Photo: @flouredfingers_
Recipe for Mekitsa by Yuliya Mihaylova
The mekitsa is part of a traditional Bulgarian breakfast, mostly prepared on Sunday mornings as breakfast. It’s a fried dough that’s enjoyed with your choice of toppings. It’s not very sweet, so it can be paired with vegan cheese, jam, hazelnut spread or simply with powdered sugar, as it is mostly commonly done. This recipe is from my mom and I’ve reworked it to make it vegan.
See also: Vegan banana oat pancakes with chia seed berry jam
Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Total time: about an hour, including proofing
Ingredients
500 ml of warm water
7 grams of dry yeast + 1 tsp of brown sugar
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of vinegar
2-3 tbsp of vegan yogurt
3-4 tbsp of vegetable oil
800 grams of flour
Oil for frying
Method
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (not hot or boiling!) with the teaspoon of sugar and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
Sift in the flour, put it in a big bowl and make a well in the center.
Put the yeast mixture in the center, together with all the other ingredients and mix well, until everything is well incorporated. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature for 2 hours to rise.
For best results, I would strongly recommend you make the dough the previous night, proof it for 1-2 hours in a warm place and then leave it in the fridge overnight.
This way, it will have more time to proof resulting in a better flavour. What’s more, it’s ready in the morning and you just have to fry it.
Heat the oil in the pan (it should be enough to cover each mekitsa halfway) and in order to avoid sticking, oil your hands.
Tear small balls from the dough and stretch it a bit, then put it in the pan. The vinegar in the dough is what would help the dough stretch without breaking easily.
Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until it becomes golden. Repeat that until you run out of dough.
Bear in mind this recipe makes quite a lot of these, so make sure you have some company to share.
As written above, you can use any topping you like, or just eat them as they are.
Enjoy!
