Skruzdėlynas

Ingredients

The dough

• 400 gplain flour
• 3egg yolks
• 1whole egg
• 50 gsoured cream
• 50 gbutter, melted
• 2 tablespoonsvodka
• or brandy
• a pinch of salt

To fry

• 1 litreneutral oil
• or lard
• a deep heavy pan
• a slotted spoon

The honey syrup

• 300 ghoney
• 100 mlwater
• or 200 g honey and 100 g sugar
• warmed together

To finish

• 80 gpoppy seeds
• scattered over
• to look like ants
• on the anthill

Directions

1. Keep children and pets out of the kitchen. Water dropped into hot oil erupts violently. Make sure everything going in is genuinely dry. Never add wet dough or wet utensils to the oil. Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid.
2. Leave it covered until it is completely cool. The oil should be about one hundred and eighty degrees. Drop a small scrap of dough into the oil. It should sizzle immediately and rise to the surface.
3. Adjust the heat if it is faster or slower. Never give honey to a child under one year old. Warm honey syrup is genuinely hot and sticky. It sticks to skin and keeps burning on contact. Let it cool a little before pouring it. It is worth knowing if that matters to you. Put the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour.
4. Add the yolks, whole egg, soured cream and butter. Add the vodka into that well as well. Bring it together into a firm dough with your hands. It should be firm rather than soft or sticky. Add a little more flour if it is at all sticky.
5. Knead the dough hard for about ten minutes. It should become smooth, elastic and blistered. Lift the dough and slam it down repeatedly. Wrap the dough and rest it for thirty minutes. Unrested dough springs back and will not roll thin. Divide the dough into six or eight small pieces. Small pieces are far easier to roll genuinely thin.
6. Keep the pieces you are not using covered. Work with one piece at a time. Roll each piece as thin as you possibly can. About one millimetre is the genuine target. Work down through the settings to the thinnest. It is genuinely worth using if you have one.
7. Cut the rolled sheets into narrow strips. About one centimetre wide is roughly right. Cut them about eight centimetres long. Keep the strips roughly the same size as each other. Take a moment to keep them reasonably even. Heat the oil in a deep heavy pan. Use a genuinely deep pan rather than a shallow one. Fill it no more than one third full of oil. Oil rises considerably when food goes in.
8. Fry the strips in small batches until golden. Add only a handful of strips at a time. Too many at once drops the oil temperature. Cool oil gives greasy rather than crisp pastry. Let the oil come back up between batches. Each batch takes about forty-five seconds.
9. Take them out while pale golden rather than brown. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto paper. Drain them on kitchen paper in a single layer. Piled strips steam each other and go soft. Spread them out to keep them crisp. Let them cool completely before assembling. Warm the honey with the water in a saucepan. Warm it gently rather than boiling it hard. It only needs to become pourable and warm.
10. Stir it until it is smooth and combined. It should coat the strips rather than run straight off. Warm and pourable is exactly right. Toss the cooled strips gently in the warm syrup. Work in batches in a large bowl rather than all at once. Toss them gently so they do not break apart. Every strip should be lightly coated.
11. Heap the coated strips into a tall mound. Start with a wide base and narrow toward the top. Place the strips rather than tipping them on. Work reasonably quickly before the syrup sets. Press it very gently to help it hold.
12. Scatter the poppy seeds generously over the mound. Scatter them over the whole surface evenly. Let the finished cake stand for an hour or two. Do not refrigerate it, which makes it soggy. Break pieces off the mound with a spoon or the fingers. It keeps three days at cool room temperature.

Technique

• Hot oil is genuinely dangerous: fill the pan no more than a third full, never leave it unattended, and keep children and pets out of the kitchen. Water dropped into hot oil erupts violently and throws burning oil a long way, so make sure everything going in is dry. If oil catches fire, never use water — turn off the heat, cover the pan with a lid and leave it covered until completely cool.
• Never give honey to a child under one year old, since honey can carry Clostridium botulinum spores an infant gut cannot handle safely. This applies to any honey in any dish. Warm honey syrup is also hot and sticky and keeps burning on contact — never touch or taste it hot.
• Poppy seeds can show on some drug screening tests, which is a documented effect worth knowing about if that matters to you; it has nothing to do with any actual intoxication.

Substitutions

• Brandy replaces vodka in the dough. The alcohol inhibits gluten development for a more tender blistered result and is essentially all driven off in frying — the atlas records that plainly rather than claiming none remains — and anyone avoiding alcohol entirely can leave it out, since the dough works acceptably without it.
• A hundred grams of the honey can be replaced with sugar. Lard replaces the frying oil and is traditional. A pasta machine rolls this dough beautifully and far more evenly than a pin.

Variations

• Roll the dough to about one millimetre, thin enough to almost see through in places — thick strips are heavy and doughy while thin ones blister and puff, which is the whole point. Rest it thirty minutes first, or unrested dough springs back and will not roll thin. Beating the dough, lifting and slamming it thirty or forty times as you knead, is genuinely part of the traditional method.
• Fry at about 180°C in small batches: too many at once drops the temperature and gives greasy pastry, and each batch takes only about forty-five seconds. Take them out at pale gold, since they darken after leaving the oil and dark strips taste bitter. Drain them spread in a single layer, since piled strips steam each other soft.
• Warm the honey rather than boiling it, which destroys the aroma, and toss the cooled strips gently in batches so every one is lightly coated rather than drenched. Build a tall cone from a wide base, placing strips rather than tipping them on, and scatter the poppy seeds generously — they are the ants. Let it set an hour or two, and never refrigerate it.

History

Built into a mound and scattered with poppy seeds to look like ants, it is a Lithuanian wedding and celebration cake.

Frequently asked questions

What is Skruzdėlynas?

Skruzdėlynas is a dessert from Lithuania: anthill cake of fried dough strips heaped with honey and poppy seeds. Built into a mound and scattered with poppy seeds to look like ants, it is a Lithuanian wedding and celebration cake.

How long does Skruzdėlynas take to make?

Skruzdėlynas takes 1 hour of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 10. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Skruzdėlynas?

Yes, within limits. Brandy replaces vodka in the dough. The alcohol inhibits gluten development for a more tender blistered result and is essentially all driven off in frying — the atlas records that plainly rather than claiming none remains — and anyone avoiding alcohol entirely can leave it out, since the dough works acceptably without it. A hundred grams of the honey can be replaced with sugar. Lard replaces the frying oil and is traditional. A pasta machine rolls this dough beautifully and far more evenly than a pin.

What is the most important thing to get right in Skruzdėlynas?

Keep children and pets out of the kitchen. Water dropped into hot oil erupts violently. Make sure everything going in is genuinely dry. Never add wet dough or wet utensils to the oil. Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid.