Traditional Polish Recipes Made Easy & New Variations
Author: jadwiga49hjk
I love cooking and baking. I love trying out new recipes and currently am trying out many old favourites from my Polish cookbooks and family recipes. I am trying out many variations, often to make them easier but still delicious.
I collect glass cake stands and china tableware, mainly tea plates, jugs and serving dishes, many of which I use on a daily basis. They are an eclectic mixture from the 20th & 21st century.
Gherkins are cucumbers that have been fermented in brine or pickled with vinegar.
Botanically cucumbers are fruit although they are a vegetables from the culinary point of view.
In Polish the word ogórki means cucumbers.
Kiszoneogórki means fermented cucumbers – either in brine or vinegar.
Letnieogórki means summer cucumbers – which are fresh salad cucumbers.
The Latin name for the cucumber is Cucumis sativus and it is a member of the gourd family and so related to pumpkins and melons.
It is thought the plant originated in India and then was taken to Greece and from there to northern Europe.
I have read that the making of pickles by fermenting in brine is over 4,000 years old. This would preserve vegetables throughout the winter – well before the days of frozen food and supermarkets!
A quick look at the journey of the word –Gherkin – according to several dictionary sources.
This is a word that started in Greece and travelled to England & America via Poland, Germany and The Netherlands.
Angourion – Medieval Greek for cucumber.
Ogórek – Polish for cucumber
Gurke – German for cucumber
Augurk – Dutch for a brined or pickled cucumber
Gherkin – English for a brined or pickled cucumber
In Poland, July & August are the main months for making gherkins at home and once when I was there at that time in my relatives’ houses every container seemed to have been put into use for a stage in their production.
Everyone has their own special recipe using brine and sometimes vinegar with the addition of garlic and herbs and spices – the most often used is the flower head of the dill plant – hence we get dill pickles. Some methods are very quick taking just a few days others take longer.
The type of cucumber used is a different variety than the salad cumber it is shorter, fatter, often knobbier and has a lower water content.
I cannot at the moment give you a good recipe for making gherkins as I have rarely seen the right variety of cucumbers for sale in England – maybe now with more Polish shops I might see some next year and try out some recipes.
The bought gherkins I like are the Polish Krakus ones.
Another type I like are ones you can buy in Lidl – these are made with sugar and vinegar and are sliced lengthways – they have only a slight vinegar taste and are sweet – I do not like the very vinegary kind.
There are many uses of gherkins in Polish cookery – the most famous must be gherkin soup – which I just love – but that recipe I will cover later once I start to write about soups.
Of course gherkins – form part of many salads.
Gherkins Sliced Lengthways – a very simple salad
Gherkin and Tomato Salad
Ingredients
3 or 4 Gherkins – cut into discs
4 or 5 Tomatoes- cut into half & then thinly sliced
1 small onion – finely chopped
Flat-leaved parsley – finely chopped – to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method
In a bowl mix together the gherkins, tomatoes and onions.
Sprinkle with a little salt and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the liquid from the gherkin jar (if none is available then use some lemon juice) and mix again.
Place into a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped flat leaved parsley and freshly ground black pepper.
The tomato is botanically the fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, although from a culinary point of view it is a vegetable.
It belongs to the deadly nightshade family as does the potato.
The tomato plant originated in the Andes in South America and tomatl was the name in the Nahuatl language give to it by the Aztec people, which then became tomate and then tomato in English.
The tomato was brought over to Europe by the Conquistadors in the late 15th Century.
The original fruits were yellow hence the Italian name pomodoro (pomo d’oro – apple of gold).
When the Italian princess, who became Queen Bona of Poland on her marriage to King Zygmunt the Old, came to Poland with her chefs in the 16th Century , the tomato was introduced to the Polish diet.
Tomato in Polish is pomidor – so you can see or rather hear its Italian root.
Home grown tomatoes are of course the best, however here in the North of England I have not had much success in growing them outdoors.
To get the best flavour from tomatoes it is best NOT to keep them in the refrigerator.
Keep your tomatoes at room temperature
A simple tomato salad is served in Poland, always it seemed to me with the addition of onions, chives or the green part of spring onion. For many it is standard fare for breakfast with cold meats or Polish curd cheese.
Ingredients
Tomatoes – thinly sliced into whole rounds if small or halved if large.
Half an onion – finely chopped or
Chives or the green part of spring onions – finely chopped
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method
Arrange the tomato slices on a plate
Squeeze a little lemon juice over them
Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them
Garnish with onion or chives
Chives & Spring Onions
Tomato Salad with OnionsTomato Salad with ChivesSalads for BreakfastTomato Salad, Curd Cheese & Rye Bread – Typical Breakfast Fare
Fresh cabbage features in many salads in Poland, the following much loved version can be made throughout the year.
In English the word coleslaw is used for a cabbage salad – this word is from the Dutch koolsla – kool – cabbage, sla – salad.
Ingredients
I like to use Light or Original
1 or 2 carrots
Hard white cabbage – around a quarter or half a medium one
1 eating apple – red skinned is nice for colour
1 onion – I like to use a red one for colour
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice – optional
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
I always start by grating the carrot using a large grater and then cut the cabbage into fine strands so that I have equal quantities of orange and white. Put these into a large mixing bowl.
I find that 1 carrot is often enough for the amount I need. In the photo below 2 carrots were used to make a larger amount of salad.
Chop the onion into small pieces and add this to the bowl.
Grate the apple including the skin and add this to the bowl.
Add several tablespoons of mayonnaise and mix well to coat the mixture.
You might want to add a little lemon juice to make the mayonnaise a little thinner.
Add some salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with cold smoked Polish style meats or sausage or with a hot roast or casserole as a good contrast.
Śmietana – Soured Cream – must be one of the most used salad dressings in Poland.
Soured cream is used just on its own and sometimes if it is thick or because they like it that way people will add lemon juice to make it more runny.
I am going to write about the three classic salads which will have soured cream on them.
Mizeria
Legend has it that this salad was beloved by Queen Bona, the Italian princess, who married King Zygmunt 1 in the early part of the 16th Century.
She is famous for bringing her chefs and a variety of vegetables to Poland and many vegetables names in Polish have Italian roots.
The word mizeria comes from the Latin meaning misery.It is said that this salad made the Queen homesick for Italy. I can understand the cucumber – not sure about the soured cream – but that is the story.
It certainly is a delicious cooling salad for a hot day.
I was talking with one of my Polish friends earlier last week and I said that I was going to write about mizeria and she said “Oh there were 20 people for dinner yesterday and I made a huge bowl of mizeria – it was delicious and it was all eaten!”
It is the salad that everyone loves to make in the summer and it is so easy.
Ingredients
Just – Cucumber, Soured Cream and a little salt.
Option extras
Lemon juice added to the soured cream.
Some people add little bit of icing sugar.
Dill or chives as a garnish.
Take a cucumber and peel off the skin. If the skin is thin then sometimes I do not peel it all off, just stripes so that you have a nice pattern later of dark and pale green.
Cut the cucumber into thin slices and put them into a bowl
Lightly salt the cucumber.
Add several spoonfuls of soured cream to the cucumber and mix them together, you want to coat most of the slices.
Sprinkle with a garnish of chopped dill or chives if desired and serve.
This is delicious with Polish style smoked meats and sausage and also with hot roast meats as a lovely contrast.
Mizeria Garnished with DillDill
Mizeria Garnished with Chives
note
This is best made with young fresh cucumbers in summer. However now that you can get greenhouse grown cucumbers all year round I sometimes find that they are a bit old and woody, if this is the case I would remove the seed area – this is best done by cutting the cucumber lengthwise in two and removing the seeds by pulling a teaspoon down the seedy middle. Then you can slice the cucumber as before.
Some cooks salt the sliced cucumber and leave this for about half an hour and then discard the liquid before adding the soured cream. I do not usually do this unless I am making it for serving at a much later time.
Radish Salad
Ingredients
Radish and Soured Cream.
Chives or Spring onions to garnish.
Prepare the radishes by removing the hairy roots and stalks.
Thinly slice the radishes.
Put the radish slices in a bowl and add several tablespoons of soured cream (thinned with lemon juice it desired).
Garnish with chives or the green part of spring onions, finely chopped.
I love the way the radish skin colour seeps into the soured cream after a while and makes it pale pink.
Lettuce Salad
This is the most simple salad you can make – just use lettuce leaves pulled off from the head of lettuce, wash and dry them using a tea towel or a salad spinner and add several tablespoons of soured cream (thinned with lemon juice it desired) and mix them together.
Garnish with a few chives if you have them and serve.
Sałatka is the Polish word my parents used for salad.
However when I visited Poland for the first time I realised that there is another word for salad and that is – Surówka.
Surówka – this come from a Polish word meaning raw.
There is a distinction between the two in that a sałatka is a dish served cold of mainly cooked vegetables and a surówka is a dish served cold of mainly raw, pickled or fermented vegetables.
Some ingredients for salads for sale
As it is hard in English to differentiate between the two – I will be writing about many classic cold Polish vegetable dishes and will be calling them all salads.
Fruit, cold meats, fish, either cooked or pickled, and hard boiled eggs also feature in these salads.
A salad accompaniment with a meal is often more usual than hot cooked vegetables and a tomato or gherkin salad is normal fare for breakfast.
Vegetables that have been pickled, fermented, bottled or canned will feature throughout the year at least once a day in Polish meals. Before widespread refrigeration this is how people preserved food for use throughout the winter.
Old Polish houses always had cellars, the Polish word is piwnica, from the word piwo which means beer so it means the place where beer is kept. The ones I have seen in Poland were filled with bottled fruit and vegetables as well as jams, ready to make meals and salads throughout the year. In blocks of flats there is still in the basement level, cellar space for each flat.
My aunties said they could not imagine life without a cellar. Their cellars were filled with many jars of bottled paprika that they had prepared – what in England we call peppers or capsicums, various mixed vegetables, cranberries and lingonberries.
Paprika – Capsicum – Pepper
I am very lucky in having two cellars in my house and spent a week in spring this year organising them – including an area for tinned and bought bottled vegetables ready for making salads amongst other things.
Cellar – Mainly for Food
Cellar – Mainly for Drinks
Salad dressings
Three of the most popular salad dressings used are:
Lemon Juice
One of my cousins came to visit me a couple of weeks ago and brought me this lovely, large, glass lemon squeezer.
If lemons are scarce or expensive or for convenience in Poland you can buy packets of citric acid which you can mix up with water.
Smetana – Soured Cream
Nowadays you can find soured cream in many English stores but if there is none then lemon juice added to fresh single cream will give nearly the same result.
Mayonnaise
Although I have made mayonnaise, I tend to buy it now and my favourite is Hellmann’s – original or light (the very low fat version I think is horrid as it has a strange taste and texture). Sometimes if making the salad ahead of time I think the original is a bit better as it does not get as watery from the vegetables but mostly I use the light version.
Vegetables waiting to be made into salads
Salad Garnishes
Garnishes are chopped fine and sprinkled on the top of the dish of salad, these are often: flat leafed parsley, dill, chives, the green part of spring onions and hard boiled eggs. If none of these are available ground paprika might sometimes be sprinkled on the salad.
Soured Milk – is the fermented milk product that is found in Northern Europe, especially in Poland. It forms naturally from bacteria in fresh milk and these bacteria live happily in colder climates.
When we used to have farm milk at home my mother made soured milk all the time and then also made twaróg – Polish curd cheese from this. However you cannot make soured milk from pasteurised milk (of course you can in a dairy where they will have the starters).
My mother had this on the go all the time, mainly to make the curd cheese which is used in lots of Polish recipes – savoury and sweet.
Yoghurt – is the fermented milk product that is found in Southern Europe and the Middle East. It forms naturally from bacteria in fresh milk and these bacteria live happily in warmer climates.
You could say that yoghurt is soured milk’s cousin.
It is a relatively new dairy product for sale in Poland but is now very popular.
You can make yoghurt at home because you can use some bought yoghurt as a starter and then continue using your yoghurt as a starter and so on.
I go through phases of making yoghurt – it is easy to do – you just need a little bit of time and a supply of milk and some bought yoghurt as a starter.
Two Very Good Books
The Yoghurt Book – Food of the Gods by Arto der Haroutunian – first published in 1983.
Mine is an old copy. I think it might be out of print but there are second hand copies available for sale eg on Amazon.
Eat Well The YoChee Way by Nikki & David Goldbeck – 2001
This book is American & YoChee is the authors name for yoghurt cheese.
My Method For Making Yoghurt
I use a wide-necked vacuum flask, it holds about 750 ml (it must be wide necked or you will have difficulties cleaning it). I fill it with boiling water to sterilise it and heat it up. I leave this with the water in whilst the milk is cooling down – then I pour out the water and add the yoghurt mix. I often make this at night and it is ready in the morning. You can make it in the morning and it should be ready in the evening.
Now that milk is pasteurised you need a yoghurt starter, Greek yoghurt is good, once you have made some of your own, you can then use that to start the next batch.
You need milk – you can use whole milk or semi skimmed – you can use skimmed milk but I prefer the others.
I have a tall milk pan which is very useful as there is height for the milk to rise without spilling all over the cooker top.
Bring the milk to the boil and then let it cool to 37 to 40 degrees o C, if you dip in a finger tip it must feel just lukewarm, no hotter than body temperature, and you should be able to keep your finger there for a count of 10 without it being too hot or you can use a cook’s thermometer. This is important, too hot will kill the bacteria, too cold may not be warm enough for the bacteria to grow.
Mix a large tablespoon of yoghurt into the milk, about 1 tablespoon to 500ml of milk.
You then have to leave the mixture in a warm place to grow.
You can put the mixture in a clean, sterilized with boiling water, bowl and cover this with a cloth and leave it overnight or about 12 hours. This is the easiest method in the summer or if you have a warm but not too hot spot in the house.
I empty the hot water from my vacuum flask and pour in the milk & yoghurt mixture, put on the stopper and the lid and leave for around 10 hours.
I have used a thermostatically controlled yoghurt maker in the past and you put the mixture into little pots and left them. I found this did not make much yoghurt in one go and there was a lot to clean out and sterilise. I started to use the vacuum flask method and have stayed with that but some of the new electric makers now have just one large pot and I think they may be easier to use.
Once it is made, pour it into a bowl or tub and refrigerate the yoghurt, it tastes so much better and fresher that any bought ones. I bought some plastic food storage tubs with lids specially for this.
At this point you can start again and when you have loads you will start to think “maybe I will make some yoghurt cheese from this” and on it goes!
With the yoghurt, sometimes I eat it plain, or use it instead of milk with muesli or other cereals, dried fruits and nuts. Mostly though I add fruit to it, chopped fresh fruit sprinkled with a bit of icing sugar, stewed fruit or tinned fruit. I love it with stewed prunes! It is super with just a spoonful of runny honey. Sometimes I use it as a salad dressing on its own or mixed with mayonnaise.
Making Yoghurt Cheese
Also known as YoChee and in the Middle East as labna or labneh.
Traditional Method
The yoghurt cheese is made by putting yoghurt into a muslin cloth and tying it up and letting the whey drain off from the curds. This will take many hours and is best done in a cool place.
Modern Straining Method
I bought a little device from Lakeland Plastics which is a modern version of the hanging muslin cloth. It is a plastic tub with a stainless steel fine mesh sieve which hangs in the box. You then put on a plastic lid and then put the tub in the fridge.
I leave this to strain for at least 24 hours – often up to 48 hours.
Sometimes I buy a 1kg tub of Greek yoghurt to make the cheese if I do not have any of my own – this is more than enough for the tub.
Yoghurt Cheese as it comes out of the pot.
It is a soft, fresh tasting cheese.
I eat it uncooked either plain or with chopped onions, chives or garlic, with chopped dates and banana or jam and so on, the list is endless.
I use yoghurt cheese in Polish recipes instead of twaróg – Polish curd cheese to make baked cheesecake or Polish style ravioli with either sweet curd cheese or savoury with potatoes, onions and curd cheese and much, much more.
I would use this home made cheese within a week as it does not of course have the shelf life of commercially, often vacuum packed, cheeses.
This morning for breakfast I had some freshly made yoghurt cheese on toast with some morello cherry jam which my friend had made a couple of weeks ago from cherries growing on her allotment.
It was delicious!
The cheese is wonderful with other slightly tart jams such as blackcurrant or damson.
By the Way – Whey is a useful by-product
Tub of whey you can keep in the fridge.
The liquid whey that is in the bottom of the tub can be saved and used instead of water, milk or buttermilk in making scones and soda bread etc or you can add it to soups.
Naleśniki are thin pancakes like the French crêpes. Their name comes from the Polish verb to pour.
In Poland pancakes are eaten all year round, with either savoury or sweet fillings, and not just before Lent. (In fact pancakes are not amongst the special foods eaten before this time of fasting).
We used to have then about once a week but I never seemed to have been involved much in their making except for spreading the fillings on, so when I started to make them myself I had lots of disasters!
My pancakes were always a bit hit and miss. Often the constancy was not constant nor the thickness and nearly always the first one of the batch would stick to the pan and have to be thrown away.
Then I looked up the recipe in my old Polish cookbook, made a few telephone calls to various relatives and also followed Delia Smith’s advice and bought a special frying pan which I use only for pancakes.
Kuchnia Polska – 15th Edition 1971
So I now I think I know the secrets of making perfect pancakes and these I will now pass on.
Sift the flour
You must use a mixture of milk and water – 50/50 is the best – this ensures that the pancakes do not burn as easily and also enables you to make then very thin and elastic so they are easy to work with. (This is the most important tip).
Beat the eggs and add then them first to the sifted flour.
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Leave the batter to stand for at least 1 hour in which time it will thicken, then add a little more liquid.
Use a special thin pan which you use just for pancakes, mine has a base diameter of 20 cm and is made of steel, once seasoned, just wipe it clean between uses with kitchen roll – never scour it or use detergent.
Work out how much batter you need for a pancake and find a measure which will then give you a consistent amount – I use a small ladle which holds 45ml.
Have a dish of melted butter or margarine and sunflower oil for frying so you can add just enough and tip some back if needed.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
2 eggs
200 ml milk (full or semi-skimmed)
200 ml water
pinch of salt
This amount makes around 8 pancakes.
I remember this recipe as it is all the 2’s for ease, but it will depend on the flour and the size of the eggs, you might not use all the milk & water mixture or you might just need a little more.
Heat the pan – you want a high heat but not too much to burn the pancakes – you will find you have to keep adjusting the heat. (As I cook using gas this is easy to do).
Pancake Batter & Ladle
Using the ladle pour the mixture into the pan.
Tilt the pan so that the mixture covers the surface completely and evenly.
Cook the pancakes on one side and turn then over (or toss them English style), you can make them up one by one or stack then up with a piece of greaseproof paper in between them. You can do this and leave then for later use
There are many recipes for pancake fillings both savoury and sweet.
I think the 2 most popular sweet fillings in Poland are sweet curd cheese (see a previous post) and stewed apples with cinnamon.
Pancakes with sweet fillings are normally folded into triangles – fan -shaped by folding the pancake into half and half again.
Pancakes with savoury fillings are normally rolled up and often then put in a dish, topped with a sauce or grated yellow cheese and put in the oven for a time.
In these instructions I have used photographs of pancakes being made with the sweet curd cheese filling.
Frying the PancakeSweet Curd Cheese FillingSpread with FillingFolded in HalfAnd Half AgainDusted with Icing Sugar
I find two are enough for me!
You can make the filled pancakes in advance prior to dusting them with icing sugar and then heat them up on both sides – using the pancake pan again – maybe with the addition of a little butter. Then dust them with icing sugar.
This sweet fresh curd cheese mixture is one that is used as a filling for pancakes in Poland.
You can make this mixture with twaróg – curd cheese, cream cheese or yoghurt cheese.
Use 1 packet of cheese, usually 200g – 300g , to this add 2 to 3 tablespoons of soured cream and 2 to 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and mix this together till you get a smooth mixture. You can add 2 to 3 drops of vanilla essence. Do not add too much sugar – you want the contrast of sweetness & sour.
Sweet Curd Cheese MixturePancake Spread With Sweet Curd Cheese MixturePancakes Folded Polish Style with Sweet Curd Mixture Dusted with Icing Sugar
Twaróg – Polish Curd Cheese is used extensively in cooking and finds its way in many guises onto the Polish menu, especially at home, both in sweet and savoury dishes.
The following are what I consider to be popular classic savoury fresh cheese mixtures and are often served for breakfast with bread and salad.
Here in England I think they could be served at lunchtime. As well as with bread and rolls they can be served with crisp-breads, oatcakes or crackers.
3 Classic Curd Cheese Mixtures
You can make these with Twaróg – Curd Cheese or with Cream Cheese.
You can also use yoghurt cheese – (Look out for a post on how to make this later).
The amounts used are just approximate, using one packet of cheese, which is normally around 200g – 300g, for each mixture and can be varied to taste.
If using curd cheese, add a pinch or two of salt and a couple of spoonfuls of soured cream, mix together until smooth.
If using cream cheese just take it out of the packet and mix it in a bowl – you can add a spoonful or two of soured cream to make it a softer consistency if you wish.
Mixture 1
To the cheese add a few tablespoons of finely chopped chives or the green parts of spring onions.
In Poland szczypiorek (which in dictionaries is given as chives) would be used – however I think it is slightly different and is much larger than the chives I grow here in England.
Chives Growing in a Pot
Spring Onions and ChivesCurd Cheese and Chives
Mixture 2
To the cheese add a couple of teaspoons of caraway seeds
Curd Cheese and Caraway Seeds
Mixture 3
To the cheese add some chopped gherkins
I find these are the best gherkins to use as they are not vinegary.
Chopped GherkinsCurd Cheese and Gherkins
Typical Polish Breakfast Fare
These cheese mixtures can also be served with bliny -little buckwheat pancakes. (Look out for a a post on how to make these later).
Baked cheesecakes have a very long history with the Ancient Greeks baking them with cheese and then the Romans adding eggs to the recipes.
Varieties of cheesecakes were made in the Middle East and mentioned in the Old Testament. Maybe a land flowing with milk and honey is so good as these are ingredients needed to make a cheesecake!
The traditional cheesecake in Poland is a baked cheesecake and it is found in Christian and Jewish Traditions.
One story is that King Jan III Sobieski brought the recipe back with him after his victory against the Turks at the Battle of Vienna (1683).
This could tie up with the fact that one version of the cheesecake in Poland is called Viennese – Style.
When immigrants to the United States of America from Poland, Russia and Germany took their recipes with them in the 19 Century we eventually got the New York Cheesecake.
As ser is the Polish word for cheese – we get sernik as the Polish word for cheesecake.
Cheesecakes are made from twaróg – curd cheese, eggs and sugar and how they turn out depends not only on the proportions of each but also the cheese that is used. Butter and soured cream may also be used.
My mother used to make her own curd cheese from fresh farm milk that was allowed to sour and then the solid curds were separated from the whey by pouring the soured milk into a muslin cloth and leaving this to drain.
Unfortunately you cannot make soured milk from pasteurised milk.
Recently I have been making my own yoghurt and yoghurt cheese. You have to use a live yoghurt starter with pasteurised milk. This is very similar to twaróg, not identical but very near. The result tastes wonderful but it takes a lot of time and effort to get enough cheese at home and so the following recipes use bought cheese.
You can find twaróg now in Polish shops and some supermarkets and sometimes under its German name qwark.
Twaróg – Curd Cheese
Previously as the curd cheese was not available my recipes have been adapted to use a Philadelphia ™ style cream cheese.
Philadelphia ™ is a cream cheese invented in 1872 in New York State.
Full fat makes the best cheesecake. You can use a mixture of full fat and medium fat but never use low fat cheese.
You cannot make a good baked cheesecake from low fat cheese.
Curd cheese is slightlygrainyand to get the best results you either need to put it through a mincer or use a blender.
A traditional baked cheesecake has 2 layers – a cake base and then the curd cheese layer on top.
In my mother’s original cake the cheese mixture was poured over a baked cake base but for ease I often use a crushed biscuit base.
Mama’s Cheesecake
Biscuit Base Ingredients
75g melted butter
150g digestive, rich tea or morning coffee biscuits
You need a round tin with a loose base or a spring form tin or you will not be able to get the cake out. I always use an anodised aluminium tin, 23cm in diameter and 7 cm deep, which does not rust.
Selection of my anodised cake tins
Grease the tin well with butter.
Crush the biscuits to make fine crumbs and use some of these to coat the sides of the greased tin.
Crushed biscuits
Add the melted butter to the rest of the biscuits and mix together. Put this mixture onto the base of the tin pressing it down firmly.
Biscuit crumb mix – pressed into the tin
Leave the tin in a cold place whilst you make the cheese mixture.
Cheese Mixture Ingredients
700g of curd cheese or cream cheese (at room temperature)
6 egg yolks
2 egg whites
4 tablespoons of caster sugar
50 to 75g of melted butter
3 drops of vanilla essence
1 to 2 tablespoons of semolina (optional)
Pre heat the oven to GM4 – 180oC.
In a large bowl beat the yolks and sugar until they are thick and creamy – the mixture should be lighter in colour than the original yolks and be creamy. (This may take around 5 minutes). Then add the cooled melted butter, cheese and vanilla essence.
If using the semolina, add this now – it makes the cake a bit denser. (I rarely add this with cream cheese, more often with curd cheese).
Beat the whites with a whisk until you have soft peaks and fold these into the mixture.
Pour the mixture on top of the biscuit base and bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours. Check after an hour, if the top starts to get too brown before the cake is cooked place a piece of foil over the top.
Once the cake is cooked switch off the oven, you can leave the door open slightly and let it cool down in the oven, this prevents it sagging and cracking too much as it cools. (It will sag and often does crack – this is not unusual).
Once the cake is cool you can take it out of the tin. I use a tin can and put the cake tin on this and slide the side of the cake tin down.
Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar before serving.
This cake tastes best if allowed to get cold, so make it the day before it is needed.
Variations
You can make endless variations on this basic recipe by adding raisins, mixed peel, fresh raspberries and so on or adding a drizzle of melted dark chocolate on the top when it has cooled.
In Poland one type of cheesecake is described as Vienneseand another as fromKraków. The Viennese one has sultanas or raisins and orange peel in the cheese mixture and sometimes some chocolate on top, whilst the one from Kraków is traditionally baked in a square or rectangular shape and has a lattice of pastry over the top and will also have sultanas or raisins in the cheese mixture.
Cheesecake Version 2
I cannot quite remember the origin of this version, I think my mother got it either from one of her friends or from the Polish newspaper. It has soured cream as one of the ingredients but no butter. It uses all the egg whites which are stiffly beaten causing this cake to have a lighter texture and it rises more but does sink down again as it cools.
The instructions are the same as the one above for the biscuit base. It is the cheese mixture which is different
Cheese Mixture Ingredients
600g curd cheese or cream cheese (at room temperature)
100g caster sugar
6 eggs separated
120 mls soured cream
grated rind of 2 lemons or 3 drops of vanilla essence
Pre heat the oven to GM4 – 180oC.
In a large bowl beat the yolks and sugar until they are thick and creamy, add the lemon rind (or vanilla essence), soured cream and cheese.
In another large bowl whisk the whites till they are stiff and fold these into the cheese mixture using a metal spoon.
Pour the mixture on top of the biscuit base and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Check after 50 minutes if the top starts to get too brown before the cake is cooked place a piece of foil over the top.
Once the cake is cooked switch of the oven, you can leave the door open slightly and let it cool down in the oven, this prevents it sagging and cracking too much as it cools.
Once the cake is cool you can take it out of the tin. I use a tin can and put the cake tin on this and slide the side of the cake tin down.
Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar before serving.
This cake tastes best if allowed to get cold, so make it the day before it is needed.
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 