Traditional Croatian Christmas donuts

Suitable for vegetarian diets.*

Makes 10 servings.

Ingredients

1 cups	rasins
50 g	fresh yeast
4 Tbsp	sugar
1 kg	flour
1 tsp	salt
	grappa	aka "rakija" - or rum
30 g	ground walnuts	a handful - or almonds
1	egg yolks
1	apples	grated
1 l	sunflower oil	for deep frying

Instructions

Start by soaking 1 cup of raisins in a bowl of warm water. Make a yeast starter. Use a whole 5dkg cube of fresh yeast, a teaspoon of sugar, a bit of warm water, and flour as needed. Mix and set aside in a warm place. In a large bowl, sift 1kg of flour. Make a pit in its centre and pour in the now-raised yeast starter, and add a bit of salted (1tsp salt) warm water, as much as is needed to get the dough’s consistency just right. It should be roughly 7.5dl. Add a shot of home-made rakija/schnapps (loza/grappa is best), a splash of rum, the soaked raisins, some lemon and orange rind, a handful of ground walnuts or almonds, 3-4 Tbsp of sugar, an egg yolk, and a grated apple. Start beating the dough with a wooden spoon vigorously and enthusiastically, until your arms get tired, and until enough air has been beaten into the dough that bubbles begin to appear. Let the dough sit for one hour until it doubles in size. Beat it again just prior to frying. Pour enough sunflower oil into a saucepan so that it is deep enough for frying (maybe 1L), and heat it until it is hot enough for deep frying. Spoon several dollops of dough into the hot oil, and fry until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Sprinkle with a mix of castor sugar and vanilla sugar and serve.