Deep fried dishes aren’t exactly the healthiest stuff on the market, but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due: they’re pretty damn tasty, and for the stomach of the average Hungarian, that quality far outweighs every other one. Lángos is our most famous deep-fried dough export, but right now, as the seasonal festivities of farsang are almost upon us, we’re here to talk about another dough-based favorite, one that’s history is dating back as far as Ramesses II: the mighty fánk.
Fánk is the Hungarian version of every US policemen’s beloved doughnut, a sweet and extremely light hole-less pastry made of flour, sweet yeast dough, butter, egg yolk, a bit of rum, salt and milk, deep fried in oil, served with marmalade (apricot jam being the most common choice) and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Deep fried dough sweets are so popular and widespread (from Iran through Italy to Vietnam they’re all over the place) that we would be hard pressed to pinpoint the mother of all doughnuts, but it’s fairly certain that the farsang favorite had arrived to Hungarian dinner tables via German intermediates, best shown by the similarities between fánk and Berliner (which is ironically called “Viennese fánk” by Hungarians): both are traditionally consumed during the Carnival (or farsang) season, both are topped with confectioner’s sugar, neither one has a central hole, and both the fánk and the Berliner are solid pastries, instead of being shaped like Saturn’s ring.
Another lesser known Hungarian doughnut variety is the “csöröge”. It’s almost completely identical to the ordinary Carnival fánk, save for one thing: it’s shaped like a ribbon that has a knot on it, similarly to the Italian fried pastry chiacchiere di carnivale.
For a delicious and authentic Hungarian fánk experience just follow this recipe! To get 40 pieces of doughnuts, you’ll need around 5 ml yeast, 5 dl milk, 4 egg yolks, 1 egg, 1.2 dl sugar, 0.6 dl butter, 17 dl flour, and oil for frying.
-
Dissolve yeast in warm milk; add 2 cups (around 6 dl) flour and let stand in warm place for 1/2 hour.
-
In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light; add to the yeast mixture.
-
Add the remaining flour and melted butter; let rise until doubled in bulk.
-
Place dough on floured surface and pat with hands until 1.5 cm thick.
-
Cut into circles with doughnut cutter.
-
Cover and let rise until doubled.
-
Heat oil to 180 degrees Celsius; deep fry until golden.
Sprinkle the fánks with powdered sugar and serve with a jam of your choice!
