Pączki
Yesterday was the first day of a Great Lent. In Polish culture, this means that we traditionally start fasting until Easter. Times change and not everyone follows that tradition anymore (I am also guilty of that) but, for some reason, there are parts of the end of Carnival season and the beginning of Great Lent that survived until now. One of the major events in Poland is Fat Thursday (this year it happened a week ago) when everyone is eating an enormous amount of the nation's beloved Pączki (aka Donuts).
What makes Polish Pączki special? First and foremost they are fresh. And I mean fresh - still warm from the oil bath. Then they are stuffed, traditionally with a Rose Petal Jam—so no hole in the middle but a sugary substance for added sweetness. Finally Pączek is topped with icing sugar or royal icing. Which means sugar, inside of sugar, covered with sugar. This is the day when people eat as many of them as they can, in the ultimate-cheat-day style.
Pączki are made out of yeasty dough but, if you know me a little you know I could not resist substituting baker yeast with sourdough (wild yeast) which is what I've been doing for several years now. Here is my recipe for Pączki (12 pieces) which I adapted from Maks @ https://upieczsobiechleb.pl/paczki-na-zakwasie/ These are the best Pączki I ever had.
Ingredients:
- Bread flour 330g (in my case Caputo Manitoba)
- Oat Milk 150g
- Yolks 85g (between 4-6 depending on the size)
- Butter 85g
- Sugar 85g
- Levain 130g (I used my freshly fed and size-doubled wheat stiff starter)
- Salt 7g
- Rum 10g (this year I substituted it with Maple Whiskey with great result)
I mixed everything (except Salt and Rum) with a stand mixer until smooth, well-developed dough, rested for 15 minutes, and added salt and alcohol for another 4-5 minutes to mix until well incorporated and the dough had a silky-smooth texture.
Then coil-folded 4 times, 45 minutes apart, and finally, after a few hours of fermentation, shaped into 70-75g balls (12 balls). The entire procedure, including feeding the starter, took the entire day - first thing in the morning - feeding the starter, in the afternoon (around 3 pm) - mixing the dough, in the late evening (probably around 10 pm) - shaping it into balls and let it rise covered with plastic film so it won't dry,
Next day in the morning fry on a deep oil (I used sunflower oil) heated to 170C - 3-4 minutes on each side. Let it rest on a kitchen towel for a few minutes and add a feeling to your tasting. For me, it was rose petal jam or pistachio cream.
I hope you'll give it a try if you're a keen sourdough care-taker like myself 😉
