Desserts · Poland

Polish Doughnuts (Paczki)

Name: Polish Doughnuts (Paczki)
Total time: 140 min
Cuisine: Poland
Ingredients: 2 tbsp sugar; 2 tbsp softened unsalted butter; ½ cup warm whole milk; ¼ tsp vanilla extract; 1 pinch of salt; 2 eggs; 1 tsp dry yeast; 2 cups all-purpose flour; Enough oil for deep frying (see notes); Roughly 2½ cups jelly, jam, or custard, for filling (optional); Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Make Polish Doughnuts (Paczki) with a practical ingredient list and a complete, ordered cooking method adapted from Wikibooks Cookbook.

Published October 16, 2026

EST. TOTAL TIME2h 20m

DIFFICULTYMedium

SERVESSee recipe

Time and difficulty are editorial estimates; allow extra time for your equipment and experience.

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What you’ll need

Tap an ingredient as you get it ready.

Let’s make it

Step 1

Whisk together the sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, salt, and eggs. Then, whisk in the yeast.

Step 2

While continuously stirring, add the flour ½ cup at a time until the mixture is a firm dough.

Step 3

Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Put it back in the bowl, cover, and let it rise somewhere warm until it's twice its original size—this should take about 1½ hours.

Step 4

Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll the dough until it's about ½ inch thick. Cut out circles of dough and set aside. The exact size the circles should be is entirely up to your preference; the final product will have only a slightly larger diameter. You can roll out the excess dough again to cut more pączki.

Step 5

Let the dough rounds rise for about 30 minutes or until they've doubled in size.

Step 6

Heat oil to about 350°F in a deep pot or pan. Carefully spoon or slide a few pączki into the oil at a time to deep fry them until golden-brown. They will only be half submerged, so you will have to flip them to fry both sides; in a pinch, disposable chopsticks work well for this.

Step 7

While the pączki cool, spoon some fruit jelly, jam, or custard in a pastry bag with a long, narrow point. Fill the pączki by pushing the point into their sides.

Step 8

Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top, to taste. If the pączki are still warm, the powdered sugar may melt a bit.