Slovenians devour millions of doughnuts for carnival
As the carnival season officially started on Fat Thursday, one thing that virtually all Slovenians will do is eat doughnuts, and apparently several million of them.
Krofi, a round fried leavened dough pastry with filling rather than a whole in the middle, preferably apricot jam, is synonymous with Pust, as the Shrovetide season is called in Slovenia, although they are eaten all year around, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.
They can be found in every store, sold apiece or in packs of two, four, half a dozen or more, often at discount prices. Some vendors, pastry shops and even hotels put up stalls outdoors to entice passers-by with them and many people still make them at home although the process takes quite some time and skill.
The country's leading bakery, Don Don, estimates they will sell more than 12.5 million doughnuts in the country during the carnival season this year. This is a bit more than last year because demand is growing by the year, the company told the Slovenian Press Agency.
Bread and pasta company Žito fries more than three million doughnuts every year. They do not go for quantity but bet on innovation. They have come up with new mini doughnuts with three different fillings that are especially popular with young people, all year around.
Don Don's range includes chocolate-hazelnut, blueberry, vanilla, and pistachio-filled doughnuts, combined with various toppings, but they say the traditional doughnut, filled with apricot jam and dusted with sugar, remains the most popular.
Mercator, the country's leading grocer, sells more than four million doughnuts from the start of the year to the end of the carnival period, the most in the last three weeks before Shrove Tuesday. Their customers can choose between different flavours of classic or American-shaped doughnuts, including vegan ones.
Retailer Spar Slovenija will make 43,000 doughnuts a day in its bakery during the carnival period, including Dubai-styled with pistachio filling, which they say is a flavour in fashion this year. Such doughnuts will only be available at their Interspar hypermarkets until Shrove Tuesday.
Spar bakery will fry 380,000 doughnuts in two weeks during the festive season. They will make them out of 17 tons of flour, nine tons of apricot filling, and two tons of sugar dusting, explaining that the process takes three hours.
Experienced housekeepers who make them at home say the most important thing is to keep the kitchen warm without a draught and the ingredients warmed to room temperature.
Doughnuts galore are available year-round at the most popular krofi place in the country, Trojane, reached by a motorway exit between Ljubljana and Celje. From Fat Thursday to Shrove Tuesday alone they make around 100,000. Bus- and car-loads will stop there and many will eat them still hot.
