Finnish Traditional May Day Donuts

Name: Traditional May Day Donuts from Finland
Prep time: 2 h
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 2 h 15 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Finnish
Ingredients: 1 cup milk; 1 ample tablespoon of active dry yeast; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/3 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cardamom (optional); 2 eggs; 1/3 cup butter, softened or melted; 3 1/4 - 4 cups of all-purpose flour; 4 cups of flavorless vegetable oil (e.g. rapeseed, canola, coconut, sunflower) for frying; Sugar for decorating

May 1, 2024

Finnish Traditional May Day Donuts - Feels like Finland

One essential part of celebrating the May Day (labor day) is the traditional food. You just simply need to have those delicious, sweet and crunchy donuts and sima (traditional Finnish Vappu drink)!

These donuts are called munkit (one donut = munkki) in Finnish.

Why Finnish donuts are called munkki or munkit?

Munkki means a monk. This name has been used already in the 17th century in Finland. Apparently the shape and color of the round donuts (the ones without a hole) are like a monk with a brown cape (I read this in Wikipedia, in Finnish only)

Is Finnish vappumunkki donut similar to American donuts?

If you mean glazing - no, Finnish donuts are almost never glazed, only sugared.

To my understanding there are 2 types of donut doughs used in America, one is sweet, with yeast, and similar to the one I have written on this page and the other is more muffin/cake type of dough.

Are Finnish donuts filled with jam?

There are several types of donuts in Finland. There are

The ones with a hole in the middle ("Rinkelimunkit / Munkkirinkelit", also "Vappumunkit") that are not filled, just covered with sugar
The Jam Donuts ("Hillomunkit") that are filled e.g. with apple or raspberry jam.
Berlin donut or Bishop's donut ("Berliininmunkki" and at Turku area "Piispanmunkki"), a round donut that is filled with raspberry jam and dipped to a pink sugar glaze. Turku version may have also a white glaze.
Piggie donut ("Possumunkki" or "Munkkipossu". A flatter rectangular shaped donut with a pinch on each corner (like ears or feet of the pig). Filled with apple jam. Also known as "posso" in Kotka area.
Lörtsy (untranslatable..but definitely worth mentioning) a type of deeptried pie from Lappeenranta area. It's rolled to thin, round shapes and filled with sweet jam (or if making savory ones, with meat etc, but that is another story...) and after deep frying they have a flat half-a-moon shape and they are big! Sometimes they are also sugared.

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Traditional May Day Donuts from Finland

Tuija

Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users

Cuisine

Finnish

Author:

Tuija

Servings

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

15 minutes

Sweet, delicious, crunchy! That's how wonderful Finnish May Day Donuts are.

Deep fried or air fried, anyway you will make your May Day (Labor day) festivities Finnish way!

Did you know that this donut dough is technically the same as Finnish pulla dough?

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 ample tablespoon of active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, softened or melted
3 1/4 - 4 cups of all-purpose flour
4 cups of flavorless vegetable oil (e.g. rapeseed, canola, coconut, sunflower) for frying
Sugar for decorating

Directions

Warm up the milk (somewhat hotter than your hand)
Add yeast
Add salt, sugar, cardamom and eggs, mix
Add softened or melted butter
Add flour bit by bit, mixing the dough
Be careful not to add all the maximum amount, if the dough is already good earlier. You can always add more flour later while kneading the dough.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, add some flour if it sticks to your hands and knead until it becomes easy to handle
Shape the donuts, e.g. roll the dough to strips and tie the ends or make round ones and make a hole in the center. or just make small round ones.
Cover the donuts and let rise again for 20-30 min.
Heat up the vegetable oil in a deep steel pan (or your deep frier). Test the temperature by adding small bits of dough. When they brown up in a few minutes, it’s good. Reduce the heat to maintain the temperature.
Fry the donuts a few minutes (2-4) per side in the oil and fish them out with a steel ladle, tongs or servers. Place them on top of kitchen paper or a strainer, to let the excess oil drip away.
While hot, put one donut at a time to a sugar bag (that has a few tablespoons of granulated sugar) and shake until the donut is covered in sugar.
Serve warm with sima!