The traditional Romanian fried doughnuts - papanasi are made with cottage cheese and topped with smetana and jam.
These papanasi or Romanian fried donuts/doughnuts are the best donuts ever!!! Soft yet crunchy, oozing with sour cream and blueberry jam, every bite is a complete delight. No wonder they are the most popular Romanian dessert.
I don't often make doughnuts myself, but when I crave them, I make this papanasi recipe (pronounced papanash); it is so good! And I sometimes make the boiled ones - papanasi fierti.
Featured comment:
Maureen: Just got done making it. Followed the directions to the letter and it turned out perfect !! Thank you and my neighbor, thank you! ( she is from Romania and I just met her in our apartment building ...thought we would give her a taste of home).
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What are papanasi?
They are a typical Romanian dessert, basically cheese doughnuts. You can fry them like in this recipe or boil them and serve them coated with sugared breadcrumbs.
Fried papanasi is a dessert you will probably find in every Romanian restaurant. If you try them once, you will remember them for the rest of your life, and you will probably look for a papanasi recipe and try to make them yourself at home. They are that good!
Recipe ingredients
Cheese: The recipe uses Romanian brânză de vaci, or cow's cheese, which is fresh, low in fat, high in protein, and has a mild taste similar to cottage cheese. However, brânză de vaci is typically unavailable outside Romania.
My cousin Georgiana suggested using cottage cheese instead, and it worked great, though I had to adjust the flour amount. She warned me that the dough would be soft and sticky, but I found the German cottage cheese too watery compared to brânză de vaci. After realizing this, I added just enough flour to make the dough workable, and the papanasi turned out wonderfully.
Smetana is a traditional Romanian and Eastern European dairy product similar to crème fraîche. It's made by souring heavy cream and has a fat content of 10% to 30%. I usually buy the German version (Schmand) with 20% fat or the smetana from the Russian store, which is closer to the Romanian version. If you can't find smetana, crème fraîche is a good substitute.
Blueberry jam or another runny jam for serving. It has to be a runny jam with whole fruits, as thicker jams or jellies won't work; they won't slide down the sides of the papanasi.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to make papanasi?
- Step #1: Drain the excess water from the cottage cheese.
- Step #2: Combine cottage cheese, eggs, rum aroma, granulated sugar, and vanilla sugar. Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients into a rough paste. The cottage cheese should remain slightly chunky to keep the cheese balls delicate.
- Step #3: Mix flour with baking soda, then add to the cheese mixture. Knead lightly to form a ball. The dough should be slightly sticky but manageable. Add more flour only if absolutely necessary.
- Step #4: To form the donuts, divide the dough into 9 balls. Roll 8 of the balls into thick sausages and join the ends to create circles with holes in the middle. Use the last ball to make 8 small balls for topping the papanasi.
- Step #5: Fry only two or three papanasi at a time, depending on your pan size. Avoid overcrowding; the papanasi should have enough space to move around freely. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Turn the doughnuts with a slotted spoon a few times while frying until the papanasi are golden brown.
Tip: Use enough oil to have about 10 cm (4 inches) in the pot. To check the temperature, insert a toothpick into the oil; if bubbles form around it, the oil is ready for frying the papanasi.
How to serve them?
They are best served immediately while still warm, and they would not be papanasi if not topped with smetana and a runny, sweet blueberry jam.
Papanasi are usually served with blueberry jam, but any jam works well - sour cherry, blackberry, or black currant freezer jam are great alternatives. The jam should slide down the sides of the papanasi and create little pools on the plate. Yummm!
Romanian Doughnuts - Papanasi Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 g cottage cheese 1.1 lbs/ 2 ¼ cups
- 2 eggs
- a few drops rum aroma optional
- 75 g granulated sugar ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar Note 1
- 230-250 g all-purpose flour 8 - 9 oz / about 2 cups, Note 2
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- vegetable oil for frying the doughnuts, Note 3
- 250 g smetana or crème fraiche to serve, 1 cup
- whole fruit runny blueberry jam to serve, Note 4
Instructions
- Drain the excess water from the cottage cheese. 500 g cottage cheese/ 1.1 lb/ 2¼ cup
- Blend: Place the cottage cheese in a bowl. Add the eggs and the rum aroma, the granulated, and vanilla sugar. With an immersion blender, blend the ingredients until you obtain a rough paste. The cottage cheese should not be turned into a smooth paste, just blended a little bit to make the cheese balls a little more delicate.2 eggs + a few drops rum aroma + 75 g granulated sugar/ ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
- Dough: Mix about 230 g/ 8 oz of the flour and baking soda. Add them to the cheese mixture. Mix with a spoon. Flour the working surface and your hands generously. Turn the dough onto the floured surface and knead it lightly to form a ball. The dough should still be somewhat sticky yet manageable. Add the remaining flour only if absolutely necessary, only if the dough sticks so much that you cannot work with it at all.230-250 g all-purpose flour/ 8 - 9 oz / about 2 cups + 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Form donuts: Divide the dough into 9 balls. Roll 8 of the balls into thick sausages and unite the sausage ends to get a circle with a hole in the middle. Use the last ball to make 8 little balls, which will be used to top the papanasi.
- Heat oil: In the meantime, heat the oil in a pot. Use enough oil to have about 10 cm/ 4 inches of it in the pot. To check if the oil has reached the right temperature, insert a toothpick in the oil; if blisters are forming around the toothpick, you can start frying the papanasi.vegetable oil
- Fry: Only fry two or three papanasi at a time, depending on the size of your pan, do not overcrowd the pan; the papanasi should be able to move around freely. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Turn the doughnuts with a slotted spoon a few times in between and fry until the papanasi are golden brown. It took me about 5 to 7 minutes for one batch, but keep a close look and take them out as soon as they have a nice golden color. Or leave them longer if necessary. The little balls will need less time, about 3-4 minutes or so.
- Remove excess oil: Place them on plates lined with paper towels and dry them to absorb some excess fat.
- Serve warm topped with smetana and blueberry jam. Place the little balls on top and top them with a bit of smetana and jam as well.250 g smetana + whole fruit runny blueberry jam
Notes
- Substitute vanilla sugar with a little vanilla extract.
- Measurements: I recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure the ingredients (the Amazon affiliate link opens in a new tab).
- Oil: Use enough oil to have about 4 inches/ 10 cm of it in the pot.
- Jam: Use a runny kind of jam, preferably with whole berries or chopped fruit pieces in it, something a bit tart like sour cherry, blackberry, black currant jam, etc.
Tina M says
This looks amazing! My son is cooking this for a school project on Romania and we are hoping all goes well.
Has anyone tried mixing US sour cream with Whipping cream to add extra sweetness the US kind is lacking?
Sab says
Would the fat free versions of cottage cheese affect the recipe, or is it best to just stick to full fat?
Adina says
I always use full fat for this recipe.
jessy says
look delicious might try making it
Christina Gluck says
Hello,
I have a question. Can you make the dough the day before and form and fry the papanasi the next day?
Thanks .
Adina says
Hi Christina. I don't think that would work.
Martha CX says
I followed this recipe but since I'm in the U.S I used Daisy Cottage Cheese (4% fat). Ingredients listed was Cultured Skim Milk, Cream, Salt. I used a cheese clothe to squeeze out the excess liquid and the cheese looked really dry to after I did this. However after adding all the ingredients together, and using my hand to mix everything together, I got a very sticky dough, I even added alot more flour, then got the dough to the point where I can shape them all into balls, I didn't even attempt to try and shape them into little doughnuts. It was still sticky but I managed to get these balls into the hot oil. When they were cooked, I tried it and it tasted like fried dough, hahaha. Okay so I guess i had to use way too much flour to balance all the moisture in the cottage cheese, so now these balls didn't even taste right. It's the fault of the cottage cheese, I'm going to look into using ricotta cheese next as I did see some other people use that instead. Will report back!
Adina says
Hi Virginia, it is hard to say about the different products being sold in different countries, I can only hope it fits most of the times...The dough is rather sticky, you should only add enough flour to just be able to work the dough, it should still remain rather sticky. I hope ricotta works better.
CRISTINA T. says
You could make your own cheese at home, using fresh milk, bringing it to a boil point and add lemon zest and the cheese will be coming on top.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utyzDUrd2Bw
Adina says
Thank you, Cristina. I might give it a try soon. 🙂
Tudval says
Perhaps you could try ricotta cheese, but not the one that comes in a plastic tub. Here in Canada you can find ricotta wrapped in paper and it's kind of solid, not creamy or crumbly. The excess water is easy to drain. It's the best fresh cheese, for many kinds of recipes, like cheese strudel, pasca and pretty sure papanas, although I've never attempted this one. I like it when I can find it in a good restaurant, but it seems a bit tricky to do at home. Glad you enjoyed it, it's something I go out of my way to find.
Adina says
Hi Tudval, I know that people have made papanasi with ricotta as well and it should be working, but I have never tried it myself. You should try making them at home, the recipe is much easier than it might seem. 🙂
Anamaria says
I have made them today using your recipe, I have been using ricotta cheese instead, which is the Italian sweet cheese version.
My partner choose to have them with Nutella on top, and I’ve decided to use sour cherry jam and, of course, smantana. 🙂
He said it was the best dessert he ever had 🙂
Adina says
That makes me so happy, Anamaria. 🙂 🙂 Happy Easter!
Muneeb says
I never like donuts as a child to be honest but my mom is romanian amd she does things like this and when i was 11 i had my first bite of this and i loved it so much i never had it since i was 12 and this is something im going to do right now
I know this article is old but if you see this please reply
Muneeb says
My name is muneeb its true its not romanian because my dad named me he was asian so yes im half asian and half romanian if your interested
Adina says
Hi Muneeb. Thank you for your comment. Papanasi are great, so much better than simple donuts, aren't they? I hope you will like the recipe and that it will be the way you remember it from your childhood. 🙂
Maureen says
Just got done making it. Followed the directions to the letter and it turned out perfect !! Thank you and my nieghbor thanks you! ( she is from Romainia and I just met her in our apartment building ...thought we would give her a taste of home )
Adina says
So happy to hear it, Maureen. Thank you for your comment.
Damaris says
I just stumbled upon this page and I know this post is quite old but I wanted to add something 😀 Isn’t cottage cheese the one that comes in like really small balls? I’m honestly surprised that you worked with that cause I never would’ve thought of using that. ? My parents are from Romania and I travel there at least four times a year, but I haven’t seen “branza de vaci” the way they have it there - what I do know on the other hand, is that our “Speisetopfen”/“Quark” (i live in Austria) is the closest you can get to branza de vaci, at least according to my mum - but also from what I’ve seen in other video recipes. And “smetana”, actually “smântână” in romanian, is our “Sauerrahm”/“sour cream” just that theirs, as you said, is sweeter than ours and Creme fraiche might be more fitting with this recipe.
Just wanted to add these things, especially the “Topfen” part, cause that’s what we use 🙂 maybe someone can use this info.
Cheers!
Adina says
Hi Damaris. Thank you for the feedback. Cottage cheese is indeed the one with the little balls (Hüttenkäse), it is different in structure from the original, but otherwise pretty similar. It works very well in this recipe. I've never used quark to make the papanasi, probably because quark doesn't really exist in Romania and my cousin, who gave me this recipe, only ever mentioned cottage cheese. 🙂 Also I think cottage cheese has this rather neutral taste like branza de vaci, while quark is quite pungent when low fat and too creamy and soft when full fat. I might try it though, you make me curious! Let me know if you try it first. 🙂
Mark says
Wow! Just had two huge papanasi in Sighisoara - my first taste ever. It was almost the dessert that beat me - almost. Lovin' my first trip to Romania, why haven't I been here before?
Adina says
Romania is a beautiful country to travel, too bad is not such a well known touristic destination. And papanasi are amazing, not something one should have every week, but soooooo good.
Mihaela says
Thanks for replying so soon and sorry for my typos in the previous comment. I usually read the ingredients but this time I was looking at the fat content (4% is all you can wish for), and curd size, and once I found the large size 4% I was happy enough and forgot about the rest! Even the organic kind might have added stuff to it.. It would have been pointless to try draining that thing, they add thickening agents which I am not even trying to spell, and other chemicals . If I keep the oil at lower temps they don't get dark but the inside remains uncooked, that's my problem with regular dough (gogosi) as well (actually I did try it with tis batch and had them in the oil for less than 5 mins for sure, but still ended up with nasty bits of carbon on them, perhaps using 5 inches of oil instead of 2 would have been better....I guess practice makes better, and I need to do some research about what oil is best for frying, they have all kinds of blends on the shelves here in teh US. Still not a fan of frying things but once in a while, if done well, it's worth the effort..or maybe I should just forget all about it and go visit Romania more often!
Chris says
@Mihaela,
Mihaela says
Tried your recipe, a disaster from A to Z. I am blaming it on the miserable cottage cheese I used, which had the usual American crap added to it. I thought I’d give it a try since I had bought it with this thing in mind. I managed to shpae the suckers, even rolled the balls, and had them in the freezer for about 15 mins. thinking theyl ll better keep their shape in the hot oil. I guess the oil was too hot, so I ended up with black bith of burned batter in the pan and allover the doughnuts...had to scrape off the damned things because did not want to feed my son all that nasty stuff. Unless someone tells me exactly what kind of oil to use and at what temp. to fry them, I will not attempt this again...every single restaurant in Romania was offering this scrumptious desert, and It was perect looking, just like in your pictures. Todya was definitely not my day for this. Poor kid ate them ( what ca be bad with cream and chocolate syrup( nutella mixed with whipping cream ) on top?
Adina says
So sorry, Mihaela. I don't know what to say about the American cottage cheese, here it is kept pretty simple, just the cheese and some salt. Maybe it is too wet and that is why they don't keep the shape? maybe draining the cheese would help, if that is the case.
I heard about making the papanasi with cream cheese as well, but I have never tried it because it always worked so well with cottage cheese. Regarding the oil, I use regular canola oil, nothing special. I never used a thermometer, I stick a skewer in the oil and if I see bubbles around it, than I know that the oil is hot enough. If the first doughnut is too dark, than the oil is too hot. Take the pot off the heat for a few moments to allow it to cool down a bit and turn the heat lower, they should fry rather slowly, that will allow them to cook inside without getting burned on the outside. Maybe you try it again some day, they are so good and kids love them.
Iulia says
Can I use cream cheese?
Adina says
Hi Iulia. I've never used cream cheese for the papanasi, but I heard that other people do that and it works. If you do try it, let me know. 🙂
Max says
Does it mean 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon of sugar or 1 and 1/3 tablespoons??
Adina says
Hi Max. 1|3 cup and 1 tablespoon.