Andrew Siwko’s Blog #2

Heat until bubbles form:

1/2 cup milk

remove from heat, add

1/3 cup Rapadura (sugar)
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter

stir until melted, cool to lukewarm.

Sprinkle

2 packets active dry yeast

over

1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)

in a bowl.  A pinch of sugar may help the yeast grow.  In a mixer bowl, put the milk mixture, the yeast mixture and

4 egg yolks
2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons rum

Mix for 2 minutes until smooth then add up to

2 cups of whole wheat flour

until dough comes clean off the side of the mixing bowl.  Let rise at 85 degrees F for 1 hour until doubled in size.  Pound/kneed 10 times (until smooth) on a lightly floured surface.  Roll to 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out 3 inch rounds.  Divide the rounds into two sets.  Put

1/2 teaspoon jam (jelly, etc)

in the center of one half of the rounds.  Brush the edges of the other rounds with

egg whites

press the rounds together to seal the jam in with the egg whites.  Cover the panczki and let rise to double the size (45 minutes).

Heat 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees F.  Cook 3-4 panczki at a time.  Turn when risen and turn once more (4 minutes total).

Dust with

powdered Rapadura (sugar)

Eat hot or cold.  They’re good for days.  If kept covered the sugar can glaze nicely.

Notes for next time:

1. Putting the panczki at the top of the water heater closet worked well,
2. but cover them with plastic because the top side dried out.
3. Initial doubling time was about 90 minutes
4. The second rise time was 2 hours but 1 hour was spent at the bottom (closer to 75  degrees).
5. The egg white worked well, but the press had to be quite firm to get a good seal.
6. With the oil at 365 degrees at close to 4 minutes, the panczki came out very dark.

2012 Notes:

We made two batches this year with great success.  This year we tried to reproduce my babcia’s filling method.  It was easier and produced superior results.  Here’s the method:

Pinch off a piece of dough.  Form it into a ball.  Push a hole for the filling with your thumb and work the ball into a little cup with a small hole at the top.  Using a syringe (I cut the top off a cod-liver-oil syringe) fill with jam.  Close the hole behind the jam neither letting jam out nor leaving air in.

The other change was to leave the first rise overnight and to do the second rise in a warming drawer at about 100 degrees F.

Watch the flour level carefully.  Our second batch was too wet and made flat panczki.  They were still good but harder to handle and not round.