Best Paczki Famous Polish Donuts Recipes

PACZKI: POLISH DONUTS

Steps:

• In a bowl put a tablespoon of flour, 3 tablespoons of warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Mix it all well, cover with a rag and set aside for 20 minutes. It should become all fluffy and foamy.
• Mix the rest of the flour with egg yolks and melted butter. Then add the rest of your milk (not warm this time) and rum. The rum will make your paczki absorb less oil when frying later.
• Knead the dough with hands for about 5 minutes. Cover with a rag and set to grow in a warm place for about 45 mins to an hour - you can use an oven shelf for that.
• Once the dough is grown, set some flour on the dough board. Roll out the fluffy dough gently to a thickness of about 1" and cut out round paczki (you can use a bigger cup or glass to do it).
• Form your cut out paczki round, but slightly flatter on top and bottom.
• Fry them in oil heated to 345 F for about 2/3 minutes on each side, then place on paper towels to remove the excess oil.
• Once cooled down, stuff them with a filling of your choice. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top or prepare frosting with melted sugar and candied orange peels.

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.

PACZKI - FAMOUS POLISH DONUTS

Steps:

• 1. Melt you 1/2 cup of butter and let cool to room temp. Warm milk and cream. Beat the whole eggs, yolks and sugar together then add butter and beat thoroughly. Next, add orange zest, salt, cream, milk, yeast, spiced rum and mix well. * THE DOUGH WILL BE SOFT AND STICKY. IT SHOULD ROLL OUT VERY EASILY AND SMOOTHLY.
• 2. Let the dough rise till double in bulk (at least an hour or longer), punch it down and let it double in bulk again. Here is Chef Tad punching down the dough.
• 3. After second rising, punch the dough down again and divide dough. Dust your board liberally with flour and roll out your dough to about 1/2 inch thick.
• 4. Cut into rounds with at least a 3 inch cutter & fry in hot oil. (If you have no cutter then you could use a thoroughly washed tuna can as your cutter.) HEAT YOUR OIL BETWEEN 325 TO 350 DEGREES. --- This is my good friend Kaycee who joined me for the class.
• 5. Depending on the size of your fryer only put a few in at a time. This size that we used in the photo we dropped about 5 to 6 rounds in at a time. Let them start to puff up in the middle and you can see them brown on the one side then turn them over to finish browning the other side. Take them out and let them drain on a paper towel. This happens very quickly within a minute or two.
• 6. After they have cooled you can fill them with your favorite filling or leave plain and dust with powdered sugar or plain sugar. --THESE DONUTS WHEN THEY PUFF UP ARE HOLLOW INSIDE. SO, IT MAKES THEM PERFECT FOR FILLING.
• 7. Here we are filling and dusting the paczki! VERY TRADITIONAL FILLINGS FOR PACZKI - Apricot Poppyseed Black Raspberry Lekvar - (sweetened prune puree) Rose Cherry and more non-traditional flavors too.
• 8. Put the coffee on...fill up some glasses with cold milk and let's eat some Paczki!
• 9. FOR FUN: Our male Schnoodle is named after the famous Paczki. It wasn't until I met my husband Anthony that I heard about the famous Paczki. Not only is his heritage Polish/Italian but he used to be a police officer and has had his share of Paczki. Every year, there is a box of Paczki's that arrive mysteriously in our kitchen! But now, I know how to make them so we can have some homemade. If Paczki the Schnoodle was allowed to eat these famous Paczki he for sure would win. He would probably eat all of them and then be sick but I can assure you every last Paczki would be gone. Do you see his focus on the donut? LOL --- I think he was thinking are they mine? All mine?!
• 10. I stopped over at Krakus Polish Deli & Bakery here in my hometown and saw these lovely towels and just "HAD" to get one. It only seemed right don't you think? lol

POLISH DONUTS PąCZKI RECIPE

Steps:

• If it's cold in your kitchen, heat your oven to 86°F (30°C).
• Sift the flour.
• Warm up the milk.
• Using a spoon, mix yeast with 1 tbsp of sugar. Add 3 tbsps of warm milk and 1 tbsp of flour. Mix and leave it for 30 minutes to grow.The mixture will double or triple its size, that's why you should place it in a big bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen cloth. If it's cold in your kitchen, place a bowl in the oven heated to 86°F (30°C).
• In the meantime, beat egg yolks with sugar until they change the color to whitish. If you are using the pudding filling, it's the right time to do it (read how to do it below).
• After 30 minutes, mix all the ingredients for the dough together. You may knead it manually or use a food processor. Knead until the dough starts to detach from your hand.
• Place the dough in a big bowl, cover with a clean kitchen cloth, and leave to grow for about 30-60 minutes until it doubles its size. Again, if it's cold in your kitchen, place the bowl in the oven.
• When the dough has doubled its size, knead it briefly to remove excessive air bubbles.
• Pour the oil into the wok or big pot and start heating it up.
• Start forming pączki. Each should have the size of the tangerine.
• Cover pączki with a kitchen cloth and wait until the oil is ready to fry.How to check whether the oil is hot enough? Throw a small piece of the dough into the oil. If it stays on the bottom, the oil is still too cold. If the dough comes straight up to the surface, the oil is ready to fry.
• Fry pączki for about 3-5 minutes on each side.
• After frying, place the pączki on a plate lined with paper towels to remove the excessive fat.
• Pour one cup of milk into the pot.
• Add egg yolks, sugar, and whip it together until you will get a smooth, yellow color.
• Place a pot on the stove, cook slowly, stirring frequently.
• In the meantime, pour half a cup of milk into the small bowl.
• Add potato flour. Mix until dissolved.
• When the mixture in the pot nearly boils, add milk with potato starch and mix until you will get the consistency of pudding.
• Mix 1 cup of icing sugar with 1 tbsp water and heat up until you get a smooth consistency.
• When the donuts are still warm, fill them up with jam or pudding using a big syringe (like this). You will need about 30-50ml of filling per donut.
• If you are using sugar glaze, pour them onto warm pączki. You may add candied orange peel as well.
• Alternatively, you may use icing sugar. Sprinkle it when the pączki are cold.

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.