Oponki- AKA: Polish Paczki (Doughnuts)- Poland #117

on

Oponki- AKA:Polish Paczki (Doughnuts)- Poland #117

Oponki are a splurge food before pre-Easter fasting begins. This is a traditional recipe for oponki, which are very similar to jelly doughnuts. These fried rounds of yeast dough are usually stuffed with prunes, apricot, strawberry or sweet cheese filling.  Some make these puffy dough balls without filling and rolled in granulated sugar, which is what I did.




  • Ingredients:

  • 1-1/2 c. milk (warm, but no warmer than 110F)
  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 4 oz. butter (room temperature)
  • 1 egg (room temperature)
  • 3 egg yolks (room temperature)
  • 1 T. brandy or rum (I skipped this)
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4-1/2 to 5 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1 gal. vegetable oil for deep fryer 
  • granulated sugar (optional)
  • confectioners' sugar (optional)
  • Jam or jelly for filling
  1. Add yeast to warm milk, stir to dissolve and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
  3. Beat in egg, egg yolks, brandy or rum, and salt until well-incorporated.
  4. Still using the paddle attachment, add 4-1/2 cups flour alternately with the milk-yeast mixture and beat for 5 or more minutes by machine and longer by hand until smooth.  The dough will be very slack.  If too soft, add remaining 1/2 cup flour, but no more.
  5. Place dough in a greased bowl.  Turn to grease the other side.
  6. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, anywhere from 1 to 2-1/2 hours .
  7. Punch down and let rise again.
  8. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat or roll to 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut rounds with a 3 inch biscuit cutter close together so you will have fewer scraps.  Remove scraps, and re-roll and re-cut.
  9. Cover and let rounds rise until doubled in bulk, 30 minutes or longer.
  10. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil to 350F.  Place paczki top-side down (the dry side) in the oil a few at a time and fry 2-3 minutes or until bottom is golden brown.
  11. Flip them over and fry another 1-2minutes or until golden brown.  Make sure the oil doesn't get too hot so the exterior doesn't brown before the interior is done.  Test a cool one to make sure it's cooked through.  Adjust cooking time and oil heat accordingly.
  12. Drain oponki on paper towels or brown paper bag.
  13. Roll in granulated sugar while still warm.  If you want to fill them, poke a hole in the side of the oponki and, using a pastry bag, squeeze in a generous dollop of the filling of choice.  Then dust filled oponki with granulated sugar or confectioners' sugar or icing.

Results: These are not difficult to make; they are just time consuming. I fried the oponki in a cast iron skillet, which required less oil. It worked just fine.  I probably should have made them a bit smaller because this recipe yields 24 and I made 18. After frying them, and draining the grease, I rolled them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Best if eaten the same day they are made, which clearly was not an issue for my group.

They were absolutely delicious. They were consumed so fast that I'm not sure what happened to all of them.  The tasters were counting how many each person had to make it fair.
Bottom Line: Keeper!!!

Please share this blog with oponki/doughnut lovers of the world. They will thank you for it.


Comments

Post a Comment