Crispy verguns with powdered sugar, honey, and jam are served in many coffee houses and restaurants around the world. This dish is considered Ukrainian, but they love it far beyond the borders of their historical homeland.
Come from the people
The history of the verguns is rooted in hoary antiquity. Many researchers believe that once upon a time the Slavs borrowed the recipe from the Türks and adapted to their own taste. This version is probably correct. In the cuisine of many eastern peoples, by the way, the recipe for katlama, the Turkic analogue of the verguns, is still alive. These dishes are similar in shape, only katlam is fried in lamb fat with onions.
Most often, verguns are cooked on kefir, but there are other options for the test. All recipes share several common features, primarily their intricate shape and frying in large quantities of oil. Otherwise, even traditional Ukrainian recipes vary greatly. Somewhere it is customary not to add dairy products to the dough at all, somewhere in the vergun add alcohol or vinegar. And someone from time immemorial has been kneading the dough on a yeast dough. This abundance helps everyone choose their favorite recipe. We’ll try to cook airy and tender yogurt kefir. After all, whatever one may say, this recipe remains one of the most common.
Kefir dough
Sour milk dough has several advantages. Firstly, the recipe is quite budget, no expensive products are required. Secondly, baking is very lush, with a crispy crust. It is also important that a piece of kefir dough can be safely removed in the refrigerator for several days, and it will not suffer from this at all. Yes, and ready-made scammers are well kept for several days, without losing their wonderful taste and freshness.
In order to cook verguns on kefir, the following products will be required:
- 1 cup kefir;
- a quarter teaspoon of salt;
- half a glass of sugar;
- 2 medium sized eggs;
- 1/3 tsp soda.
In addition, you will need sunflower oil for frying and, of course, flour. The exact amount of flour is difficult to predict, in many respects it depends on other ingredients. On average, it goes about 2-3 glasses. Add flour in parts, gradually bringing the dough to the desired consistency. A homogeneous mass should be obtained, slightly sticky to the fingers. Kefir verguns, the recipe of which contains vanilla, are more aromatic.
Tricky Nodules
Knead the dough thoroughly and let it warm. By the way, you can cook it in advance. For example, if it is expected that guests will arrive at an evening feast, the dough can be made in the morning, put in a plastic bag and hidden in the refrigerator. Half an hour before the start of frying, it must be removed and allowed to warm to room temperature.
Usually the dough is rolled out in layers from 2 to 10 mm thick. The thicker the layer, the more magnificent the ready-made yogurt kefir will be. This recipe is also suitable for thin crunchy, which is often called brushwood. Blanched from a thin dough, the verguns are covered with air bubbles during frying.
You can cut rolled dough with an ordinary knife or a special confectionery wheel with a serrated edge. First, you need to cut the layer into strips 2-4 centimeters wide. Then these strips are cut into rhombs or squares, in the middle of which cuts are made. We rotate one piece through an incision, thereby giving the product a characteristic shape.
Roasting process
For frying, an ordinary frying pan, a cast-iron wok, a small saucepan are suitable. The oil needs to be heated very well. Dip the folded knots from the dough into boiling fat and stir with a slotted spoon so that they fry evenly. Ready yogurt kefir do not usually absorb excess fat, so there is no need to put them on a colander or paper towels. They are laid directly on a large serving dish, sprinkling each layer with powdered sugar.
One serving of oil is enough to fry the whole portion of the verguns. There is no need to change it too often.
Little tricks
- Sour milk dough is being prepared for verguns on kefir, fermented baked milk, yogurt. Part of the fluid can be replaced with whey or milk.
- For aroma, when kneading, you can add a few drops of vermouth, herbal tincture, cognac.
- You can diversify the taste with the help of fruit essences: orange, lemon, mint. Only they need to be used very carefully, adding only one small drop to the batch.
- Refined oil is best suited for frying.
- Some culinary specialists cook verguns with kefir and yeast. In this case, there is no need to add soda.
- To prevent ready-made verguns from drying out and not getting wet, it is best to store them in a deep dish covered with a kitchen towel.
We serve the verguns to the table
These pastries are traditionally served with tea, cocoa, coffee. Drinks such as freshly rose hips and hot ouzvar are great and emphasize the folk style of the dish. Dairy and sour-milk drinks also go well with this dish. In the summer heat, you can serve verguns with cool juice, berry compote, kvass, fruit drink. Good and herbal or green tea. These drinks should be taken care of before you even cook the yogurt on kefir so that they have enough time to cool.
You can offer guests honey, jam, condensed milk, sour cream. In this case, it is worth serving dessert spoons. But the verguns themselves on kefir are customary to eat with their hands. With this in mind, it is worth taking care of a sufficient number of paper napkins on the table.