Traditional Polish doughnuts with plum butter
These traditional Polish doughnuts are soft, fluffy and filled with delicious plum butter, then finished with a generous dusting of icing sugar. They’re best enjoyed while still slightly warm. A must-have for Tłusty Czwartek (Polish Fat Thursday), but so good you’ll want to make them all year round! ;).
Makes 15 doughnuts.
Ingredients for the yeast dough:
- 550 g strong white bread flour
- 14 g dried yeast or 30 g fresh yeast
- 250 ml lukewarm milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks, from large eggs
- 70 g caster sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 100 g butter, melted and cooled
- 1 tbsp rum or vodka
Additionally:
- plum butter, for filling
- icing sugar, for dusting
Sift the flour and mix with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter). Add the remaining dough ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for several minutes until the dough is smooth and soft. Try not to add extra flour, even if the dough feels slightly sticky. I recommend using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or a bread machine. Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1½ hours.
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Divide into pieces weighing approximately 65-70 g each and shape into balls. Place them on a lightly floured tea towel or work surface. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size, about 25–40 minutes, depending on the room temperature. The doughnuts should be nicely puffed up but not overproofed.
Fry the doughnuts in oil heated to 175°C for approximately 2 minutes on each side. The oil should not be too hot, or the doughnuts will brown quickly on the outside while remaining raw in the middle. Transfer them straight onto kitchen paper to drain.
Transfer the plum butter to a piping bag fitted with a doughnut-filling nozzle and use it to fill the doughnuts while they’re still warm. Dust generously with icing sugar.
Method for bread machine users:
Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.
Enjoy!
