Ribes uva cripa –agrest in Polish – gooseberries are related to black and red currants.
Gooseberries are the first soft fruits of the summer. They grow well in cooler climates. These gooseberries were picked the evening before this placek was made.
This placek – flat-cake has the lovely contrast of the sweet cake against the tart fruit.
Ingredients
400-450g of gooseberries
250g butter
200g icing sugar
3 eggs
360g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablespoons of yoghurt
*
Icing sugar to dust
Method
Pre-heat oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Grease and use one sheet of greaseproof to line two sides and base of a 32 x 22cm baking tin.
I know I said this last year but I still cannot believe it! I posted my first post five years ago today – 4 July 2015. Time has gone so quickly but there is still much more to write about.
This will be post number 280 and there have been visitors from more than 130 countries.
Suddenly in the garden there were loads of alpine strawberries – time to use them in a recipe!
I had seen lots of cakes in Poland with a layer of fruits and jelly on top and decided now was the time to start trying some out.
Torcik – this is a word that I have just learnt.
There does not seem to be an exact English translation!
I have seen the terms icebox cake or no bake cake, which convey some of the ideas.
Tort is a layer cake, a gateaux and the -cik ending usually denotes a diminutive – something small.
A torcik is a dessert type cake which is not baked.
A torcik can be assembled cold from previously baked parts such as meringue circles, crushed biscuits or sponge fingers.
It usually has a mousse or custard layer or one which has been set with gelatine.
I wrote a post on Caraway Seed Cake in March 2018 and in doing so found that although caraway is such a popular herb/spice in Poland and used in breads, meat & vegetable dishes, it is quite surprising that it is not used in cakes.
I looked in all my recipe books and did not find any use of caraway in Polish cakes.
Caraway – Image from Wikapedia
Caraway Seeds
Caraway seed cake seem to be a quintessential British cake and recently whilst doing some research into Victorian cooking in the north of England I came across this delicious version.
As I live a short walk away from a house that Charlotte Brontë used to visit, I was very interested to find that seed cake is mentioned in her novel Jane Eyre (1847)
“And then Miss Temple invited Jane and her new friend Helen into her parlour for tea and I began to warm up. The kindly teacher unwrapped before their eager eyes a parcel containing ‘a good-sized seed-cake’.
‘I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you,’ said she, ‘but as there is so little toast, you must have it now,’ and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.
We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.”
This recipe has been adapted from –
Mrs Somerville’s Cookery and Domestic Economy, published in 1862 and found in – The Victorian Kitchen by Jennifer Davies BBC 1989 TV Series.
The original recipe used 10 eggs! – here the ingredients have been adjusted to 5 eggs.
How large the bowl must have been & how hard the whisking of the whites without an electric whisk.
Ingredients
225g butter
225g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of cornflour
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
50g ground almonds
5 eggs separated
Method
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C.
Use a loose bottomed cake tin – 24cm in diameter.
Grease the tin and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cornflour, ground almonds & caraway seeds.
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the yolks, one at a time creaming the mixture on each addition.
Fold the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.
Whisk the egg whites till firm and stiff.
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth over the top.
Bake for 60 minutes, check after 50 minutes and cover with grease-proof paper if necessary – to prevent burning.
Leave to cool in the tin.
Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion – so this is a good cake to have at the end of a meal.
Royal Albert – Primulette tea set from the 1950s.
Lead Crystal cake stand – Tortenplatte – Venus by Nachtmann(Germany).
The base of this is made made from the recipe for Ciasto kruche 1 – using raw egg yolks found in a previous post – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche.
However as the topping is sweet, I used less sugar in the pastry – you might be able to omit all the sugar – I have not tried this.
Ingredients – Base
300g plain flour
200g butter – chilled
50g icing sugar
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
Method – Base
Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
Add the icing sugar and mix this together.
Add the yolks and gently mix them in
Bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
Wrap the dough in grease proof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to GM 6 – 200°C.
Grease and line a 33 x 23 cm baking tin – use one long piece for sides and base – helps to take it out.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
Press the dough into the tin – filling it up all the sides.
Prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
Leave to cool.
Ingredients – Meringue
4 egg whites
200g granulated sugar
2 sponge fingers – crushed
*
300g seedless green grapes
Method – Meringue
Preheat the oven to GM 2 -150°C.
Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
Whisk till stiff.
Add granulated sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Fold in the crushed sponge fingers.
*
Place 1/3 of the meringue over the cake base.
Place the grapes over the meringue.
Cover the grapes with the rest of the meringue
Put into the oven for 50 – 60 minutes.
Leave to cool completely in the tin.
Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.
Served here on Royal Doulton – Sonnet 1971-1998
* Note – I tried this with red grapes and found that the skins were too thick and the cake did not come out well – you need thin skinned small seedless green grapes
This recipe is from Pani Stasia *,she and my mother were at school together. She baked wonderful cakes and everyone loved this soft cake with seedless green grapes on the top within a mound of lovely meringue.
Many years ago I jotted down the recipe and now I found it amongst my many hand written recipes.
I obviously had not written it down very well and in my first attempt, although the topping part worked very well , the bottom cake part was not as I remembered it. Part of the problem was some of the measurements were in spoons and I think my conversions did not work out that well. Also I remember that seedless grapes used to be very small, now they seem to be much bigger.
My next attempt was a disaster! I tried cutting the grapes in half (bad idea) and I adjusted the base ingredients – the base did not cook well at all this time – a big gloopy mess – straight to birds.
One of a pair of wood pigeons that come into the garden looking for cast off cake!
I decided to bake the cake base separately and add the topping later – I had a couple of goes and found that a Victoria sponge using two eggs was the best.
Note
This method means you have 4 egg yolks left over (you can use these in many other recipe). The original recipe used the yolks in the base and the whites in the topping – sadly I could not recreate this.
Cake Ingredients
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Method
Grease a 22cm loose bottomed tall sided tin.
Preheat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy
Add the eggs and lemon rind and whisk again.
Fold in the plain flour.
Place the mixture in the tin and bake for around 25 minutes.
Leave to go cold before adding the topping.
Topping Ingredients
225g seedless green grapes
*
4 egg whites
200g granulated sugar
2 sponge fingers – crushed
Method
Preheat the oven to GM2 – 150°C.
Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff.
Add the sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Mix in the crushed sponge fingers
Put half of the meringue mixture on top of the cake base.
Place the grapes in a layer on top of the meringue.
Put the rest of the meringue mixture on top of the grapes and smooth it down.
Bake for 1 hour – if not dry enough – lower oven to GM1- 140°C and leave for another 30 minutes.
Switch off the oven and leave cake in the oven.
Once oven is cold take out the cake and leave to cool in the tin.
Do not try to take it out of the tin until it is totally cold.
Queen Anne tea plates & Portmeirion – Crazy Daisy cake forks – Sophie Conran’s design from 2009.
Coffee set and plates – Greenway by Hostess Tableware – design by John Russell, 1960 – 1979.
*
Pani translates as Madam, Lady or Mrs and is a polite form of address – it is like donna in Italian or saying Miss Mary in the Southern States of America.
Stasia is the shortened form of the Polish name Stanisława. (The feminine form of Stanisław)
St Stanisław is the patron saint of Kraków & Poland, he was a martyr, murdered by the Polish king Bolesław II the Bold in 1079 – a story which has much in common with St Thomas à Beckett and the English king Henry II in 1170.
Sweet cream, either poured or whipped is not used in traditional Polish cooking.
Soured cream with the addition of a little icing sugar is often used to drizzle over sweet dishes such as pierogi with fruit fillings or with Polish style pancakes.
I have previously made a super beetroot & chocolate cake and topping this with a lemon butter icing.
This time I just wanted a lighter pouring sauce to go with the cake.
Ingredients
100g of yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
100g of icing sugar
Grated rind of 2 lemons
Juice from 1 lemon.
Method
Mix all the ingredients together to give a smooth sauce.
The contrast between the sauce and the rich cake is super.
Served on Royal Doulton – Counterpoint tea plates – 1973 – 1987
I have made it several times since as a larger version when I have had lots of my own yoghurt cheese. For this version I used Morello cherries from a jar.
You can use twaróg, curd cheese, cream cheese or yoghurt cheese, it is a bit different from my usual Polish baked cheesecake. as it does not have a cake/biscuit type base. Because of this you do need a one piece cake liner for your loose bottomed tin.
Ingredients
200g Butter
200g Caster sugar
4 eggs separated
3 tablespoons of potato flour or cornflour
150g Ground almonds
400 – 450g Twaróg , Curd cheese or Yoghurt Cheese
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
Morello cherries from a 460g net weight jar
Optional Topping
Juice from the cherries
1 tablespoon of potato or cornflour to thicken the juice.
Method
Line a 22cm diameter loose bottomed cake tin with a bought paper cake liner.
Preheat the oven to GM5 190°C
Drain the cherries from the juice – keep the juice for the topping.
Cream the butter and sugar until they are soft and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks one by one until you have a smooth mixture.
Add the vanilla essence and the salt and mix in.
Add the cornflour, ground almonds and the yoghurt cheese and mix together thoroughly.
Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff.
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
Put the cake mixture into the lined tin.
Place around half the cherries on top of the mixture.
Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
Turn the oven down to GM2 – 150°C and bake for around another 30 minutes.
Switch off the oven but leave the cake in there until it is cool.
Keep the cake in the refrigerator but bring to room temperature for serving.
Dust with icing sugar
***
Make a runny sauce from the juice heated with a tablespoon of potato flour.
Serve portions with a few cherries on the side and some of the sauce poured on or next to it.
Served here on tea plates from a coffee service by Midwinter – Queensbury from the 1970s.
Three stages all take a bit of time but well worth the effort. It is delicious with a lovely balance of sweetness against the tart rhubarb.
Short pastry base
The base of is made with a smaller amount of the recipe for Ciasto kruche 1 – using raw egg yolks found in a previous post – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche.
I could see out of my kitchen window that the rhubarb was beginning to grow. As I still had one batch left frozen from last summer I to decided to use that up before the new crop and in time for you to try it.
Ingredients – base
200g plain flour
100g butter – chilled
70g icing sugar
2 egg yokes
pinch of salt
Method – base
Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
Add the icing sugar and mix this together.
Add the yolks and gently mix this in, then and bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to GM 6 – 200°C.
Grease and line a 23 x 26 cm baking tin.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
Press the dough into the tin – filling it up all the sides.
Prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
Leave to cool.
Ingredients – Rhubarb filling
400g (approx) of rhubarb
150g of granulated sugar (more may be needed)
25g of butter
3 egg yolks
2-3 tablespoons of potato or corn flour
Method – rhubarb filling
This needs to be made ahead of time as it must be cold.
Pre-heat the oven to GM2
Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and place in a baking dish
Add sugar.
Bake in the oven for around 1 hour – till soft.
Check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary – but not too sweet.
Leave to cool a little.
*
I used cooked rhubarb that I had frozen from last year.
*
Wizz the rhubarb up with a blender or chopper to get a purée.
Place this in a saucepan.
Heat slowly.
Mix the yolks with the potato or cornflour and add this to the rhubarb and heat till it thickens.
Add the butter and mix in.
Leave to go cold before use.
A few thoughts on the origin & history of meringues:
Meringue – a French word.
Swiss village of Meiringen.
Improved by Italian chef Gasparini.
From Polish word – marzynka – a day dream?
Made by the chef for the exiled king of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński (1677 – 1766), Duke of Lorraine (1737 -1766).
His daughter, Maria, was married to Louis XV of France and she introduced them to the court.
In Polish – beza(sing)) bezy(pl) – link to – buzi – kiss?
French meringue – whisk eggs till stiff – add sugar and whisk again.
Italian meringue – uses sugar syrup.
Swiss meringue – sugar and whites heated over a water bath.
Addition of cornflour – strengthens the egg white.
Meringue
I used 4 egg whites & 200g icing sugar.
Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
Whisk till stiff.
Add icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Preheat the oven to GM 1 -140°C.
Cover the base with the rhubarb filling and level it out.
Cover the rhubarb with the meringue and level it out
Put back into the oven for 45 to 60 minutes.
Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.
Served here on Royal Doulton – Counterpoint tea plates 1973 – 1987.
There are two similarly named pastries in Polish cookery:
Ciasto francuskie – translates as French pastry – this is puff pastry.
Ciasto pȯłfrancuskie – translates as half or semi French pastry.
I have seen ciasto pȯłfrancuskie described as rough puff pastry – but it is not – rough puff is a slightly easier and quicker version of puff pastry.
I have seen many different recipes for this semi-French pastry and they fall into three broad categories:
ciasto pȯłfrancuskie – śmietanowe – dough made with some soured cream.
ciasto pȯłfrancuskie – serowe – dough made with twaróg – curd cheese.
ciasto pȯłfrancuskie – drożdźowe – dough made with yeast.
Ciasto pȯłfrancuskie 3 – with yeast
This is very much like the pastry used to make real French croissants, which are more yeast based than the crumbly puff pastry type you get here in England.
Note – This recipe takes most of the day with frequent bits of activity and longer times of rest.
There are two parts to this pastry:
The first is to make a yeast pastry and I have used the rogaliki (little horns) recipe which I posted recently for this.
The second is to use lots of butter and to layer up the pastry as you would do for puff pastry.
I have seen lots of different methods for adding the butter and doing the layering as well as how cold the butter should be and how long to rest between layering, whether to chill and how often. – I have described one of the shorter ways of doing this.
Ingredients – Yeast Dough
Leaven – Starter
150g plain flour
200ml warm milk
4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 pkt of dried yeast (= 1 tablespoon)
Rest of Ingredients
300g plain flour
100g butter
2 yolks
*
a little more milk might be needed
Egg white to glaze
Icing sugar to dust
*
For layering
Around 180g of butter
Method
Mix the yeast and sugar into the hand hot milk.
Put 150g of flour into a bowl and mix in the milk mixture until it is like double cream.
Cover the bowl and leave it to rise.
*
Rub the butter into the 300g of flour until it is like breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks and the yeast starter.
Mix till you get a soft dough – you might need to add a tablespoon or so of milk – depends on the flour.
Knead the dough till you have a nice smooth ball.
Leave in a bowl, covered, to rise and double in size.
*
Place the butter into a dish and leave at room temperature to soften.
Knead the risen dough lightly for a few minutes.
**
Roll out the dough out thinly into a large rectangle.
Spread a around a sixth of the butter over 2/3rds of the surface.
Fold the dough without the butter over a third of the dough.
Fold the rest of the dough over this – making a rectangle.
Turn the dough by 90°.
Repeat the rolling, butter spreading and folding
Leave to rest for around 10 minutes.
***
Repeat from ** to *** twice.
*
Cover the dough in greaseproof paper and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes or longer if you do not want to use just straight away.
When you want to use the dough take it out of the fridge for 20 minutes
*
Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C
Grease two baking sheets.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle to use.
I made rogaliki but you can do other shapes & use fillings.
*
Cut into eight triangles.
Roll each one up from the large end.
Place them on a baking sheet – as far apart as possible.
Brush the tops with egg white.
Cover loosely and leave for about 15 minutes.
Bake for around 15 minutes.
Leave to cool slightly
You can dust with icing sugar.
Phew! this was a marathon but I wanted to try this to see how it is done.
Keks is the word for a light fruit cake which is baked in a loaf tin or more often in a long narrow rectangular tin.
I am not sure how or when the word keks came into the Polish language but I am certain it comes from the English word “cakes” – however the word keks is singular in Polish and means cake, and the plural is keksy which is cakes.
Keks are make with bakalie, which is usually translated as dried fruits – however it has more varied fruits than the English version of dried grapes (raisins, sultanas, currants) and mixed peel and can include: apricots, dates, figs, prunes and nuts.
Keks – using fruit mincemeat
At Christmas time I make English fruit mincemeat using the recipe from Delia Smith but without the chopped nuts.
If I have any mincemeat left over after the Christmas period I make a fruit loaf which which is very much a keks.
This is my second version of a keks with mincemeat.
Ingredients
150 butter
150g dark brown sugar
Grated zest of an orange
Grated zest of a lemon
3 eggs
450g jar of mincemeat (exact amount is not critical)
175g mixture of sultanas, raisins, currants & mixed peel
50g of chopped walnuts
225g spelt flour
3 level teaspoons of baking powder
Method
Preheat the oven to GM3 – 160ºC
Prepare the long loaf tin by greasing it and lining the long sides using one piece of greaseproof paper.
Lightly cream the butter and sugar.
Add the grated zest of the lemon and the orange.
Beat in the eggs, one by one.
Stir in the mincemeat, the dried fruits and walnuts until it is an even consistency – a wooden spoon is good for this.
Mix the spelt flour with the baking powder.
Stir in the flour mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Bake for around 60 minutes – check after 50 minutes and cover the top if necessary to prevent burning.
Leave to cool in the tin before turning it out.
Served here on hand painted Paragon octagonal tea plates.
