil in a flat bottom skillet a few inches in height (not too deep) until the oil is at about 175ºC (350ºF).
- Gently, usling a slotted spoon, insert a circle of dough into the heated oil, one at a time. You can fry 2-3 doughnuts at one time, depending on the size. Do not over crowd the pan as these need to move around freely.
- Flip over once the side gets golden brown. You may need to play with the heat so that the oil does not get too hot. You need these to cook through or you will end up with a raw middle. In my experience, it’s better to cook longer at a lower heat.
- Remove once both sides are a nice golden brown and place on a plate with paper towel to let the excess oil soak off.
- After a few minutes, transfer to a cooling rack, set on top of a baking sheet (this will be used to catch any glaze that drips).
- If you will be filling your doughnut, prepare your piping bag. I use a Wilton 7 tip. Add your choice of filling to the bag.
- Poke a hole into the middle of the doughnut and using your prepared piping bag, squeeze the filling into the doughnut.
- Make the glaze! Add the lemon juice (or water) to the icing sugar and stir to dissolve.
- Once the doughnuts have cooled but are still warm, brush with your glaze. This is where that baking pan under your cooling rack will come in handy to save you from a messy clean up of your counter top!
ENJOY!