Papanasi (pronounce papanash) are Romanian farmers cheese doughnuts, that are served with sour cream and cherry jam. They are very popular among Romanian Jews in Israel.
Romanian cheese doughnuts (papanasi)
Course: Desserts, Hanukkah, Romanian, ShavuotCuisine: Romanian, JewishDifficulty: Medium12
doughnuts40
minutesThe recipe here calls for ricotta cheese instead of the harder to find farmers cheese.
The recipe below includes a quick cherry sauce to drizzle on top. Alternatively, you can use any fruit jam or just dust the papanasi with powdered sugar.
INGREDIENTS
2 eggs whites, at room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
1 lb. ricotta cheese (water drained)
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon whiskey or rum
2 ¾ cups (12 oz.) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Oil for frying
1 lb. sour cream for serving
- For the cherry sauce (optional, see note above)
12 oz. frozen sour or regular cherries, thawed
¾ cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons rum or red wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
DIRECTIONS
- Start with the cherry sauce (if making.)
- Put thawed cherries in a heavy bottom saucepan, top with sugar and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, so the sauce is simmering, but not too rapidly, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add alcohol and cook for another 2 minutes. Taste, and add lemon juice only if you want to flavor to be more tart. Remove from heat and cool down completely.
- Now make the papanasi
- Put egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Begin whipping on low speed until they become foamy. Now increase the speed to high and slowly and steady drizzle the sugar in as you continue to whip, until they form soft peaks. Remove from mixer.
- In a separate large bowl mix ricotta with egg yolk and whisky until ricotta is almost smooth. Gently fold in the whipped egg white. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt, then add them to ricotta mixture. The dough will be relatively sticky. You can transfer it to the fridge for 20 minutes if it’s too hard to handle, but it’s better to avoid adding more flour, unless it is absolutely necessary.
- Heat ¾ inch oil in a deep frying pan, cover and heat to 325 degrees on medium heat (this may take about 10 minutes.) Test oil by throwing a small piece of dough into the oil. It should gently simmer around the dough. Line a large tray with double layer paper towel.
- With wet hands take a piece of dough the size of ping pong ball, roll it to a ball then use your fingers to shape it like a ring-shaped doughnut, and gently drop it into the oil. Make three more papanasi. Roll 4 small ½ inch balls of dough and drop them into oil (they will top each papanasi when serving.) Fry on both sides for about 3 minutes altogether, then transfer to the paper towel lined tray. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- To serve, arrange each ring-shaped papanasi on a dessert plate, top with a couple tablespoons sour cream, a generous tablespoon cherry sauce, and top it all with a small fried ball. Serve immediately.
