Sweet, airy, yeasty fried dough… who doesn’t like it? Nobody? Good!

I think every country has it’s own fried dough version (let’s call them donuts because it’s shorter). There are beignets, churros, German donuts, Zeppoli. These are all some kind of dough fried (or baked) and sometimes they are served with sauce, jam, glaze or any kind of filling. And let’s face the facts: almost every fried thing is delicious and sweet fried dough is even better.

So Hungary obviously has it’s own recipe. We call it „fánk”. Around this time of the year we have huge parties and carnivals when people put on costumes to scare off winter. And there is no celebration without food, which means hungarian donuts. They aren’t the healthiest dessert but hey it’s still quite cold so we need some extra calories.

I love these kind of donuts because they aren’t full of overly sweet glazes and fillings. We serve them freshly baked with some homemade apricot jam (It’s really important to use grandma’s good old apricot jam! J ) and a sprinkle of powdered sugar that’s it.

I am not saying it is the easiest recipe. Making the dough is quite simple. Basically like every other yeast dough. The key is to let it rise enough, but the baking, that is crucial. You need a perfectly hot oil. If your oil isn’t hot enough, the donuts will be oily and saggy but if it’s too hot the outside will get dark brown easily and the inside will be still raw. And there is nothing worse than a saggy raw donut.

They are the best straight from the pan. I would recommend to make as many as you can eat at once but they are still edible after a day, you just have to warm them up in the microwave.

But every moment of the hard work pays off when you bite into the warm, slightly sweet airy dough, which is well balanced with a sweet and a bit tangy apricot jam. The best thing on a cold winter afternoon!

So try these hungarian donuts whenever you are craving for something sweet and warm!

Hungarian donuts

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Prep Time: 40 min. Resting Time: 1,5 hours Total Time. 2,5 hours Portions: 28-30 donuts

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Ingredients:

• 30g compressed fresh yeast

• 50g powdered sugar (separate 1 tablespoon)

• 500g all-purpose flour (separate 3 tablespoons)

• 500 ml milk (separate 300ml)

• 2 egg yolks

• 50g butter (melted)

• 1 tablespoon rum extract

• around 1 liter oil (flavourless)

For serving:

• Apricot jam (or any kind of jam)

• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. In a large microwave safe bowl warm up the 300 ml of the milk until slightly warm (make sure it’s not too hot or it will kill the yeast, but it's warm enough). Add the one tablespoon powdered sugar and crumble the yeast into the bowl. Slightly stir them together and add the 3 tablespoons of the flour. Mix them together and let them rest for 10 minutes.

2. In a seperate small bowl mix together the egg yolks and the rest of the powdered sugar then add it to the yeast mixture.

3. Slightly warm up your flour until lukewarm then sift it into the large bowl.

4. Add the lukewarm melted butter, the rum extract and slowly pour in the rest of the slightly warm milk. ( Don’t poor all the milk at once because you might not need all of it.)

5. Use a standing mixture or a hand mixer with a dough hook and start to mix everything together. Knead the dough until it comes together into a smooth dough.

6. Sprinkle some flour on the top and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let it rise until double in size at room temperature.

7. On a floured surface, punch down the dough then roll it until 0,3 inch or 1 cm thick square. Use a 2,7 inch or 7 cm round cookie cutter or a glass and cut out the donuts. Put them onto a floured tray and cover them with a kitchen towel. Let them rise for another ½ hour.

8. In a sauce pan heat up your oil (around 320-340 F or 160-170 C). You can test your oil with putting a small bit of the dough and there should be small-medium sized bubbles around it. If it get’s too brown quickly, reduce the temperature. Use enough oil so your donuts don’t touch the bottom of the pan.

9. Fry them upside down (the bottom which was on the tray should be on the top when you put it into the oil). Only put a few at a time in the pan (it depends on the size of the pan you use) so they don’t touch each other. Cover the pan and bake them for around 2-3 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Then turn them with a spatula and fry them for another few minutes but don’t put back the lid.

10. Put your freshly fried donuts onto some paper towels. Serve them immediately with some apricot jam and powdered sugar.

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