Biszkopt – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Tort – Jadwiga

I remember my mother making this as a no-bake tort using sponge fingers.

She called it tort Jadwiga.

I have not been able to find a recipe for this other than in my notes and now I wonder whether she called it after me!

Partly because I did not have any sponge fingers and partly because I wanted to make a round cake – I decided to make this by baking two round fat free sponges.

Three are 4 parts to the ingredients list:

Fat free sponges – I used a quick English style version
Juice of a large orange
Rum & Almond butter icing
Toasted flaked almonds to decorate.

Ingredients -Fat Free sponge

4 eggs
150g caster sugar
150g self raising flour

Method – Fat Free sponge

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Grease and line the base of two 18cm diameter baking tins.
In a bowl whisk the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and creamy.
Gently fold in the flour.
Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Ingredients – Butter Cream

110g unsalted butter
50g ground almonds
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of rum
300g icing sugar (approx)

Method – Butter Cream

Cream the butter with around half of the icing sugar.
Add the egg yolks and cream again till fluffy.
Add the ground almonds and the rum and whisk again.
Start adding the rest of the icing sugar until you have a thick butter cream.

Assembling the tort

Prick the top of each sponge with a skewer.
Place one of the sponges on the cake stand or plate you are going to use.
Using a spoon pour half the orange juice over the base of the tort.
Put a layer of the butter cream over the base.
Put the second cake on top and gently pour the rest of the orange juice over it.
Using a small spatula cover the top and sides with the rest of the butter cream.
Scatter the almond flakes over the edge of the top and around the sides of the tort.

Tea set by Royal Standard – Lyndale from the 1950s

Egg Cookies

Eierkoeken – Egg Cookies – are very popular in The Netherlands – their recent revival was caused I heard by Sonja Bakker – a celebrity cook.

Koekje is a small cake and the origin of the word cookie.

They are sold in bakers and supermarkets in packets of five or six and even up to ten.

They are soft little cakes rather like English sponge drops.

The mixture is a fat free sponge similar to Polish biszkopt.

They are so easy to make, especially if you have an electric hand whisk.

This two egg recipe makes six.

Ingredients

2 eggs
90g caster sugar
120g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM 5 190°C.
Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper.
Mix the flour and baking powder together.
Whisk the eggs and sugar till they are white and fluffy.
Fold in the flour.
Place 6 circles of mixture on the baking tray.
Bake for around 15 minutes till golden – not much longer as they will be harder – they need to be soft.

Served on Lavender plates by Jet for Ter Steege in The Netherlands

Variation

Add the grated rind of a lemon to the egg and sugar mixture – a subtle addition to the flavour.

Leśny mech – Forest moss

A Polish Heritage Day was held in the Leeds Polish Centre on the first Saturday after 3rd May in 2017 & 2018.

The 3rd will take place on Saturday, 4 May 2019.

May 3rd is Polish Constitution Day – a National Holiday in Poland to celebrate – Konstytucja 3 maja 1791.

This was the first written constitution in Europe and the second in the World with the American constitution in 1789 being the first. It was very progressive for its time.

There was a hugh table with Polish cakes for sale – I contributed the iced poppy seed cake – makowiec on a glass stand in the middle of the photograph.

One of the ladies brought a cake I had never seen before which she told me was called Leśny mech – which means Forest Moss and it looked amazing as it was bright green!

Others certainly knew this cake and it very quickly disappeared!

I was amazed to find that the cake is made with spinach!

I have tried to find the origins of the cake as it is certainly not one my mother ever mentionned – all that I have found is that it is based on a Turkish cake – called Ispanakli Kek (Spinach Cake).

Short History of Spinach

Spinacia oleracea is spinach & the plant originated in Persia (modern Iran), ispanakh in Persian & ispanak in Turkish and szpinak in Polish.

Spinach was found in China by the early years of AD, where it is called Persian vegetable.

There are records of spinach in Spain by the 12th century.

Spinach came to England in the 14th century and was popular because it grew in the spring and helped to break the monotony of the Lenten diet.

Catherine de Medici who was from Florence in the 16th century married into the French royal family. She loved spinach and the term which is used till this day – à la Florentine, which is used to signify a dish with spinach, was coined in her honour.

Leśny mech

Forest Moss – this cake with its amazing colours is meant to look like the forest floor with red berries growing.

I made this cake with 250g of baby leaf spinach which gives a light green colour. I have read that if you use full leaf older spinach this gives a darker colour and has more flavour – I have not tried this yet.

I also know that you can use frozen spinach -400g of frozen – squeezed out and patted dry – but I have not tried this.

I used frozen raspberries for the berries – when it is later in the year I will use fresh raspberries or alpine strawberries from the garden or whinberries(bilberries) from the woods. Many people use pomegranate seeds when making this in the winter months.

Ingredients

250g baby leaf spinach
240g of granulated sugar
4 eggs
185 ml sunflower oil (3/4 of a 250ml cup)
400g plain flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.

Grease and line the bottom of a loose-bottomed (or spring formed) cake tin – 26cm in diameter.

Use a mini-chopper/blender to whizz up the spinach – most likely in batches to get it all done.
Mix the flour and baking powder together.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence into a large bowl and use an electric whisk to whisk them together for 4 to 6 minutes till it is pale and fluffy.
Gently stir in the spinach.
Fold in the flour mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake on a lower shelf of the oven for 40 – 50 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin.

Lightly shave off any golden brown edges of the cake with a sharp knfe or fine grater.
Cut off the top third of the cake and crumble it by hand into a bowl.

Place the bottom piece of the cake onto the serving plate or cake stand.

Optional

A sweet poncz (sweet punch for moistening the cake) can be used on the bottom layer. You can make one from 60ml of cold weak black tea, the juice of 1 lemon and 1 – 2 tablespoons of icing sugar. Mix the ingredients together and use a pastry brush to spread it on the cake.

Now add a white filling!

Some recipes use whipped double cream, sweetened with icing sugar and set with gelatine. Other recipes make a filling with mascarpone.

I used my own yoghurt cheese – you can use cream cheese.

Filling Ingredients

Approximate amounts

500g yoghurt cheese
2 tablespoons of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence or fine grated rind of a lemon
optional – a couple of tablespoons of soured cream – depending on the cheese and how soft you want the filling

Method

Mix the ingredients together – adjusting the sweetness and consistency to taste.

Assembling the cake.

Place bottom layer on a plate or cake stand.
Brush on the poncz – optional
Spread on the white filling
Sprinkle the cake crumbs over the top of the cake to cover filling
scatter red berries over the top (do this later if not serving straight away)

To decorate – red colours – raspberries, whinberries (bilberries) alpine strawberries, pomegranate seeds

Making this cake gave me a chance to use the beautiful Lead Crystal Cake Stand, which was a present from my cousin in Lanchester. It was just right for this large cake.

Made by Nachtmann in Germany – Tortenplatte (tort/gateau plate/ stand) – style name – Venus.

Plates used are La Prune by Jet for Ter Steege in The Netherlands.

Cotton napkin with a design of rhubarb was bought from the Hepworth Gallery shop in Wakefield (Sadly – No longer in stock – as I wanted to buy some more!).

Biszkopt -Sponge Cake

Biszkopt is a fat free sponge cake which means it does not have any butter, margarine or oil in it – just eggs, sugar & flour.

The word originates from the old Italian biscotto & Medieval Latin bis coctus – which means twice baked – though why I do not understand as this sponge is only baked once!

The English word biscuit also has this origin.

This sponge is used to make tort – layer cake 0r gateaux – however as these are usually such large cakes – I have used it for another popular cake in Poland – rolada – which is a roulade – often called a Swiss roll – though I have not been able to find the reason for this Swiss connection.