Biscuits – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Ciasteczka

This recipe is based on an English recipe 19th century recipe for Rout Biscuits.
A rout is a large gathering or party and was often used to describe a card party.
They are intended to be eaten in one or two bites.
The original recipe was for around four times this amount as the baking was to cater for a large number of people.

INGREDIENTS

225g plain flour
110g butter
90g granulated sugar
110g currants
1 egg – beaten
Grated rind of 1 orange
2-3 tablespoons of brandy

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 220°C
Flour several baking trays.
Rub the butter into the flour.
Stir in the sugar, currants and the orange rind.
Stir in the egg and enough brandy to make a stiff dough.
With your hands make small balls from the dough and place them on the baking sheets.
Flatten then slightly.
They do not spread when cooking so they can be fairly close together.
Bake for 14 – 15 minutes.

Bay Biscuits

I came across this recipe for rich buttery biscuits flavoured with bay leaves, which sounded interesting.
You use dried bay leaves.
I think they are super.

Ingredients

200g plain flour
100g butter
100g granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of water (approx.)
2 dried bay leaves

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180ºC.
Grease some baking trays.
Take a tablespoon of sugar out of the 100g.
Grind with the bay leaves.
*
Rub the butter into the flour to get breadcrumbs.
Mix in the sugar and the bay leaves and sugar.
Slowly add the egg yolks and enough water to make a stiff dough.
Roll out thinly on a floured board.
Cut out circles using a 7.5cm round cutter.
Bake for around 12 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wired rack.

Ciasteczka with currants & peel

Ciasteczka is the nearest Polish word for biscuits. It can describe small soft cakes or crisper style biscuits or cookies.

At home we always spoke about biskwity and it was only when I first went to Poland that I realised this was NOT A POLISH WORD!

The word nearest to descripting English biscuits is herbatniki – these are biscuits to have with a cup of tea (herbata).

These are often petit beurre, morning coffee or rich tea type biscuits – plain thin biscuits.

These ciasteczka are quite a bit richer – variations of these I would have enjoyed cutting out with my mother.

Ingredients

240g plain flour
120 butter
120g granulated sugar
½ teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
50g currants
30g mixed peel
1 egg – beaten
1 tablespoon of milk – optional

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Grease 2 to 3 baking trays.
Rub the butter into the flour till it resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients.
Add enough of the egg to make a soft dough.
You might need some of the milk.
Roll out the dough to 1cm thickness.
Cut out circles using a 7cm circular cutter.
Place on the baking trays.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes till lightly golden.
Leave to cool on a wire baking rack.

Caraway Biscuits

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.

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.

Oats & Cranberry Biscuits

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!

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

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.