Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Papanași
Fried curd-cheese doughnuts topped with sour cream and tart jam, a warm Romanian dessert.
Romanian · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~969 cal · 38g protein · 65g carbs · 62g fat · 3g fiber · 27g sugars · 38g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Papanași are the crown jewel of Romanian desserts, a plate of fried doughnuts made from soft curd cheese, served warm and dressed to impress. They are the sweet you order at the end of a big Romanian meal, and rarely regret it.
The dough of sweet curd cheese, egg, and fries into tender, golden rounds, the classic version a large doughnut topped with a small ball, like a snowman. Over it goes a generous spoon of thick sour cream and a pool of tart fruit jam, usually sour cherry or blueberry, the sharpness cutting the richness.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 lb curd cheese (urda or ricotta)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
3 tbsp (optional, for a firmer dough)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda or baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lemon lemon zest
to finish powdered sugar, to dust
1 cup sour cream, to serve
1 cup sour cherry or blueberry jam, to serve
for frying oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Beat the curd cheese with the eggs, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, and lemon zest, then work in the flour a little at a time (and the semolina if using) until the dough stops sticking to your hands but stays soft. Rest 10 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
The cheese must be full-fat and thoroughly drained of whey, and the flour goes in gradually. Too much flour and papanasi come out hard and compact; too little and they spread in the oil. Go easy on the semolina too, since excess makes them rubbery.
2
Shape into rings with a small ball for each, and fry in hot oil until golden.
✎ Chef’s note
Fry them at a moderate heat so the inside cooks through before the outside browns too fast, or the centres stay raw.
3
Drain the warm papanasi.
4
Sit each ring on a bed of sour cream, spoon over a tart jam (wild blueberry or sour cherry is the classic), perch the little ball on top with more cream and jam, and dust with powdered sugar.
Romanian dessert tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Transylvania. The larder is built by season rather than by shopping. The pig is killed around Christmas and worked through in one go into sausages, smoked fat and jellied cuts, while sheep on the summer pastures give a curd that is salted and packed into fir bark as branza de burduf, taking a resinous edge from the wood.
🗺️
Romania. Mamaliga is a peasant staple that outlived its own necessity. Maize arrived through Ottoman channels and replaced millet, and the polenta made from it is still cut with a thread rather than a knife in some households, served with sheep cheese, soured cream and a fried egg. Sarmale are Ottoman in origin and shared across the Balkans rather than Romanian alone.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Romania meal
Mămăligă cu Brânză și SmântânăDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Papanași?
Fried curd-cheese doughnuts topped with sour cream and tart jam, a warm Romanian dessert.
Where does Papanași come from?
Papanași is a Romanian dish from Transylvania, Romania.
Can Papanași be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Papanași recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Papanași safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Papanași take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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