Our Finnish Doughnuts with cardamom (Munkki in Finnish) are amazing, for me they are hands-down the best sugar doughnuts I’ve tasted! Seriously, you have to try them! Although be warned, it takes a lot of self-discipline not to devour them all in one sitting… These doughnuts are typically served as a part of Finnish May Day (Vappu) celebrations, with a glass of sima of course!
Finnish Doughnuts
🍴 Makes: 20 – 24 small doughnuts
🕒 Hands-on: ~ 25 minutes
🎛 Cooking time: ~ 25 minutes (active)
⏲ + Proofing about 1 hour 15 min
INGREDIENTS
Dough
- 250ml milk (full-fat)
- 3 tsp dry yeast
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 85g (1dl) granulated sugar
- 1.5 – 2 tsp cardamom
- 460g (7dl) flour
- 50g butter, softened
Plus
- 500ml rapeseed oil, for deep-frying
- 100g granulated sugar, for coating
STEPS
1 Making the dough: start by measuring out the flour and place into a separate dish/bowl. Set aside. Then, heat the milk in a mixing bowl in a microwave for about 40 seconds. The temperature should be about 42℃, so not hot but a bit warmer than your hand temperature.
2 Next, mix the dry yeast with about one decilitre cup (1dl) of flour and add to the warm milk. Add egg, sugar, salt and cardamom and stir with a spatula until everything is mixed. Then, add about third of the remaining flour (2dl).
3 Keep adding the flour one decilitre at a time, mixing well between each addition. When the dough gets too heavy/stiff to stir with a spatula, start mixing by hand. Once most of the flour, about 6dl, is added, knead the dough for a minute or two (it’s very sticky at this point).
4 Next, add the softened butter. Use your fingers to squeeze it together with the dough. Once incorporated, add the remaining flour (1dl) and knead the dough for further 2-3 minutes. The dough is good when it starts to pull away from the side of the bowl and does not stick to your hand.
5 Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave to rest in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until roughly doubled in size.
6 Shaping: tip the proofed dough onto a floured surface and knock back, briefly kneading out any air bubbles. Then, shape the dough into a long snake (about 50cm).
7 Divide the dough into 20-24 pieces and shape into balls. Then using your thumb, make a hole in the centre of each and stretch the doughnut to make the hole bigger (hole diameter 2.5cm, whole doughnut 6cm). Once all doughnuts are shaped, leave them to rest under a tea towel for about 15 minutes. Make sure to leave enough room between them so they won’t stick together.
8 While the doughnuts are proofing, get everything ready for frying. Fill a shallow pan about halfway with oil and heat the oil to 180℃ (it should take about 10 minutes to reach this temperature). Also, line one bowl with kitchen roll and put some sugar into another bowl. Get a third dish ready for the finished doughnuts.
9 Deep-frying: when the oil is hot, carefully lower the doughnuts into the oil, 3-4 at a time. I prefer to use a slotted spoon to do this but you can use your hands too if you are extra careful!
10 Fry the doughnuts for 3-4 minutes until golden brown, flipping half way through. Then using a slotted spoon, remove the doughnuts from the pan and place on kitchen paper.
11 Place the next batch of doughnuts into the oil. While they are cooking, toss the cooked doughnuts in a bowl of sugar and then put on a separate plate or serving dish.
12 Repeat these steps until all doughnuts are fried. Ideally serve soon after frying as they are at their best on the day of making, especially when they’re still slightly warm!
Notes:
- Cardamom — If you cannot find ground cardamom, you can use cardamom pods and break up the seeds using pestle and mortar. If substituting, you’ll need about 4-5 grams seeds (about 40 pods). I know this sounds like a lot but it’s surprisingly quick to do! Plus, you don’t have to turn the seeds into complete dust, just break them up a little bit. In fact, I’d recommend using pods as the ground cardamom in the UK tends to be a lot finer than the cardamom in Finland
- Pan material — I normally use a steel pan for deep-frying but cast iron and enamel pans are also good options. The main thing is the pot is deep enough
- Pan size — If you want to fry more doughnuts at once, you can always use a bigger pan. Just bear in the mind the doughnuts will grow when fried so do not overcrowd the pan. And remember the larger the pot, the more oil you’ll need!
- Oil — I’ve always used rapeseed oil for frying so ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’! Right? But I’ve also read coconut and sunflower oil are good alternatives
- Oil temperature — Ideally you’d want to have a thermometer for frying doughnuts as the oil’s temperature is crucial: if it is too high, the doughnuts can burn on the outside and remain undercooked in the middle, but if it is too low, the doughnuts can become greasy as they absorb the oil. You may need to play around with the temperature a bit as it tends to cool down a little when dropping in the doughnuts. Keep checking it between the batches, you’ll probably need to turn it up and then back down a couple of times during frying (I tend to go between 3 and 4, my hob is ceramic)
- Shaping — You can also leave the doughnuts as balls instead of making holes in the middle if you wish. However, these can be slightly trickier to cook evenly as the surface area is different and they tend to flip over by themselves. They also require slightly longer cook, about an extra minute or so
- Coating — It’s important to coat the doughnuts in sugar when they are still hot as that’s when the sugar sticks the best. Also top up the sugar or change it a few times as it gets a little bit greasy after a few batches and won’t stick as well
- Frying tip: if you don’t have a thermometer, you can use a small piece of dough to test the oil temperature. Drop about 1cm dough ball into the oil and set your timer for one minute. If it floats and is golden brown, the temperature is good!
- Serving tip: if you like cinnamon, you can mix some with the sugar you toss the doughnuts in!
- This Finnish doughnut dough is pretty much identical to Finnish pulla dough, the one you can use to make all kinds of sweet buns, including cinnamon buns. I just put slightly less butter in this dough since the doughnuts are deep-fried
Main equipment:
Mixing bowl (2L)
Measuring cup & spoons
Tea towel
For frying:
Shallow pan (1L)
Thermometer (ideally)
Timer
Slotted spoon
Kitchen roll
Two medium bowls
Need a drink to go with the doughnuts? Try Sima, a fermented Finnish soft drink! ⤵︎
