I heard more about making portzelky this year then I have in the past. Maybe its becoming more popular, or perhaps people are looking to try something traditional. I thought of portzelky as a Slovak or Hungarian dish common to certain industrial regions of Appalachia, but I was wrong. It's a dish that is more correctly associated with Mennonites. Portzelky are made and eaten on New Year's Day. They remind me of the Italian zeppole that are commonly eaten on St. Joseph's Day on March 19 or May 1, May 3, May 11 or early September.
I have a few recipes for portzelky but none really work well. What you see below is a recipe adapted from the more authoritative menno neechie kitchen website. Really, that website is a great source for many recipes. The picture below comes from that website. I have added a few of my own notes along the way as cautions or possible additions.
This is complicated, and it can be messy, but it isn't impossible and it is certainly worth the effort. Read the directions first and go to the website for clarity.
You're going to need 4 beaten eggs, 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 3 or 4 cups of black raisins, 4 1/4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 cup of warm water, and 1 package of quick rise yeast. I add a bit of vanilla as well, you're going to want icing sugar or powdered sugar at the end.
You want your raisins clean and mostly dry but moist.
Mix together 1/2 cup of warm water, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1 package of yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons). This needs to sit and get foamy on top. I think that two of my mistakes have been having my water too warm and the kitchen too hot, or perhaps I have measured my yeast wrong.
Mix together 4 cups of your flour with 2 rounded teaspoons of baking powder. Add 2 tablespoons of your sugar, 3/4 teaspoons of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, the eggs, and 2 cups of warm milk. Again, I may have had my milk too warm. The suggestion on the website is to warm your milk in a microwave for one minute. Mix everything up. You want a thin batter at this point.
Put the raisins in a bowl and add your remaining 1/4 cup of flour for 3 cups of raisins or some more flour if you're working with more raisins. Again, this advice comes from the website. My other recipes use less raisins, but I like more. Whatever you're doing, make sure that your raisins are covered by the flour. This is why you don't want your raisins too wet or too dry, and you sure don't want the raisins sinking to the bottom and burning. I have heard of people using chopped dates instead of raisins for these reasons but I have never tried that. Anyway, you want to add the raisins to the batter and mix them in.
Here's another place where I mess things up. The website says to cover your batter and let it rise for one hour, or until it has doubled. Either I'm not waiting long enough or the batter hasn't risen enough for me at this point. Be more patient and careful than I am here.
I use a pot of oil for portzelky, as I do for zeppole, but the smart person doing the website prefers a deep fryer. Her deep fryer hits 340 degrees before she starts frying. I imagine that a pot of oil should be just as hot, but I go by sight and smell and I drop a bit of dough into the oil to test.
Like zeppole, I use a teaspoon to drop the dough in. And also like zeppole, shape and appearance don't really matter. The person doing the website uses one spoon to scoop with and another spoon to scape it off with. That sounds like a great idea, but I have never needed that, and if no one is around I use my fingers if needed. I'm more worried about getting burned than anything else.
Everyone agrees that you want to fry these for 5 minutes on each side, flipping them over. I use a slotted spoon for that. You will want to transfer these to a plate with paper towels on, but I like mine a little greasy and hot. You can sprinkle icing sugar or powdered sugar on or put them in a bowl with the sugar and move them around. It doesn't hurt to sprinkle on a little cinnamon.
This is complicated, and it can be messy, but it isn't impossible and it is certainly worth the effort. Read the directions first and go to the website for clarity.
You're going to need 4 beaten eggs, 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 3 or 4 cups of black raisins, 4 1/4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 cup of warm water, and 1 package of quick rise yeast. I add a bit of vanilla as well, you're going to want icing sugar or powdered sugar at the end.
You want your raisins clean and mostly dry but moist.
Mix together 1/2 cup of warm water, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1 package of yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons). This needs to sit and get foamy on top. I think that two of my mistakes have been having my water too warm and the kitchen too hot, or perhaps I have measured my yeast wrong.
Mix together 4 cups of your flour with 2 rounded teaspoons of baking powder. Add 2 tablespoons of your sugar, 3/4 teaspoons of salt, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, the eggs, and 2 cups of warm milk. Again, I may have had my milk too warm. The suggestion on the website is to warm your milk in a microwave for one minute. Mix everything up. You want a thin batter at this point.
Put the raisins in a bowl and add your remaining 1/4 cup of flour for 3 cups of raisins or some more flour if you're working with more raisins. Again, this advice comes from the website. My other recipes use less raisins, but I like more. Whatever you're doing, make sure that your raisins are covered by the flour. This is why you don't want your raisins too wet or too dry, and you sure don't want the raisins sinking to the bottom and burning. I have heard of people using chopped dates instead of raisins for these reasons but I have never tried that. Anyway, you want to add the raisins to the batter and mix them in.
Here's another place where I mess things up. The website says to cover your batter and let it rise for one hour, or until it has doubled. Either I'm not waiting long enough or the batter hasn't risen enough for me at this point. Be more patient and careful than I am here.
I use a pot of oil for portzelky, as I do for zeppole, but the smart person doing the website prefers a deep fryer. Her deep fryer hits 340 degrees before she starts frying. I imagine that a pot of oil should be just as hot, but I go by sight and smell and I drop a bit of dough into the oil to test.
Like zeppole, I use a teaspoon to drop the dough in. And also like zeppole, shape and appearance don't really matter. The person doing the website uses one spoon to scoop with and another spoon to scape it off with. That sounds like a great idea, but I have never needed that, and if no one is around I use my fingers if needed. I'm more worried about getting burned than anything else.
Everyone agrees that you want to fry these for 5 minutes on each side, flipping them over. I use a slotted spoon for that. You will want to transfer these to a plate with paper towels on, but I like mine a little greasy and hot. You can sprinkle icing sugar or powdered sugar on or put them in a bowl with the sugar and move them around. It doesn't hurt to sprinkle on a little cinnamon.
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