Papanași, Romanian cottage cheese doughnuts

Name: Papanași, Romanian cottage cheese doughnuts
Ingredients: 500 g cottage cheese; 2 eggs; 4 tablespoons sugar; 1 lemon; 1 orange; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 200 g flour; 500 ml oil for frying; 200 g sweet cream; 150 g blueberry jam

Dessert - Papanași, Romanian cottage cheese doughnuts by Paulina L. - Recipia

Papanași, Romanian cottage cheese doughnuts, are fried until golden. Lemon and orange zest give them fragrance, and they’re served with sweet cream and blueberry jam. I use chunky cottage cheese, not the smooth kind, for this dough. Preparation: 25 minutes. Cooking: 16 minutes. Total time: 41 minutes. Servings: 4. Approximately 710 kcal and 24 g protein per serving.

Ingredients

500 g cottage cheese
2 eggs
4 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
200 g flour
500 ml oil for frying
200 g sweet cream
150 g blueberry jam

Preparation

1. Mix the cottage cheese with the eggs and sugar. Add the zest of one lemon and one orange, the lemon juice and the salt. 2. Stir the baking soda into the lemon juice to dissolve it, then mix it into the cheese mixture. Add the flour and knead briefly, until you have a soft dough that can be shaped. 3. Divide the dough into 4 large pieces and 4 small pieces. Shape the large pieces into rings with a hole in the middle, and roll the small pieces into balls. 4. Heat the oil in a saucepan to 170°C. Fry the papanași in batches, for about 3 minutes on each side, until golden; fry the small balls until they’re the same color. Transfer them to paper towels. 5. Serve the papanași warm, with sweet cream and blueberry jam.

Notes

Put some black tea on the table, too, alongside the warm serving. Fattier cottage cheese, well drained, holds the dough together better and leaves small curds visible in the middle. If the cheese has a lot of whey, leave it to drain before you start; otherwise, the dough may be too soft to shape. The oil can cool between batches, in which case the papanași absorb more fat. The small balls brown faster than the rings, so take them out once they’ve colored. For a different fragrance, you can replace the orange zest with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. The cheese, cream and eggs contain dairy and eggs, and the flour contains gluten. Store any leftover papanași in the fridge and eat them within 3 days.