Description
Krafne (Croatian jelly doughnuts) are traditionally baked throughout February, during carnival time.
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 cups + 2.5 tbsp (500 g) flour
- 1.4 oz (40 g) fresh yeast
- 0.4 cups (100 ml) vegetable oil
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp rum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk
- 0.2 cup (50 g) sugar
- 2.5 tsp vanilla flavored sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- some marmalade for filling
- powdered sugar for dusting
- about 2 cups (500 ml) vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Let all ingredients sit at room temperature before using.
- Combine yeast with warm milk and sugar until it dissolves and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes.
- In another bowl, combine flour, salt, lemon zest and vanilla sugar. Add yolks, rum, oil and yeast combined with milk. Beat with your mixer (fitted with dough attachments) to make the dough. Traditional way to make it would be using your hands: you’d beat the dough with wooden spoon until it separates from the bowl. The dough will be on the soft and sticky side-just what you need. Cover with plastic wrap or clean kitchen towel and let rise in warm place for 1 – 1 and half hour.
- Dust working surface with flour and slightly knead risen dough. Roll it out to 0,4 inch (1 cm) thick. With circle cutters (you can use glass as well) cut out doughnuts. Place them onto clean kitchen towel lightly dusted and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes. In this stage, you want them nicely rise so that they’d have gorgeous pale ring.
- There’s another equally good way to do this: When you make the dough, immediately separate it into equal round balls. Nicely shape them with your palms and let rise in warm place for 1 hour. Then fry them.
- Heat oil in large skillet. How do we know that oil is ready for the doughnuts? Put a handle of wooden spoon into it-if the bubbles appear evenly around it, the temperature is right.
- Fry doughnuts: put the upper risen side into oil first. We do this to ensure that the bottom of doughnuts fries enough and becomes nicely round. Fry for about 2 minutes, covered with lid. When they begin getting nice golden color, immediately turn them around and fry for another 2 minutes, this time uncovered. Don’t let them get dark brown color as it will make them hard. Assemble onto paper towels that will soak up oil.
- Use pastry bag with round attachment to fill them – insert attachment into the side of each doughnut. Fill with jam. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.