Jam – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Rogaliki – Filled

Rogaliki – Crescent Rolls

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.

I have two earlier post:

Bułeczki – bread ro lls

Here I made a bread roll version of rogaliki.

Kołaczyki – little wheels

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.
Heat gently and stir.
Cook until you have a soft pulp.

….. and of course you can try many more ……

Placek

Placek is a low flat cake and can be round or rectangular in shape.

I made two using each of the recipes in ciasto półkruche – a type of shortcrust pastry – with jam fillings and both turned out well.

Placek with jam

Grease and line a 32 x 22 tin

Pre-heat the oven GM5 – 190°C

Use half the dough and roll it out to fit the tin.

Spread the dough with jam – you will need around a jar.

Cover the top with the rest of the dough rolled out.

Bake for around 30 minutes.

Dust with icing sugar as soon as you take it out of the oven and leave to cool.

Placek with Blackcurrant Jam

Served on – Colclough – Enchantment- 1950 – 1960s

Placek with Sour Cherry Jam

Served on – Duchess – Bramble Rose – 1960s

Mazurek – With Kajmak

Mazurek is the name of a Polish cake which often uses a type of pastry similar to shortcrust or shortcake. It is usually made in a square or rectangular shape.

Bake a mazurek base using one of the ciasto kruche – pastry recipes and allow it to cool.

Fill the hollow with kajmak.

Mazurek with kajmak

mazurek with kajmak

You can decorate the top with nuts and / or dried fruit – this gives you an opportunity to be creative with the decorations.

Alleluja is often written on top at Easter time.

Here served on tea plates by Colclough – Stardust 1950s – 1960s

Mazurek with kajmak and jam

As a contrast to the sweetness of the kajmak you can use a tart jam such blackcurrant or sour cherry jam.

Bake a mazurek base and allow it to cool.

Cover the hollow created with a thin layer of jam.

Blackcurrant jam was used here.

Cover the jam with a layer of kajmak.

Decorate the top of the mazurek with nuts or dried fruits.

Biszkopt – Sponge Cake using Potato Flour

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

This recipe in my Polish cookery book is described as oszczędna which means economical and compared with many of the recipes which use 4 or more eggs it is.

I used this recipe to make a cake which is very popular in Poland – rolada which is a roulade or roll.

I was really pleased with this recipe & think I will continue to use this the most.