Ponchiki / Farmer’s cheese donut holes
Crispy, thin crust and fluffy, soft core – the sweet ponchiki are heavenly delicious. They are eaten in a flash because they are hard to resist. The Russian farmer’s cheese donut holes are particularly popular with children. You can easily make them at home with this recipe using just a few ingredients.
Servings 36 ponchiki
Ingredients
- 360 g farmer’s cheese
- 2 eggs
- 60 g sugar
- approx. 200 g flour
- 3 g baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- 1 pinch of salt
- flour for hands and work surface
for frying
- vegetable oil
for dusting
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Place farmer’s cheese and eggs in a mixing bowl and mash them with a fork to a fine paste.
- Add sugar, vanilla and salt and mix.
- Mix flour with baking soda.
- Add the flour mixture to the farmer’s cheese mixture in batches and mix briefly to form a sticky dough.
- Lightly flour your hands again and again, form small balls from the dough (20 g each in my case) and spread them out on a floured work surface.
- Pour plenty of vegetable oil into a high, but not too wide, saucepan so that the farmer’s cheese donut holes can float in it and heat over a medium heat.
- Carefully add the ponchiki in batches to the hot vegetable oil, leaving plenty of space between them, and fry over a medium heat for approx. 5 - 7 minutes until golden brown, turning them with a wooden spoon as necessary.
- Remove the farmer’s cheese donut holes from the oil with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with kitchen paper towels.
- Serve the ponchiki warm, immediately after preparation, dusted with powdered sugar.
Notes
- Instead of farmer’s cheese, you can use cottage cheese or ricotta. Drain off any excess liquid.
- The amount of flour specified may vary depending on how dry the farmer’s cheese (or its alternative) is and how large the eggs are. Therefore, add flour in batches until you get a very sticky dough. Remember that the less flour you use, the tastier the ponchiki will turn out.
- Do not stir the dough for too long, but only briefly. Otherwise the ponchiki could taste firm and not fluffy later on.
- Don't make the farmer’s cheese donut holes too big so that they cook quickly on the inside.
- Don't put too many ponchiki in the vegetable oil at once, as they will rise when fried.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for preparing the Russian donut holes at the top of the article.