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Thin crisp sweet brushwood

Khvorost — Thin, Crispy Sweet Fried Dough

Classic, airy, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! This thin, crispy khvorost (fried dough twists, similar to angel wings) is made from a tried-and-true recipe with a splash of vodka in the dough. The dough comes together from a handful of simple ingredients, and the frying goes quickly. The result is a batch of golden, crisp pastries perfect with a cup of tea!

Maria

Recipe author

Watch the video

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Flour (or a little more, as much as the dough takes)

220

Powdered sugar

Eggs

Vodka

Salt

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 11 % 8 g

Fats 29 % 21 g

Carbohydrates 60 % 43 g

399 kcal

GI: 0 / 0 / 100

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make thin, crispy khvorost? Measure out your ingredients. Use good all-purpose flour and sift it through a fine sieve to aerate it.
Step 2:

Crack the egg into a deep bowl and whisk it with the salt until foamy.
Step 3:

Pour the vodka into the egg mixture and whisk again.
Step 4:

Start adding the sifted flour a little at a time. Don't dump it all in at once — you may end up needing a bit more or a bit less than the recipe lists.
Step 5:

Knead into a smooth, elastic dough. It shouldn't stick to your hands. It should hold its shape without being too stiff.
Step 6:

Roll the dough out thin on a lightly floured surface.
Step 7:

Cut the dough into pieces for the khvorost. I used a fluted pastry cutter, simply cutting long strips.
Step 8:

Then cut each strip into shorter pieces, like in the photo. Make a lengthwise slit down the middle of each piece.
Step 9:

Heat a deep skillet or saucepan on the stove. Pour in the vegetable oil and get it good and hot. Drop in the khvorost and fry until golden and crisp.
Step 10:

Transfer the fried pieces to a paper towel to drain the excess oil, then arrange the crispy khvorost on a platter.
Step 11:

Once cooled, dust the sweet khvorost with powdered sugar.

Before this, I'd only made khvorost once, a long time ago. I remember fussing something up with the dough and it came out dense, tough, and not crisp at all. And since it was so greasy, I figured it wasn't worth the effort and never made it again — until I came across an interesting recipe the other day and decided to give it another shot. This time everything turned out just right: the khvorost came out exactly as it should. It's a great recipe — or maybe I've just picked up a little more experience.
Be ready for the flour amount to vary — you may need a little more or less than the recipe says. Go by the desired consistency of the dough rather than the exact weight. When in doubt, learn a bit about flour and how it behaves.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying. Every oil is only good up to a certain temperature — its smoke point — beyond which it starts to burn and form harmful compounds. Unrefined oils, with few exceptions, have a low smoke point: they're full of unfiltered particles that scorch quickly. Refined oils handle heat better and have a higher smoke point. Whenever you're roasting, pan-frying, or grilling, reach for a high-smoke-point oil — the most common being refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oils.