Romanian Cheese Donuts with Sour Cream and Sour Cheery Jam

Just yum!

This recipe is a bonus for this week. While it is not the intention of this page to recommend recipes for desserts, you should also know that any good dietitian will never forbid you from having a dessert for a special occasion. What we do recommend is moderation and if you're eating very well most of the time, having a treat for your birthday is not going to matter much in the grand scheme of things.

This being said, even if this is one of my favorite Romanian desserts, I have certainly adapted the recipe to make it a bit healthier. The traditional way to make these cheese donuts is to fry them like any other donut, and then to add the sour cream and sour cherry jam on top (the picture with me shows you the restaurant version). Throughout the years, I have had many failed experiments to make these donuts without deep frying them. It was only last year, when I combined 2 other recipes, that I finally loved the end result and this was the treat I made myself for my birthday this year.

The traditional way to make these involves topping them with sour cherry (in Romanian "visine") jam - however it is really not uncommon that other jams are used. If you pass by the European specialty store ask for "gem de visine" or "dulceata de visine". Otherwise just buy your favorite jam.

Yes, interestingly enough, Romanians have 2 words for jam. One is "gem" and one is "dulceata". The first one is the sweet fruity paste you're already used to, the second one is the sweeter, more liquid version of it, which has little fruit and more thick syrup.

This recipe is part of the 2020 - Week 24 Romanian Dishes. Look under Menus for the other recipes of the series or Subscribe to our mailing list and receive complete weekly menu ideas with everything from the grocery shopping list to all standardized recipes in a menu, as well as an organized Order of Cooking list to save you time in the kitchen.

Download the standardized recipe here:

Papanasi cu smantana - Cheese donuts wit

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Pofta buna!

(The Romanian way to say Enjoy your meal!)