Polish poppy seed doughnuts with amaretto icing

These poppy seed doughnuts with amaretto icing were a real favourite this Tłusty Czwartek! The filling is packed with poppy seeds, dried fruit, nuts and honey, making these doughnuts absolutely delicious and very hard to resist. I’d never tried this combination before, but I loved it so much that I’ll definitely be making more poppy seed treats for Fat Thursday from now on ;).

Makes about 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 amaretto liqueur

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 kneaded 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. Shape each piece into a ball, then flatten it and place a spoonful of the poppy seed filling (recipe below) in the centre. Bring the edges of the dough together over the filling and pinch firmly to seal, shaping each one into a doughnut. Place the doughnuts 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. They should look nicely puffed up but not overproofed.

Once risen, fry the doughnuts in oil heated to 175°C for approximately 2 minutes on each side. The oil must not be too hot, or the doughnuts will brown quickly on the outside while remaining raw in the middle. A pale ring around the middle of each doughnut will be difficult to achieve with this filling, as the poppy seed mixture is quite heavy. Transfer the fried doughnuts straight onto kitchen paper to drain.

Glaze the poppy seed doughnuts with the amaretto icing and sprinkle with a little extra dry poppy seed.

Ingredients for the poppy seed filling:

• 130 g poppy seeds
• 40 g light brown sugar or caster sugar
• 30 g raisins or dried cranberries
• 20 g walnuts or pecans, chopped
• 1 tbsp honey
• a few drops of almond extract or almond flavouring
• ⅓ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp candied orange peel

Cover the poppy seeds with boiling water and leave to cool. If all the water is absorbed, add a little more as needed. Drain off any excess water, then grind the poppy seeds twice using a meat grinder fitted with a fine plate. Alternatively, cover the poppy seeds with boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly, leave to cool and grind twice using a meat grinder fitted with a fine plate.

You can also use readily available ground poppy seeds, which makes the process much easier as there is no need to grind them yourself. Simply cover them with boiling water and leave to cool. Drain and squeeze out the excess water thoroughly, for example by wrapping the poppy seeds in a clean linen tea towel.

Add the remaining filling ingredients to the prepared poppy seeds and mix well. If the mixture is too wet, add a tablespoon or two of ground nuts. If it is too dry, add a little more honey.

Ingredients for the amaretto icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2–3 tbsp amaretto liqueur

Place the icing sugar in a bowl and gradually stir in the amaretto using the back of a spoon until smooth. If necessary, make a little extra icing.

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!