Polish filled doughnuts (Pączki)

1. Warm the milk to lukewarm, dissolve 1 teaspoon of the sugar and the yeast in it and leave to froth for 10 minutes. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and the salt until pale and fluffy.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the yeast milk and the egg mixture and knead for 10 minutes; finally work in the melted, lukewarm butter little by little until the dough is glossy, smooth and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.

3. Roll the dough out 1.5 cm thick on a floured board, cut out 12 rounds with a 7 cm cutter, place them on a floured cloth, cover and leave to rise for another 30 minutes.

4. Heat the sunflower oil about 4 cm deep to 170 °C in a deep pan and put in the doughnuts risen side down; fry covered for 2 minutes, then turn and fry uncovered for another 2 minutes – a nice pale ring should remain around the middle.

5. Drain on kitchen paper and let them cool slightly. Put the jam into a piping bag, make a hole in the side of each doughnut with a thin knife and pipe in a heaped teaspoonful.

6. Dust generously with icing sugar and serve fresh.

Tip: Pączki are the stars of Poland's "Fat Thursday" (Tłusty Czwartek): the country eats 100 million doughnuts on that day; the classic filling is rose-petal jam – since that's hard to find, we use apricot or plum jam instead.