Ciasto pȯłfrancuskie translates as half or semi French pastry.
Now this does not really mean anything to me!
I am going to start this post with a little introduction to two similarly named pastries frequently used in Polish cooking.
Ciasto francuskie – translates as French pastry
Ciasto pȯłfrancuskie – translates as half or semi French pastry.
They are both buttery, unsweetened pastry.
French pastry is puff pastry.
Now I do not intend to write about puff pastry as it is something I am really not inclined to make as it is so time consuming and you can buy ready made version both chilled andfrozen which are okay.
Maybe in several years when short of topics I might give it a go!
I am going to write about ciasto pȯłfrancuskie. I have seen this described as rough puff pastry – but it is not – rough puff is slightly easier and quicker than puff pastry but once again I am not going to write about this.
I have seen many different recipes for this half-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 1 – with soured cream
Ingredients
300g plain flour
225g butter
1 egg
2 yolks
4 tablespoons of soured cream
Method
This dough should be left for around 12 hours in a cool place before using therefore I usually make this in the evening for the next morning.
Put the flour into a large bowl.
Add the butter and with a knife chop it up roughly.
Then with your finger tips rub the butter in until you have fine breadcrumbs.
Beat the egg and yolks together.
Stir in the egg and some of the soured cream.
Bring the dough together, adding as much soured cream as is needed to bring the dough together.
Shape the dough into a ball and leave covered in the bowl in a cool place for around 12 hours.
*** After 12 Hours ***
Preheat the oven to GM7 – 220ºC
Grease several baking sheets.
Divide the dough into 4 and work with each quarter at a time, leaving the rest in a cool place .
Roll the dough out thinly
The dough is cut into shapes and a teaspoon of filling added and the pastry sealed as appropriate.
Traditional shapes
Squares filled and folded into triangles and sealed
Triangles filled and rolled up and formed into crescents
Circles filled and folded over into semi-circles and sealed.
I found that the circles using a 7cm cutter were the easiest to handle and gave the best filling to to pastry ratio and am sticking to this size and shape.
Filling ideas
Jam – I found this often escapes from the pastry – lots of care is needed.
Mincemeat – This English fruit mix would be recognised in Poland as bakalie -Balkan mix.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes till golden brown
Dust with icing sugar whilst still warm.
Poppy Seed Filling
I make this amount of poppy seed filling and then divide it into 4 or 5 small batches and freeze them for later use.
Ingredients
200g poppy seeds
500ml milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
50g ground almonds
120 ml runny honey & 1 tablespoon
25g butter
1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon of vanilla essence
optional 1 teaspoon of rum
Method
Put the poppy seeds and milk into a saucepan and simmer then together for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop any sticking or burning. The aim is to cook the seeds and adsorb as much of the milk as possible. You need to watch this carefully and keep adjusting the heat to stop the mixture burning.
Using a fine sieve, strain the poppy seeds from the liquid – leave this for a while to remove as much liquid as possible.
The poppy seeds need to be crushed, I use a hand held blender for about 5 minutes which I find is the easiest way but you can use a pestle and mortar or a mincer.
Once crushed, place the poppy seeds back into a saucepan and add the ground almonds, the vanilla essence and the 120ml of honey and mix thoroughly.
Add the butter to the mixture and simmer gently for about 5 minutes and then leave this mixture to cool completely and then add the rum.
Whisk the 1 tablespoon of honey with the egg yolk until this is thick and creamy and then add this to the mixture.
Rogaliki means little horns and these rolls are made into a crescent shape which look like horns.
This amount of dough makes 16 rolls and you will need 2 greased baking sheets.
Many Polish yeast recipes make a rozczyn – a leaven in the form of a batter or starter to begin with – I have liked using this method very much.
Older Polish recipes use fresh yeast. I tend to use dried yeast and had very good results. I like using the little measured out sealed packets of dried yeast, which are sufficient for up to 500g of flour and are equivalent to 25g of fresh yeast.
Here I made a Basic sweet yeast dough – version 2.
Now this could be Basic sweet yeast dough version 3 – I keep refining the recipe and this now has to be the very best yet!
Ingredients
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
Method
Mix the yeast and sugar into the hand hot milk.
Put the 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.
*
Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C
Grease two baking sheets.
*
Knead the risen dough lightly for a few minutes.
Divide the dough into two.
Roll the dough out to make a circle/oval.
With a knife or pizza cutter divide the dough into 8 (nearly) triangles.
Place a teaspoon of filling at the fat end.
Roll up the triangle from the fat end to get the horn shape.
You can curve it slightly.
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 14 – 15 minutes.
*
Leave to cool slightly and then dust with icing sugar.
The tiered cake stand is by Laura Ashley & the tea plates are Las Palmas by Aynsley from the 1960s.
Option
You can use half plain flour & half spelt flour – this also gives good results.
Fillings
You can use a whole range of fillings with the easiest to prepare being jam (though sometimes this is the hardest to keep in the pastry!). Traditional Poppy seed mix and sweet cheese mix as in many of my previous posts are often used.
Here are just a few new ones ….
Prune Filling
Make some very strong Earl Grey tea.
Chop up around 200g of pitted prunes.
Place the prunes into a bowl and cover with the warm tea.
Leave for a few hours to plump up the prunes.
Add the grated rind of a lemon.
Simmer the prunes gently.
Keep stirring & heating to drive off the any liquid – you want a thick pulp.
Leave to go cold completely before using.
Walnut Filling
Grind 100g of chopped walnuts.
Add the nuts to around 3 tablespoons of apricot jam.
Mix well together.
Ground Almond Filling
100g of ground almond.
Add the nuts to around 3 tablespoons of apricot jam.
Mix well together
Date Filling
Chop 200g of dried dates.
Place in a small saucepan and cover with water – you can add a little lemon juice as well.
Several years ago I got an Austrian cookery book which has many similar recipes to Polish ones and I made some babeczki or buleczki – little cakes, with a yeast pastry & poppy seed filling for Wigilia from it.
I thought I would have another go at these but with some changes.
The poppy seed filling I have changed quite a bit and it is easier than my traditional one. The recipe for the dough I have changed slightly and the shaping method quite a lot.
Poppy Seed Filling
Ingredients
180ml of milk (full fat or semi)
Around 100ml of runny honey (extra may be needed)
120g of poppy seeds *
50g of raisins
Strong Earl Grey tea
Grated zest of 1 lemon
*
* You can grind the poppy seeds – I used a little electric grinder.
Method
Make some strong Earl Grey tea.
Put the raisins in a small bowl and cover them with the hot tea and leave till they go cold.
Into a small saucepan put the poppy seeds and the milk.
Bring to the boil then lower the heat.
Simmer gently for around 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
Take care not to let the mixture burn.
Add the honey and continue heating and stirring.
Drain the raisins and add them to the mixture and mix them in.
Keep stirring and try and drive off any liquid left.
Taste for sweetness – you may want to add more honey.
Leave to go completely cold before using.
Add the grated lemon rind.
*
If this is too much filling – you can always freeze some.
Yeast Dough
Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon of dried yeast
4-5 tablespoons of milk (full fat or semi)
250g of strong flour
Pinch of salt
120g of butter
20g of caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg white for glazing (I always use just egg white now – it does not burn as easily as whole egg)
Method
Warm 3-4 tablespoons of the milk to hand heat.
Add the yeast and leave it to froth up.
Place the flour into a large bowl and add the salt.
Cut in the butter with a knife and then make breadcrumbs with your fingers.
Stir in the sugar.
Make a well in the centre.
Add the egg yolk and the yeast mixture.
Use a knife at first to bring the dough together.
You may need some of the extra milk.
Use your fingers to gather all the ingredients into a ball.
Knead the dough for around 5 minutes till you have a smooth dough.
Leave the dough to rest for at least 45 minutes – covered with a tea cloth.
******
Grease and line several baking trays.
Cut the dough into 3 or 4 portions.
Roll the dough out thinly.
Use a 6cm cutter to cut out circles.
Place a small teaspoon of filling on half of the circles.
Place a second pastry circle on top.
Use a pastry fork to crimp the edges together making sure they are sealed.
Glaze with beaten egg white.
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C (quite low for a yeast pastry!).
Bake for 12-13 minutes.
Dust with icing sugar whilst still warm.
Leave to cool.
You could drizzle with runny lemon icing instead.
Served here on Duchess – tea plates – Poppies from the 1960s.
Caraway is such a popular herb/spice in Poland and is used in breads, meat & vegetable dishes. So it is quite surprising that it is not used in cakes or biscuits there.
Drawing from Wikipeadia
I decided to try out some biscuits with caraway seeds. I found that the biscuts were better if not too sweet.
These are the results – they are semi-sweet and are really delicious with cheese.
Caraway Seeds
Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
100g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg – beaten
6 teaspoons of caraway seeds
Grated rind of a lemon
1 – 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Method
Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C
Grease 2 or 3 baking sheets.
Rub the fat into the flour until it is like fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar, caraway and lemon rind.
Mix in the egg and lemon juice to form a soft dough.
Roll out the dough on a floured board.
Cut out circle using a 7.5cm diameter, fluted cutter.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes till lightly browned (take care not to burn them).
Leave them to cool on the tray and then move them off on to a cooling rack.
Served on Las Palmas by Aynsley, from the 1960s, with some soft Brie.
Variation
Use 75g of caster sugar instead of the 50g to make a slighly sweeter biscuit which is delicious just nibbled on its own with tea or coffee.
These biscuits are not at all Polish in origin – I like to think of them as a Scottish & Polish Alliance!
Cranberries & Lingonberries
Cranberries and lingonberries grow wild in acidic bogs around many forests in Poland and especially in the countryside where my father lived, in what was North East Poland before the war.
Cranberries & Lingonberries belong to the genus Vaccinium and the plants are small, low growing, evergreen shrubs.
Cranberries in central and northern Europe are Vaccinium oxycoccos , whilst Vaccinium microcarpum or Vaccinium macrocarpon are to be found in the USA.
Lingonberries are Vaccinium vitis-idaea .
The berries of the cranberry are larger and oval.
The berries of the lingonberry are round and much smaller than the cranberry, about a third or quarter of the size.
Image of lingonberries taken from Wikipedia
The Polish for cranberry is żurawina, the word comes from żuraw which means a crane – so the same as the English word, as parts of the plant reminded people of the bird.
The Polish for lingonberry is borówka or borowina, both these names contain the part bor which means (from) the forest.
Notes
1 -There are dozens of different names in English for lingonberry which in fact comes from the Swedish name.
2- The commercially grown dried cranberries used in this recipe were grown in the USA.
Oats
Oats (Avena sativa) – owies in Polish, are grown in Poland but for this recipe I have considered them Scottish!
Rolled Oats
Royal Scottish – Polish Alliance!
The mother of Bonnie Prince Charlie(1720-1788) was – Maria Klementyna Sobieska(1702-1735) – she was the granddaughter of the Polish King Jan III Sobieski(1629-1696) and she married James Stuart(1688-1766), The Pretender.
In March 2016, The Scotsman printed an article titled
Scotland and Poland a 500 year relationship.
Some of the facts & figures below are taken from this.
More Polish nationals now live in Scotland than any other group from outside the UK and the two countries share a rich history.
The links were forged back in the late 1400s when trade agreements were established between Aberdeen and the old Baltic seaport of Gdańsk.
Under King Stefan Batory(1533-1586), Scottish merchants became suppliers to the royal court in Kraków and grain and timber from Poland was traded with Scotland.
Many Scots moved to Poland to seize new business opportunities and buried in St John’s Archcathedral in Warsaw is Alexander Chalmers (written as Czamer) , from Dyce near Aberdeen, a judge and four times mayor of Warsaw between 1691 and 1703.
There are many surnames in Poland which are Scottish in origin such as: Machlejd(MacLeod), Makolroys(MacElroy) and Szynklers(Sinclaire).
Around 38,000 Polish soldiers were stationed in Scotland after the fall of Poland in WW2 and many of those who were unable to return to their homeland after the end of the war stayed and it is estimated that around 2,500 Polish-Scottish marriages took place around this period.
There was a wave of immigration in the 1980s with the declaration of Martial Law in Poland and then again after 2004 when Poland joined the European Union.
One of the most popular brands of tea sold in Poland is Yellow label which was created by Sir Thomas Lipton( 1848-1931) who was from Glasgow, Scotland.
Since 1995 Krakòw has been twinned with Edinburgh.
Ingredients
100g butter or block margarine
100g granulated sugar
5ml of golden syrup
5ml of boiling water
100g of self raising flour
100g of rolled oats
50g of dried cranberries
Dried cranberries
Method
Pre-heat the oven to GM 5 – 190°C.
Grease at least 2 baking trays – (you will have to take the biscuits off when they are cooked and re-grease these tins.)
Place the butter or margarine in a pan with the granulated sugar and heat slowly so that the butter is melted.
Add the teaspoon of golden syrup and then the teaspoon of boiling water and mix well together.
Take the pan off the heat, add the flour and oats and mix this together.
Then mix in the cranberries.
Using your hands, make small balls and place them on the trays, leaving space around them as they will spread.
Place in the oven and bake for around 8 – 10 minutes, watch them carefully as they suddenly seem to catch & burn.
I often look at them half way through and flatten them with a spatula.
Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool a little before you use a spatula to take them of the trays and leave them to fully cool on a wire cooling rack.
Plate is by Royal Grafton – no pattern name – made in England
These cookies were made for me by my aunt on my visit to America, many years ago.
She said that she often made these for Christmas. I have adjusted the recipe to weights rather than cups as I find that easier. Also below I have the ingredients for just half the original amount which will make around 12 largish cookies … so you can try them out .
Ingredients
110g butter
2 and 1/2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/2 tablespoon of water
130g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
120g chopped pecans (or you can use walnuts)
Icing sugar for finishing.
Method
Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 160ºC
Grease 2 baking sheets.
Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and water together.
Add the flour and the salt.
Stir in the chopped pecans.
Take amounts of the mixture larger than a walnut and press this together in your hands – it will stick together easily – shape it into a crescent.
Place them on a greased baking sheet.
Bake for around 25 minutes.
Let them cool for a few minutes and then dredge or roll them in icing sugar.
Served on a tea plate by Royal Grafton – Woodside – 1950s
Whilst I have been writing this post I mentioned it in an email to my cousin who wrote
“Do you know we still use that recipe particularly at Christmas but I can eat them any time. I like them as crescents but also as thumbprint style with a dab of perhaps raspberry, strawberry or apricot preserves–and then powdered sugar sifted on top.”
and also
“As you know, the recipe calls for butter and my feeling is, anything is better with butter! My best friend gave me a little kitchen plaque that says, “I believe in the unparalleled power of butter!”
So I tried these out using raspberry jam – delicious!
