Polish Doughnuts Recipes

GRANDMA'S POLISH DOUGHNUTS

Steps:

• Scald the milk. To scald milk: Place milk in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat. Stir occasionally until milk is just hot with steam and small bubbles appear around the edges; do not boil. Remove from the heat.
• Add butter to warm milk and stir until melted.
• Allow butter and milk to cool until it is just warm (around 110-115°F). Add yeast and 2 cups flour. Mix well.
• Allow to rest for around 10 minutes to give the yeast time to "proof" or activate. The mix should be starting to bubble.
• Pour flour/milk mix into mixing bowl. Add egg, yolks, sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix well.
• Start adding the rest of the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition, until you have slightly sticky dough. Dump dough onto lightly floured countertop to knead in the last of the flour.
• Depending on the humidity levels, you may not need all the flour called for in the recipe. You want the dough to be soft and elastic, not too stiff. Don't overwork it or you'll develop the gluten too much and your doughnuts will be tougher.
• Grease your bowl and gently coat your dough with oil. Cover and set in a warm place and let rise until double.
• While dough is rising, prep your frying oil. A deep fryer is great if you have one. I use an eight quart heavy bottom pot. I put in enough local, non-hydrogenated lard to fill the pot around 3-4 inches deep.
• When the dough has doubled in size, roll out to about 1/3 inch thick and cut out doughnuts. We used a large glass for the doughnut and an empty decorator sprinkle container for the holes. Let rise until double in size.
• Heat lard to 340-365°F for frying. Drop 3-4 doughnuts into the frying oil, keeping an eye on your frying temp. Cook until brown on one side, flip and brown on the other side.
• Remove doughnuts from frying oil and place to drain on a wire rack sitting oven a paper grocery bag. Dip in glaze or sugar while still warm, if desired.
• For glaze, simply mix all ingredients together.

BAKED PACZKI (POLISH DOUGHNUTS)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the yeast to the warm milk; stir to dissolve and set aside.
• In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, egg yolks, brandy or rum, and salt until well incorporated.
• Add 4 1/2 cups of the flour alternately with the milk-yeast mixture and beat for 5 or more minutes until smooth. The dough will be very slack. If much too soft or runny, add the remaining 1/2 cup flour.
• Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, anywhere from 1 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Punch down the dough and let rise again.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll to 1/2 to 3/4-inch thickness. Cut rounds with a 3-inch cutter. Remove the scraps, re-roll, and re-cut.
• Transfer the rounds to parchment-lined baking sheets, cover, and let rounds rise until doubled in bulk, 30 minutes or longer. Heat the oven to 375 F.
• Place pączki in the oven and bake 8 to 10 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean.
• Remove from the oven; if coating in granulated sugar, brush the tops and sides with melted butter and roll in granulated sugar while still hot. If using confectioners' sugar, let the doughnuts cool before coating.
• To fill the pączki , let them cool completely, cut a slit in the side, and slip a teaspoon of fruit paste or jam inside. Then dust with confectioners' sugar or roll in granulated sugar.
• Serve and enjoy.

POLISH DOUGHNUTS - PACZKI

Steps:

• Scald milk and allow to cool to lukewarm, add yeast and stir.
• Beat sugar and butter until fluffy, add eggs, salt, vanilla and mace.
• Add flour and yeast-milk gradually, beating well.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
• Punch down and let rise again.
• Roll out dough, on a floured surface, 3/4 inch thick.
• Cut out 1 1/2 inch circles.
• Top half of the circles with 1 tsp jam, cover with the remaining circles and seal edges.
• Heat oil mixed with 1 tbls water to 375°F.
• Fry, turning once, to a medium golden brown.
• Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with sugar.

PąCZKI RECIPE (POLISH DOUGHNUTS)

Steps:

• Make the dough: Add butter into a medium saucepan and heat until melted. Add the cold milk, sugar, and vanilla extract to the pot, stir until combined, then take the pot off the heat. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl, make sure the temperature of the liquid is between 100-110°F (38-43°C) (pleasantly warm to your finger) then stir in the yeast (adding yeast into a warm liquid will make them rise faster). After about 1-2 minutes you should see the yeast is starting to 'bloom' (will be frothy/foamy). You can omit this step and simply combine all the ingredients together in a bowl when using fast-acting instant yeast.
• Add lightly beaten egg, egg yolks, brandy/rum, salt, and flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture.
• Stir with a spoon until roughly combined then start kneading by hand or with a stand mixer using a dough hook attachment. Knead the dough until soft, elastic, and no more sticky. It will take 7 minutes on speed 2 in Kitchen Aid or about 15 minutes by hand. If kneading the dough by hand you can find the mixture too sticky, try not to add too much additional flour.
• After 7 minutes of kneading with a mixer, you will see that the dough starts to clean off the sides of the bowl, it will be very soft and a little bit sticky. Scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl with a spatula and knead it by hand for a minute. After this time the dough should be smooth, soft and should no longer stick to your hands. If you have used a kitchen scale to measure out the flour you can trust the recipe and use the exact amount written in the ingredient list but if you're using measuring cups you have to assess the texture of the dough and add more flour/liquid if necessary.
• First rise: Form a smooth dough ball, put it back in the bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic foil, and place in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in volume (I'm putting it in a turned off oven with a light on).
• Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured rolling mat/counter and roll it out to a thickness of 4/5 of an inch (2cm). Cut out rounds using a 2 3/4 to 3-inch biscuit cutter (I used a 2 3/4 which is 7cm). You can knead the leftover dough into a ball, roll it out, and again cut out rounds. You can also simply divide the dough into 80g-pieces, and roll each piece of dough into a ball.
• Second rise: Place pieces of dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, about 2-inches (5cm) apart. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise for 30 minutes.
• Fry paczki: Heat the oil in a large pot (preferably shallow and wide) until the temperature reaches 350°F (175°C). It's best to use a candy thermometer which can be attached to a pot or a digital grill thermometer to check the temperature for the whole frying process. The amount of oil will depend on the size of the pot (I used 6 cups), you should have at least 1 1/2 inches (4cm) oil in your pot.
• Fry paczki in batches (3-5 paczki, depending on the size of the pot). Gently lower the paczki into the oil, I like to pick them up and slide them off of a lightly floured bench scraper.
• It's important to control the temperature of the oil - if it's too hot, paczki will brown too quickly and will be raw in the middle, if it's too low, they will soak up fat and be dense and greasy. Fry paczki for about 1.5 - 2 minutes per side or until golden.
• Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.
• When paczki are cold enough to handle, fill them with your filling of choice using a piping bag and a long piping tip.
• If you're planning to glaze them with icing it's best to do that when they are still slightly warm but if you want to just dust them with powdered sugar, let them cool first.
• Enjoy!

POLISH DOUGHNUTS (PąCZKI)

Steps:

• To make the leaven, mix the yeast with the sugar and flour, and stir in the warm milk. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes.
• For the dough, put egg yolks into a heatproof bowl and add the sugar and vanilla sugar. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk until smooth and thick.
• Sift the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the beaten yolks and the warm cream, mix thoroughly, then add a pinch of salt and the leaven. Bring together to make a dough and knead for 10 minutes (or 15-20 if doing this by hand).
• When the dough stops sticking to your hands, pour in the cooled melted butter and knead for a few more minutes. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for at least 1 hr-1 hr 30 mins.
• Mix the jam with the ground almonds and spoon into a piping bag or jam syringe. Divide the dough into 16 pieces and shape them into doughnuts. Cover and leave to rise for 30 mins.
• Fill a deep pan or a deep fat fryer one third full of oil or melted lard and heat it until it is 180C - if you don't have a thermometer, drop in a small chunk of bread. The oil is ready when it browns in about 30 secs. Add the doughnuts and fry, turning them once for about 1-2 mins on each side (a thin lighter ring should form in the middle). After removing, drain the doughnuts of excess fat on some kitchen paper.
• Mix the icing sugar, lemon juice and almond essence, adding some water if you need to thin the icing. When the doughnuts have cooled a little, pipe in the jam mixture and glaze them in the icing and sprinkle with the chopped almonds.