2014 Cooking Club Week 29: Žagarėliai

Žagarėliai is a traditional Lithuanian dish, that apparently was normally made as a snack for kids, but to me it seems more a snack that you'd have with a cup of tea or coffee.
My OH is Lithuanian so that’s where I got the inspiration for this dish, and I also can’t take credit for the cooking as she made them.
Even though they are deep fried, they're a really light snack. When cooked they puff up leaving a crispy outside.

They are super simple to make, with a minimal amount of ingredients, most of which you'd have in the cupboard.


Žagarėliai


INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Eggs
• 50g Sour Cream
• 1tbsp Sugar
• 230g Plain Four (plus some for rolling out)
• 0.5 to 1 litre of Sunflower Oil
• Pinch of Salt
• Icing Sugar (depending on your taste)

Step 1 – Preparation

• Gather all your ingredients (not many to gather!)

Step 2 – Mixing

• Mix the eggs, sugar, salt and sour cream
• Sift in the flour
• Mix until everything is combined, then work the dough with your hands, (bashing it a bit on the counter top until it becomes a bit elastic)
• Leave it to rest for at least 30mins

Step 3 – Rolling

• Roll the dough out to about 1mm thick
• Cut into strips about 25mm (an inch) wide
• Cut into rectangles on an angle (so essentially a parallelogram/diamond shape)
• Cut a little slit in the middle of each one
• This is the only tricky bit. Fold one end into the slit and pull it back on itself to form a ribbon/bow-tie type shape.

Step 4 – Cooking

• Put oil into pot and heat
• Depending on the size of your pan, cook them in batches of 5/6 at a time making sure to turn them once the first side becomes golden brown
• Once cooked place them into paper towel lined bowl and dust them with Icing Sugar.

Enjoy!