When you think about Shrove Tuesday or mardi gras in Slovenia, you think of “kurenti” and doughnuts, typical desert eaten all year around, but especially popular during the carnival time. And the best doughnuts, “krofi” in Slovene, come from Trojane, small village that today respresents a rest point for truck drivers, car drivers and tourists and in 19th century it used to be a stop point for coachmen on horse drawn carriages on their way to Vienna.
First doughnuts were prepared in Vienna, they were much smaller than Trojane doughnuts, filled with jam and deep fried in butter. Major production of doughnuts has been developing in Trojane since 1960s and it grew its popularity ever since. Today they fry and sell between 2000 and 5000 doughnuts per day. Doughnuts can be filled with apricot jam, with vanilla cream or coated in chocolate and sprinkled with sugar.
Recipe for Trojane Doughnuts (by Taste Slovenia, Janez Bogataj)
Ingredients: 600 g white flour, 1 tablespoon salt, 5 egg yolks, 80 g raw butter, 30 g yeast, 2-3 dl milk, 1 tablespoon rum, grated lemon zest, apricot jam, powdersugar.
– Make sourdough from crumbled yeast, sugar and 2 spoons of milk. Dust with some flour.
– Put flour in a bowl, make a hole in the middle and pour in the sourdough. Cover with cloth and leave to rest for a few minutes.
– Mix lukewarm water, melted butter, egg yolks, sugar, salt, lemon zest and rum and pour mixture to the doigh.
– Knead into smooth dough. Let rise for at least 1 hour.
– Dust board with flour, roll out dough until 1,5 cm thick and use mould (5-8 cm) to cut out circles.
– Cover circles with tablecloth and let rise for 30 min.
– Heat the oil in frying pan and plunge risen dougnuts upside down into oil. After a few minutes turn them around.
– Pick doughnuts out and place them on paper towel to absorb extra fat. – Inject apricot jam and put on plate. Sprinkle with sugar.
Dober tek! Bon appétit! Enjoy!