Paczki

It's always "Punchkee" time but Tuesday, February 25 is the super bowl for Paczki making!

Paczki February 22, 2020
Yield: Approximately 36 Paczki

Ingredients:
5 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick melted butter butter
3 medium eggs

6 egg yolks
1 cup warm milk (scald, then let cool to luke warm)
1 tsp salt
2 packages of dry yeast
1 large orange for zest

1 tbsp spiced or regular rum

juice from 1/2 orange*
1 qt. Cooking Oil (Vegetable, Peanut, Crisco or whatever you like to use)
Powdered Sugar

Optional ingredients:

*Juice and pulp from ½ orange (this may make the dough wet so you may have to compensate with a little more flour)

Orange Glaze (Enough for 12 dips)

This glaze is primarily made from powdered sugar so you will have to adjust amounts of ingredients depending on how many Paczki you want to dip. They glaze needs to be somewhat thick, not watery.

6 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
A little orange zest
A few drips of fresh squeezed orange
Splash of orange liquor or extract.
Mix well and dip “punchkee”

Directions
Dissolve yeast in warm milk and set aside

Use bowl from Kitchenaid mixer & dough hook

Add 3 eggs and 6 yolks, salt, sugar, rum and orange juice/zest. Blend ingriedients.

Add 2 cups of flour. Mix

Add milk/yeast. Mix

Add remaining flour and mix for 10 minutes at slow speed.

If dough is too wet, add a little more flour (sparingly). This dough is sticky, but you still want it to form somewhat of a ball in the mixing bowl. sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough, cover with plastic wrap and place in warm location like a sun lit window or in your car. Dough will rise after an hour or so. Punch it down and cover again. The dough should rise to fill the bowl. Flour on top keeps the plastic wrap from sticking. This process should take about 2 hours or so.

When ready to make Paczki, flour your work surface. I work directly on my granite countertops.Work the dough in mixing bowl with a little flour to form a ball. Pour dough on to floured work surface and divide into thirds. Roll dough to about ½” thick forming a circle. Add flower as necessary to make the dough workable. This will take a little practice but once you get the hang of it, you won't be using too many Polish curse words. Cut paczki using a glass, circle cookie cutter or anything that works. I use a Pilsner glass. Re-roll leftover dough and cut more circles. Place uncooked Paczki on floured wax or parchment paper. I place parchment paper on baking pans to make moving them easy. Cover Paczki with a clean dish towel and let sit for at least one hour. My rested for 3 hours yesterday and rose beautifully. I sometimes place them in a slightly warm oven but never hot. The back seat of your car on a sunny day works perfectly for me!

When ready to cook, pour about half qt of oil into a Dutch oven or your preferred cookware for frying. Heat oil until it starts to “swim” or you see tiny bubbles forming. Don’t let it heat to a hard boil. Test oil with a small piece of dough. When ready, add about 5 or 6 Paczki at a time. Fry each side for about 3-4 minutes or until they are golden brown, not too dark. Place cooked Paczki on paper towel and cooking racks. Sprinkle with Powdered sugar while still warm.

Orange Glaze (Enough for 12 dips)

This glaze is primarily made from powdered sugar so you will have to adjust amounts of ingredients depending on how many Paczki you want to dip. They glaze needs to be somewhat thick, not watery.

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