Racuchy: fluffy Polish yeast apple fritters with crisp edges
Fritters raised with yeast, not baking powder: they rise for 45 minutes and come out tall, soft inside and golden outside. The apples are diced, not grated, so you taste them in every bite. With icing sugar or sour cream.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Starter 10 min
- Batter 10 min
- Rising 45 min
- Frying 30 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake the starter
Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm milk, add a tablespoon of sugar, stir and leave for 10 minutes until foamy.
Yeast in milk, foam after 10 minutesMix the batter
Sift the flour into a bowl, add the rest of the sugar, the vanilla sugar, salt, egg and the starter. Stir with a spoon into a smooth, thick batter, thicker than crepe batter: it should fall off the spoon in a heavy ribbon, not pour.
Ingredients: 250 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 3 tbsp sugar · 300 g plain flour · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · ½ tsp salt
TipToo thin and it spreads into flat pancakes. Better to add a spoon of flour than of milk.
Thick batter, falls off the spoon in a ribbonLeave to rise
Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes. The batter should double and be full of bubbles.
Doubled and bubblyAdd the apples
Peel and core the apples and cut into 1 cm dice. Fold gently into the risen batter. Don't overmix, or you knock the air out.
Ingredients: 500 g apples · 150 ml rapeseed oil
TipA tart apple (Bramley, Granny Smith) contrasts with the sweet batter. Sweet apples get lost.
1 cm dice, folded in gentlyFry
Heat a layer of oil about 3 mm deep in a pan over medium heat. Spoon in palm-sized portions with room between them; they will grow. Fry 2–3 minutes until the underside is golden and bubbles appear on top, flip and fry 2 minutes more. Work in batches of 4, topping up the oil as needed — about 20 minutes in all.
TipHeat too high: dark crust, raw middle. These are thick; they need time.
Bubbles on top mean: turn themDrain and serve
Set on paper towel. Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar, with sour cream or jam.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp icing sugar · 150 g sour cream, 18 %
Warm, under icing sugar
Before you start
No yeast?
Swap the yeast for 2 teaspoons of baking powder and skip the rise. Tasty, but flatter and less fluffy.
Instead of apples
Prune plums in pieces, blueberries, pear. Toss very juicy fruit in flour first.
Next day
Reheat in a dry, covered pan. Cold from the fridge they are rubbery; warm they come back.
