Ukrainian Christmas doughnuts

Lean doughnuts for Christmas Eve

Wait a second? Can you feel the flavor of freshly fried donuts? Topped with powdered sugar, these finger-licking homemade pampukhy (Ukrainian doughnuts) are waiting for you.

These fluffy, yeasted doughnuts are cooked especially for Christmas Eve. They have a lent-friendly recipe but taste so gorgeous that you’ll be amazed at how sweet, puffy, and soft they are. Made in the comfort of your own home, pampukhy acquire some magic and bring a special feeling of coziness.

Ingredients:

  • 500 ml water
  • 50 g yeast
  • 150 g sugar
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 20 g vanilla sugar
  • 1 kg flour
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp horilka
  • a pinch of sugar

Cooking

First, dissolve yeast in warm water to activate. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour. Mix everything carefully and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Next, stir in the 1,5 cup of flour. Then cover the mass with a towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour. The pre-dough should rise.

Afterward, stir together turmeric, salt, sugar, horilka, and vanilla sugar. 

Tip! We add horilka to the dough to prevent doughnuts from soaking vegetable oil when frying. 

Add flour gradually and knead the soft, tender dough. In the end, pour in vegetable oil and knead the dough again. Set aside for 1 hour. It should increase in size twice. 

Next. roll the dough out to a 1,5-2 cm thickness. Cut out doughnuts with a glass or create a circle shape using a cutter.

Then set aside doughnuts for 20-30 minutes more. Then deep-fry doughnuts in high heat.

Finally, place them on paper towels and turn twice to absorb surface oil. When cooled, sprinkle doughnuts with powdered sugar.

Butter donuts for Christmas

Indulge in yummy Christmas buttery pampukhy (Ukrainian doughnuts) with a rich festive filling made of poppy seeds, raisins, and nuts. These pampukhy are an ideal dessert for winter family holidays.

What’s more, they have a user-friendly recipe that won’t take much of your time. That’s especially important when there are a lot of New Year chores.

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 500 ml milk
  • 130 g dairy butter
  • 100 g sugar
  • 50 g yeast
  • 25 ml horilka
  • flour

Filling

  • 180 g poppy seeds
  • a handful of raisins
  • a handful of nuts
  • 150 g sugar

Cooking

Melt dairy butter in boiling milk. Then cool the mixture and add yeast grated with sugar, eggs warmed to room temperature, and horilka. Stir all the ingredients thoroughly. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, adding flour gradually.

Filling

Pour boiling water above the poppy seeds. Cover raisins with boiling water as well. Leave for 15 minutes. After, drain the water. Next, grind poppy seeds three times. Mix poppy seeds with raisins, chopped nuts, and sugar. 

Shape doughnuts the same way as lean doughnuts, adding the filling. Make a little hole in the center of the doughnuts and put the filling inside. Cover the filling with the dough.

Finally, deep-fry doughnuts (putting them top-down) to fluffy perfection.

Now you have two delicious recipes for lean and butter doughnuts so that you can serve this Ukrainian dessert both on Christmas Eve and on Christmas.

By the way. if you want to discover more about 12 traditional meals on Sviat Vechir (Ukrainian Christmas Eve), then feel free to read our entertaining article about this.

Enjoy tasty Ukrainian Christmas doughnuts!

Smachnogo!