Paczki (Polish Donuts)

Ingredients

5 cups of all purpose flour

4 tsp of dry yeast

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 cup of sugar

1.5 cups of milk at room temp

4 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

3.5 oz (100 g) melted butter

3 Tbsp of lemon juice

Oil for frying

Directions

Melt the butter in a small pot and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the flour and yeast.

Add the salt, sugar, milk, eggs, yolks, lemon juice, and butter at the end. Mix all the ingredients well.

Set the bowl aside for 1.5 hours in a warm place. Let the dough “grow”.

Make balls out of the dough. The dough maybe sticky. Try not to add too much extra flour. It is best to put flour on your hands, and roll the balls.

Set them aside on a flour covered surface for around 20 min in a warm place.

Heat oil in a large pot. Pour enough oil so that they can comfortably float and fry. I used peanut oil.

Once the oil is hot, place the paczki into the pot a couple at a time. Once they get golden brown on one side, roll them over. When they become a golden brown on the other side too, take them out of the oil, and place on a surface covered with some paper towels to absorb access oil.

Once they cool, inject a filling using a decorating syringe. You can fill them with jam, custard, pudding, or chocolate.

Top them off with some confectioners sugar.

Thoughts

This recipe makes about 20 paczki.

I made mine with custard, and they turned out great. They took a bit of time, but were definitely worth it. They are best right after you make them. The longer they stay out, the harder they will get, just like ordinary donuts.

Paczki are very popular in Poland, and this past Thursday, they had a day known as tlusty Czwartek which is celebrated on the last Thursday before Lent begins. It is the equivalent of fat Tuesday in the US. Every time I go to Poland, the first thing I do is I go to the nearest bakery and buy paczki. I love them, and I think they are one of the top pastries ever (and I’ve tried a lot of pastries in many places around the world).

I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do 🙂