Fritule

Small pieces of dough dropped from a spoon into oil become uneven rounds, with little peaks left on them. Fritule, popular along Croatia’s Adriatic coast and elsewhere, are bite-sized fried sweets flavored with citrus zest, rum or rakija. Served on Christmas Eve and Carnival tables, they come in versions leavened with yeast, versions mixed with yogurt and fried right away, and versions made with potato.

Three doughs under one name

There are fermented doughs of wheat flour, milk and yeast; doughs that rise quickly with yogurt and baking powder; and doughs made with boiled potatoes. Fritule recipes (the proportions of ingredients and the methods) share the practice of frying soft dough in small pieces, but they differ in how the dough is leavened and in the ingredients that bind the flour.

In a yeast method handed down in Pakoštane on the Dalmatian coast, the yeast is activated with lukewarm milk and a little sugar, then combined with flour, eggs, sugar, spirits and so on. Raisins soaked in rum are mixed in, and the dough is left in a warm place until it has roughly doubled. The risen, softened dough is dropped into the oil a little at a time and fried.

When yogurt is used, flour, yogurt, eggs and baking powder are mixed and fried without waiting for a long rise. If grated apple is added, the fruit’s moisture and fine fibers are dispersed through the dough. There are also versions without apple that focus on raisins and citrus aromas.

Adjusting the softness of the dough to the moisture of the ingredients

Whether the yogurt is thick or liquid changes the amount of moisture relative to the same quantity of flour. In cook Melkior Bašić’s recipe with apple, orange juice and zest are added if the yogurt is thick, and less juice is used if it is liquid. This adjustment brings the dough to a softness that allows it to be dropped into the oil a little at a time.

Lemon or orange zest adds aroma, and rum or rakija, a fruit-based distilled spirit, is used both in the dough itself and for soaking the raisins. If too much sugar goes into the dough, the surface browns before the center is cooked. Keeping the sugar in the dough modest and sprinkling sugar on after frying allows the inside to cook through without burning the surface.

When potato is used, boiled and mashed potatoes are combined with flour, eggs, citrus zest, yeast and so on. Cook Ino Kuvacic’s recipe adds raisins soaked in rum, rests the dough for about 1 hour, and then drops it by the spoonful into the oil to fry. The combination of ingredients that binds the flour differs from methods that mix in yogurt or apple.

Dropping soft dough into oil in small amounts

Fritule dough is not firm enough to roll out and cut with a cutter. One method is to close one hand lightly to squeeze out the dough and scoop it off with a teaspoon in the other hand, dropping it into the oil. Small rounds can also be made by dropping the dough with two spoons, or by piping the dough from a piping bag and cutting it off into pieces of equal size.

Crowding too much dough into the oil at once lowers the temperature and leaves no room to turn the pieces over. They are fried a few at a time until golden on both sides, drained, and sprinkled with sugar while still warm. The peaks and rounded shapes left by frying without a mold are the marks of soft dough fried in oil.

Fritule dusted with powdered sugar. Small peaks remain on the irregular pieces of fried dough. Photo: Roberta F., 2009-12, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 3.0. Downscaled version from the source, with no further processing.

Names for fried sweets linked across the sea

The singular is fritula and the plural is fritule. The word’s etymology is linked to the Venetian dialect word frìtola and the Italian frittella. The lands on either side of the Adriatic share a connection in their words for fried sweets. A Croatian dictionary gives round fritters of potato dough as the representative meaning, but coastal households have also handed down methods that use milk and yeast and methods that mix in yogurt. Even where the words share an origin, the ingredients chosen in each kitchen are not limited to one set.

After winter meals and as a bite to welcome guests

In Split, there is a Christmas Eve tradition of the family gathering around warm fritule with raisins after dishes such as salted or dried cod. Kroštule, served at the same table, are fried sweets in thin, long strips, different in shape from the round fritule. In Rijeka there are examples leavened with yeast for Carnival, and the dough chosen also varies with the place and the holiday.

The potato version described by Kuvacic is also a sweet for welcoming guests at the start of a celebration, together with dried figs and fruit spirits. The same small rounds can serve as a sweet after a meal or as the first bite of a feast.

Glossary