MACEDONIAN PITULICI (from universal dough)

When I kneaded the dough, I didn't know what I was going to use it for. I thought of kneading it once, and then I will decide. My first choice were kifli, then I thought I could make a small Easter sweet bread too, but then I said to myself better not to turn on the oven, it's already hot outside, so I decided to make donuts. Instead of donuts, I turned out to make pitulici. Fun right? :))) 

This  was the first time I make pitulici from this kind of dough and I can freely say that they are great, phenomenal! I left some of the dough for the next day and made a few more for breakfast. There was no difference in the taste or the growth compared to the previous day, just to notice that when you use dough from the fridge, it should be taken out at room temperature about 1 hour before use so to reactivate the yeast bacteria.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cube of fresh yeast (40 grams or 2 bags of dry yeast)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 500 ml of milk (2 cups)
• about 900 g of flour (approximately 32 oz)
• 3 tablespoons oil

Preparation:

1. First dissolve the yeast in a deeper bowl. Put it in a little lukewarm milk, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and leave it to dissolve for about 15 minutes. Stir.
2. Then add the other ingredients (except the oil), add half the flour and turn on the mixer with the attached dough whisks and start kneading the dough. Gradually add flour. When the dough starts to form into a ball, turn off the mixer and start kneading it by hand. You should get a soft dough that will be slightly sticky to the hand. Keep in mind that it's always better to have more sticky dough than a hard one.
   
   
   
3. If the dough is very sticky, add some flour and knead it. If it is only slightly sticky, add the oil, knead it and cover it with nylon foil and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.
4. Then, take out pieces of dough the size of a tennis ball, form  disks.
   
   
   
5. Spread each disk with your fingers in a round not very regular shape and fry it in heated oil at a medium temperature, 2-3 minutes on both sides are enough.
   
   
   
6. Place the finished pitulici on kitchen paper. Use as much as you need dough, cover the rest with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Use it within 2 days.
7. Serve  with white cheese and plain yogurt or fermented milk.