Polish Doughnuts

If you’re looking for a healthier doughnut recipe, see Jenny’s recipe for Sprouted Grain Doughnuts (which look delicious, BTW).  These doughnuts were made from the recipe that my mother used for…let me think…probably close to 50 years of church bake sales.  When I was still at home as a girl and a teenager, I used to help out with the Easter Bake Sale, where mom and the other ladies from the parish would bake tens of dozens of these beauties.  (Think multiple 50 pound bags of flour and 4+ large folding tables full of finished doughnuts.)  People would come from all over the surrounding area just to get “those good doughnuts”.

Since I ended up living on the opposite side of the state, it had been about 20 years since I last helped out with doughnut making.  On top of that, I’d never made them on my own. Nonetheless, I thought it would be a good way to remember mom, as these doughnuts were a family tradition.  My mom got the recipe from my dad’s mom, Grandma Catherine.

Here’s what my sister read to me over the phone:

Polish Donuts

1 package yeast
Pint of Milk, warm or scalded
2 cups flour

Let stand until light

4 eggs yolks
1 egg
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups flour

Rise until double. Roll out, let rise again. Fry at 340 to 365 degrees F. Drain on paper towels. Sugar or glaze while still warm.

Here’s my journey in doughnut baby steps (for those who are doughnut-cooking novices, like myself).

Scald the milk. (To scald milk: Place milk in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat. Stir occasionally until milk is just hot with steam and small bubbles appear around the edges; do not boil. Remove from the heat.)

Lois (my sister) said that they used to throw the butter in with the milk, even though it’s listed in the lower part of the recipe, so I did that, too.  Let the milk and butter cool down before adding the yeast (cool enough that you can stick your finger in for a few moments without burning it).  Too hot and you will kill your yeast, too cold and it’ll slow down the proofing, which is the next step.  (Update:  I never check the temp with a thermometer, but if you do, recommended temps for standard yeast are 110-115F, rapid rise yeast 120-130 F.)

To the butter and milk, add two cups flour and one package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast.  I used SAF-INSTANT yeast, so I added about 1 heaping teaspoon.  Mix well.

“Let stand until light” AKA “proof the yeast”.  This probably wasn’t necessary with the instant yeast, but just to make sure I let the finished mix sit until I could see some some bubble action indicating that the yeast was warmed up and ready to roll.

At this point I dump my flour/butter/yeast mix into a larger bowl with all the other ingredients (except the rst of the flour) and blend well.

Then we start adding the flour.

My friend Julie is mixing while I’m dumping and taking photos.  She was the one who actually brought up the idea of making doughnuts.  Depending on the humidity levels, you may or may not need all the flour called for in the recipe.  As the dough gets stiffer, you want to knead in the last of the flour.  Here’s me kneading (my head is not cut off on purpose – this is the best picture my kids took – seriously).  I quit at about 4 1/2 cups additional flour (the air and flour were dry because of the cold weather).  I probably could have stopped at four.  You want the dough to be soft and elastic, not too stiff.  Don’t overwork it or you’ll develop the gluten too much and your doughnuts will be tougher.

Grease your bowl and gently coat your dough with grease (a little melted lard or butter will do).  Cover and set in a warm place and allow to rise until double.

I turned on my oven and set the bowl on the stove.  My mom would sometimes set her bread bowl in a bowl of hot water.

Meanwhile, I prepped my frying oil.  In an eight quart heavy bottom pot, I put in enough local, non-hydrogenated lard to fill the pot around 3-4 inches deep.

Isn’t that pretty?  It looks like ice cream or whipped cream, so white and fluffy.  I bought a new thermometer for the occasion and clipped it to the side of the pot so that it was just over one inch from the bottom of the pot.  I thought about using my good candy thermometer, but any fat that might cling to the thermometer could ruin a future batch of candy, so I figured it was worth a few dollars to pick one up at the hardware store.

Note:  Julie noticed that while were were frying, the temperature reading would fluctuate quite a bit when we added doughnuts to the pan – not dropping like you might expect, but actually spiking.  She theorized that the still oil may have had hot and cold pockets which were then agitated by the frying action.  It wasn’t a big problem, but we did end up with some of the thicker doughnuts being a hair underdone because the outside cooked so fast.

My kitchen, even with the oven on, was a little on the cool side, so the dough took quite a while to double.  Once it finally did, we rolled it out to about 1/3 inch thick and cut out our doughnuts.  We used a large glass for the doughnut and an empty decorator sprinkle container for the holes.

We laid out these soon-to-be-fluffy pastries on baking sheets lined with SuperParchment and scooted them back over to the stove area.  Even with the stove on, they would have liked it warmer.  There’s a reason bakeries use proofing ovens.  A little more heat and I think they would have been lighter and fluffier, but they still turned out pretty tasty.  We let them rise until about double in size.

Stove and doughnuts ready to go.

In my situation I elected to work from right to left because the burners I wanted to cook on were on the left side of the stove.  Uncooked doughnuts come in from the right, fry, exit to left to cool slightly on a wire rack covered by a brown paper grocery bag (to absorb any excess grease).

Here’s Julie frying away.

I bet at this point you’re thinking that I had her making the doughnuts instead of me making the doughnuts, but I assure you we did take turns working on everything.  She just didn’t take any pictures when I was working.

I glazed the doughnuts while they were still warm.  We didn’t measure, but the glaze was a mix of powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and butter.

The boys were very excited about the results.

As you may have guessed from the smile on Duncan’s face (top photo), the doughnuts didn’t last very long, but everyone had a nice treat.  I know it’ll be sooner than 20 years before I tackle doughnuts again.

This post has been added to Domestically Divine Link Up  at Far Above Rubies.