Paczki (Polish Donuts)

Last updated on September 23rd, 2018 at 03:05 pm

Paczki are a delicious traditional Polish donut, popular on Fat Tuesday or before Easter before Lent. My version here of these delectable morsels is filled with Saskatoon berry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  

It’s Saturday and I just want to eat a donut. I have this great Saskatoon blueberry jam, that is just the best jam I’ve ever had, if you’ve never had it, you must try it. So I’m always looking for an excuse, not that I need one, to use this great blueberry jam. So I was thinking, and thinking. Careful, too much thinking can hurt your brain. …and I decided that a filled donut would be perfect for this great jam. These donuts are great, the Polish call them Paczki and even though Fat Tuesday came and passed and I totally forgot about it, I’m making up for it right now.

Let me tell you not only are these donuts fun to make, they are super delicious, and who doesn’t love frying a donut. 🙂 This recipe is very easy.

Start off with half a cup of warm milk. In a medium sized bowl, add 2 tbsp of butter at room temperature and 2 tbsp of sugar. Add the warm milk to the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla and salt to the milk mixture. Now don’t worry, the eggs won’t cook, because the milk should not be hot, only warm. Whisk everything together really well, add the yeast and whisk a bit more. Now we’ll need to add around 2 cups of flour but 1/2 cup at a time. I just used a wooden spoon to mix all this but there’s nothing that says you can’t use your mixer for this. Keep adding flour and stirring with the wooden spoon.

When you’re done adding the 2 cups of flour turn over the dough onto a floured surface. Now, you need to knead the dough for a minute or so just until it all sticks together. The dough should be very malleable. Place the dough back in the bowl.

Cover the dough and let rest and rise. Now take a break for a couple hours. After two hours, the dough should have doubled in size.

On a floured surface start rolling the dough, not too much, it needs to be about 1/2 inch (1 cm) in thickness. This dough should make about a dozen donuts.

Using a glass, or if you want a cookie cutter, start cutting out rounds from the dough. With the remaining dough, start again and roll out the dough. Repeat until no dough is left Place the donuts on a cookie tray because we need to let them rise for another 45 min or so.

After 45 minutes, you have these little jewels.

In a frying pan, add about 1 inch of oil or more and let it heat. It should be very hot, turn down the heat to medium. Start placing donuts in the pan, and be careful because you have to flip them within a few seconds. They are done really quickly. When they are done place them on a cooling rack. After all the donuts have been cooled completely, using a knife cut a little pocket in the side of the donut and with a teaspoon fill with your favorite jam. You can also use a piping bag to fill them, up to you.

Sprinkle them with some powdered sugar and server. Yum yum.

I just couldn’t help myself, I had to take a bite out of one.

My husband loved these, he said they were just like his mom used to make them. 🙂

If you guys love this recipe, and most importantly make it yourselves, please let us know. Take a picture and tag it #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

Paczki (Polish Donuts)

Paczki are a delicious traditional Polish donut, popular on Fat Tuesday or before Easter before Lent. My version here of these delectable morsels is filled with Saskatoon berry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Polish

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 16

Calories: 144kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter unsalted, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup milk lukewarm
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 16 tsp blueberry jam I used Saskatoon berry jam, but any jam or jelly will work
• powdered sugar
• vegetable oil for frying

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Instructions

• In a medium size bowl, add butter, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla and salt and whisk well.
• Add the yeast and mix well.
• Add the flour half a cup at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon.
• Turn over the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a couple minutes, then place the dough back in the bowl, cover and let rise for a couple hours. The dough should double in size.
• Roll out the dough on a floured surface so that's it's 1/4 inch in thickness, and cut out rounds using a glass or a cookie cutter.
• In a frying pan heat the oil and turn the heat down to medium. Fry the donuts until golden on both sides and let cool on a wire rack.
• Cut out slits into the side of each donut and fill with a tsp of blueberry jam.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Notes

If using active dry yeast, please make sure you activate it first by dissolving it in a bit of warm water. If it does not begin to froth up, do not continue with the recipe. Subtract the quantity of water used from the milk.

 

Always check the expiration date on your yeast and make sure it hasn't expired. All your yeast products whether it’s in a jar or a package should be stamped with a “Best if Used by” date. Always make sure you check this date, even when you purchase the yeast, who knows it could have been on the shelf past its expiry date.

 

To keep your yeast fresh and longer lasting, unopened yeast packages or jars should be stored in a cool or dry place such as your cupboard. However, you can also store your yeast in the fridge or freezer. If you do store it in the freezer and need to use yeast for your baking, make sure you take out the amount you need and let it sit at room temperature for at least half hour before using.

 

Once your yeast package or jar has been opened, you must refrigerate the yeast or freeze it in an airtight container.

 

One thing to remember about your yeast, is that it is a living organism and over time it will lose activity, even if you’ve never opened the jar or package. So if you don’t bake often, buy the smaller yeast packages rather than a big jar of yeast.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

Nutrition

Serving: 1donut | Calories: 144kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 50mg | Potassium: 42mg | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1.7% | Vitamin C: 0.7% | Calcium: 1.5% | Iron: 4.8%

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