Kruszonka – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Apple Mincemeat Crumble Squares

This is my 525 post – Thank you everyone for reading them.
This is a quicker alternative to making individual little mince pies.
There is a buttery layer of shortcrust pastry at the bottom.
A crumble mixture on the top.
In between a layer of Apple mincemeat.
Or use good quality mincemeat with a cooked cooking apple added but no extra sugar.

Ingredients – Pastry

150g plain flour –
75g butter
1-2 tablespoons of icing sugar (optional)
1 egg yolk
Juice of 1 lemon (and maybe 1 tablespoon of cold water)

Method – Pastry

Rub the butter into the flour to make “breadcrumbs”.
Mix in the icing sugar.
First with a knife and then with your fingertips mix in the yolk & lemon juice (and maybe a tablespoon of cold water.)
You are aiming to get a dough which is not wet.
Rest for about 20 minutes.

Ingredients – Crumble

90g plain flour
45g butter
45g granulated sugar

Method – Crumble

Rub the butter into the flour until you have breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar.

Method – Overall

Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C
Grease and line with 1 piece of baking paper 2 long sides and the base of a 26 x 21 cm tin.
Roll out the pastry into a thin rectangle that fits the base of the tin.
Spread the mincemeat over the pastry.
Sprinkle the crumble mix over the top.
Use a fork to ‘rough up’ the top.
Bake for around 25 – 30 minutes.
*
Cut into squares when cool.

Rhubarb Yeast Buns

Today, 4 July 2021, is the 6th anniversary of my blog.
I still enjoy trying out recipes and writing about them.
I still have many more traditional and modern recipes to do.
Today’s recipe is very Polish – drożdżówki – sweet yeast buns.
The yeast dough I used for onion rolls was very good and I thought I could use it with different toppings.
I found that adding some granulated sugar to the dough was better for sweet toppings.
I have previously made similar buns – see kołaczyki, which means little wheels from the word koła which means wheels.
I like this dough recipe even more than the ones I have used before – this will become the one I will use the most.

Ingredients – Roll

200g & 50g plain flour
150 ml warm milk
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
½ tablespoon of dried yeast
*
¼ teaspoon of salt
60g granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
*
Egg white for brushing – beaten
3 to 4 stalks of rhubarb
3-4 tablespoons of granulated sugar

Method – Rhubarb

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Chop the rhubarb into small pieces.
Place them on a baking tray.
Sprinkle them with sugar.
Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes.
The aim is to part cook them to be soft.
Leave to go cold before using.

Ingredients – Kruszonka

30g plain flour
20g butter
30g granulated sugar

Method – Kruszonka

Rub the butter into the flour to get breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar.

Method

Mix the milk, yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 50g of plain flour.
Leave for 20 minutes.
Put the 200g of plain flour, 60g of sugar, salt, yolks and yeast mixture in a bowl.
Mix together to form a soft dough.
Add a little extra milk if this is too dry.
Knead for 10 minutes – set a timer – till you get a smooth ball.
Cover and leave for 1½ – 2 hours.
Line baking tray with baking paper.
*
Lightly knead the dough for a few minutes.
Divide the dough into 6.
Roll each one to make a ball.
Place the balls on the baking tray and flatten each one.
Cover and leave for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C.
Using finger tips or the base of a tumbler flatten the centre of each roll.
Brush with beaten egg white.
Place around 8 pieces of rhubarb in the centre of each roll.
Sprinkle the kruszonka – crumble mixture over the top of the rhubarb
Bake for 20 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
*
Serve warm or cold.

Optional

Dust with icing sugar.
Drizzle with runny icing.

Szarlotka

Szarlotka is the word my mother used for (apple) crumble.
In some parts of Poland szarlotka is the word used for an apple cake.
I wanted to create a cake that was cross between a cake and a crumble.
I have used half the quantity from my apple cake (jabłecznik) recipe as the base and then used a drier crumble type mixture – called kruszonka in Polish – for the top.
I have already done this for a rhubarb cake, so I have revisted this recipe.
I have adjusted the recipe to use just one type of flour (plain) and one type of sugar (granulated) to make it easier.

Apple Filling

You can use an apple filling with just apples and sugar with the addition of cinnamon.
Sometimes in Poland raisins or sultanas are added to the apples.
As I had some homemade, fruit mincemeat left from last year to use up (made from Delia Smith’s recipe but without nuts) before I made this year’s batch, I added some of this to the apples.

Ingredients

4 to 6 Bramley Apples
Granulated Sugar to taste – keep it slightly tart
A little water
4 tablespoons of mincemeat

Method

Make the apple filling first, even the day beforehand as it needs to be cold before you use it.
Peel and core the apples and cut them into thick slices.
Stew the apples gently with some sugar and very little water. You can make this in a saucepan on the stove or place the apples and sugar in a dish in the oven.
Do not add a lot of sugar at the beginning as it does not want to be too sweet, you can adjust the sweetness at the end.
Do not make it too much of a purée, cook it so that you have some soft apples but with some harder less cooked chunks as well.
Leave this to be completely cool.
Mix in the mincemeat.

Note

When I have lots of apples, I cook a large amount and portion this up and keep them in the freezer – add the mincemeat when making the cake.

Base

150g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
100g butter
40g granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or water.

Topping (kruszonka)

120g plain flour
60g butter
60g granulated sugar

Method – Base

You have to use a loose bottom or spring-form tin or you will not be able to get the cake out.
I use a loose bottomed anodised aluminium cake tin which is 22cm in diameter and 8cm deep.
Grease the tin well.
First make the cake base by rubbing the butter into the flour to make crumbs, then stir in the sugar.
Add the yolk and lemon juice and bring the ingredients together to form a soft dough – do not handle the dough too much.
Pre heat the oven to GM 4 – 180ºC.
Make the dough into a rough flat circle and press it into the base of the tin.

Method – Topping

Make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour to make crumbs and then stir in the sugar.
Put the apple mixture on top of the base – it wants to be quite a thick layer.
Sprinkle the topping crumbs over the apple mixture.

Bake in the oven for around 1 hour.
Leave to cool in the tin.
Use a long metal spatula to ease the cake from the side of the tin, then place the cake on to the top of a tin can and slide the side down.

Tea set here is Woodside by Royal Grafton, 1940 – 1959

Sweet Yeast Buns

Kołaczyki means little wheels from the word koła which means wheels.

In a previous post – Bułeczki – Sweet Yeast Buns– I gave a recipe for basic sweet yeast dough – since then I have tried out a slightly different recipe – nearly the same ingredients but a slightly different method – and I think these turned out to be the best yeast buns I have ever made – so this is – Basic sweet yeast dough version two.

A few reminders when using yeast in baking

Learn to be patient – you cannot control the timings exactly with yeast, it depends on the temperature of the room and the flour used and other variables.
Do yeast baking on a day you are planning to be in & have other things to do, but ones you can break off from when needed.
Heat the milk so it is at body temperature – use the finger test – too hot and you will kill the yeast – too cold is okay – it will just take longer.
An egg glaze often burns too quickly – I have found an egg white or egg white & water glaze gives a better result.

Older Polish recipes use fresh yeast. I have used dried yeast and have had very good results. (I have not tried using easy bake yeast for this recipe).

Basic Sweet Yeast Dough Version 2

Ingredients

Leaven – Starter

100g plain flour
30g fresh yeast or 15-20g dried yeast
125ml milk

Rest of ingredients

3 egg yolks
60g sugar
50g melted butter or block margarine
400g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2-3 drops of vanilla essence
125ml milk

and

Save 1 egg white for use as a wash on the buns.

Method

Warm the milk slightly – so it is just warm to the touch – and add the yeast and mix together.
Put the flour in to a bowl and add the milk and yeast mix it all together and leave it covered until it is double in size.
Melt the butter and leave it to cool.
Whisk the yolks and sugar until they are pale and fluffy.
Grease 2 baking sheets – You should get around 15 buns. – invite people round!
Into a large bowl put: the flour and the salt, the yeast starter, the yolk mixture, the zest of a lemon, the vanilla essence and the milk.
Mix it all together so that you get a soft dough that comes away from the side of the bowl – you do not have to knead it.
Then work in the melted butter (this is the hardest part) until it is all incorporated and you have a uniform shiny dough.
Cover the dough with a cloth and leave this to rise until it is double in size.

Onto a floured surface place the dough and form it into a rectangle and then roll this out until it is around 2cm thick.
Using a 8cm diameter cutter cut out circles of dough and place them on the greased baking sheets, leaving room for the dough to rise.
Gather together the left over dough and repeat the process.

Cover the trays and leave the circles to rise and double in size.
Pre heat the oven to GM5 – 190ºC
Use a clean napkin or tea towel and cover the base of a tumbler.
Use the covered tumbler and press down on the centre of each circle to form an indentation into which you will put a filling.

Fillings

These are the ones I tried –
Cheese mixture – similar to ones for baked cheesecake.
Mix together around 250g of cream cheese/twaróg/curd or yoghurt cheese, 70g icing sugar, 1 egg yolk and 2-3 drops of vanilla essence.
Blackcurrant jam (you could use any tart jam such as cherry or gooseberry )
English style sweet mincemeat – I use Delia Smith’s recipe (without the nuts)
Put a large dollop of the filling onto each circle.