Ring doughnuts

by | Jan 22, 2021 | Breads, buns & biscuits

Sometimes even the tiniest thing is enough to make us feel all right for a moment. To me, biting into a doughnut is one of those things. While not a healthy dessert, jam or ring doughnuts are wonderful occasional treats. They practically melt in your mouth when you take a bite, and even though they do take a bit of time, it’s so worth the end result.

These versatile deep-fried dough balls have come to take on many different forms. There are countless variations from cake to glazed to cream-filled, and every donut shop around the world puts their own creative spin on their specific creations.

Despite the wide range of opportunities to purchase any kind of doughnuts you have a desire for, I prefer homemade doughnuts, which are not glazed, not decorated, just as simple as possible. I came across the following ring doughnut recipe in a Transylvanian cookbook, these doughnuts are classic and delicious.

Ring doughnuts
Ring doughnuts – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

  • 450 g (~3 2/3 cups) flour
  • 30 g (~1 oz) fresh yeast (3 tsp dry yeast)
  • 100 g (~3/4 cup) powdered sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 150 ml (~2/3 cup) milk
  • 70 g (~1/3 cup) butter, melted
  • vegetable oil for deep frying

Combine yeast, a teaspoon of sugar and lukewarm milk in a small bowl, and set aside until yeast starts to foam.

In a separate bowl beat eggs and sugar until the mixture becomes foamy and pale yellow. Add salt, flour and activated yeast, and knead – using a mixer with dough hooks – until the dough starts to hold together. Pour in melted butter and keep kneading until butter is fully incorporated. Cover and let the dough rise for 50-60 minutes.

On a floured surface roll out the dough to about 2 cm / 3/4″ thick. Cut into rounds using an 8 cm / 3 1/4″ straight sided round cutter, then use a 2-3 cm / 3/4 – 1 1/4″ cutter to stamp out the middle of each doughnut. Re-roll the trimmings to make more doughnuts. Cover and let the doughnuts rest for 15 minutes.

Pour the oil into a large saucepan to the depth of 10 cm/4″ and heat until a small piece of dough dropped into it sizzles immediately and floats to the surface. Carefully place 2 or 3 doughnuts at a time and fry until golden brown on each side (try to maintain a steady medium temperature while frying in order to avoid burning). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. You can dust the doughnuts with powdered sugar and/or serve them with jam.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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