Fritule

Ingredients

• Flour400 g
• Milk — warm250 ml
• Dry yeast7 g
• Eggs2
• Sugar80 g
• Raisins150 g
• Rakija or rum3 tbsp
• Lemon zest1
• Orange zest1
• Vanilla1 tsp
• Oil for frying1 l
• Icing sugar50 g
• Salt1 pinch

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the raisins in the rakija for twenty minutes, so they swell and give up their aroma.

   22 min

2. 2

   Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with a spoon of sugar and leave it until it foams.

   12 min

3. 3

   Beat the eggs with the remaining sugar, the zests, vanilla and salt.

   6 min

4. 4

   Combine with the yeast mixture and the flour and whisk to a smooth loose batter.

   8 min

5. 5

   Stir in the raisins with their rakija and let the batter rise an hour somewhere warm.

   65 min

6. 6

   Heat the oil to 170 °C and drop the batter in with two teaspoons, shaping irregular balls.

   10 min

7. 7

   Fry three minutes, turning them, to a deep gold, and dust them with icing sugar while hot.

   18 min

About the dish

The batter is loose, like thick soured cream, and is dropped with two spoons. A firm dough gives a doughnut; fritule should be irregular balls with ragged edges.

The rakija goes in not for flavour but against the oil: alcohol stops the batter absorbing fat and the fritule come out lighter. It is an old Dalmatian trick.

They are fried at Christmas and carnival, and in that season they are sold at every market on the coast. Out of season they are rarely made at home.

Worth knowing

• — Dip the spoons in oil before each ball. Otherwise the batter clings and will not release.
• — Fritule turn themselves over if the batter is the right consistency. If they do not, the batter is too stiff.
• — Dust them while hot. On cooled fritule the sugar will not stick and falls onto the plate.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

16 g

Carbs

54 g

More from Croatia

• Black risotto — Risotto with cuttlefish and its own ink. The ink goes in at the end, or it turns bitter.
• Zagorje štrukli — Thin dough with a curd filling, boiled and then baked under cream.
• Peka — Meat and potatoes under an iron bell buried in embers, three hours untouched.