Here it is. The ultimate. The #1. The quintessential dish that is pure Christmas to me. Chruscikis.

Traditional Polish fried cookies which resemble either a bow-tie or angel’s wings (depending on your heritage/what your grandma says…) which seem simple on the surface, but in the end are some of the messiest, and somewhat labor intensive cookies ever.  Yet they’re worth every drop of splattered oil and puff of powdered sugar that ends up on the floor.

This is probably the oldest recipe we have in our family, which we know goes back to my great-grandma Jean who immigrated to the US when she was about 7 in the late 1800′s, and it probably goes back even farther than that. The ingredients are dead simple (eat your heart out, Martha) and the dough comes together very easily, it’s just all about rolling the dough incredibly thin and working very quickly once you get to the frying part. But they’re just so good warm, I cannot begin to describe it. I mean yes, they are basically fried dough, but come on – we all know how awesome that is.

So Wesolych Swiat! to my fellow Poles, and I hope you all enjoy the  most cherished part of my Polish culinary heritage!

Mommie Dearest on the hunt for the recipe…

Found!

Yellow and white sparkly…

Sticky dough and beaters.

Floured surface.

Rolling…

Cutting…

Shaping…

Bring the top end through the slit and voila! Bow-tie!

Perspective.

Bubbling oil (well over halfway through, thus it being so cloudy).

Fry!

Mmmm, fried.

Ready to dust.

Snow shower!

Dusted.

Gently stored.

Fragile and perfect and Polish.

—

Chruscikis

Based on my great-grandma Jean’s recipe.

Makes about 3 dozen.

The tricky thing about these is you really need to watch your fryer oil temperature. It goes up insanely fast and the cookies will start to cook faster and faster as you work through the batches, so either adjust for temperature or time as you go.

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 4 tsp sugar
• 4 tsp vinegar
• 4 tsp brandy
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1.) In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks well. Add the sugar, vinegar, brandy, and flour, and beat until well mixed.

2.) In a large pot or dutch oven, pour in enough oil so you have about 3 inches in the pot. Bring it up to a medium-high heat.

3.) While the oil heats, roll out dough on floured board to about 1/10 of an inch (extremely thin, almost as thin as a tortilla).

4.) Cut dough into strips approximately 3 inches long by 1 inch wide. Then cut an inch-long slit in center of strip and pull one end through the slit making a “knot”.

5.) Lay out several sheets of paper towels on a counter or cooling rack. Drop a bit of dough to test the oil temperature. It should bubble and brown in about 60-90 seconds. If ready, drop cookies in 2 at a time into hot oil and brown to very light brown, flipping with tongs. It should take about 30-60 seconds per side. Remove and drain on paper towels.

6.) Once they have cooled for a few minutes, sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar (through a fine mesh strainer) on both sides.

Store in a very airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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