Tag: Twaróg

Chocolate Roll

  • This cake would be called a rolada in Polish.
  • The baking of this is simple – the hardest part is adding the filling and rolling it back together.
  • You can make many versions of this with different fillings.
  • Here I have used a sour cherry jam layer and a sweet curd or cream cheese layer on top.

Ingredients – Cake

  • 2 eggs
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 50g Plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • *
  • extra sugar for rolling

Ingredients – Filling

  • Sour Cherry Jam & a little water
  • *
  • 150-200g  yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • 1-2 tablespoons of soured cream
  • Icing sugar to taste

Method – Cake

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM 7 – 220°C.
  • Grease and line a 24 x 34cm baking sheet.
  • *
  • Have ready 2 more sheets of baking paper.
  • Lay one of these flat and sprinkle with caster sugar.
  • *
  • Whisk the eggs and sugar until light, pale and fluffy.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa together till uniform.
  • Fold in the flour mixture with a metal spoon.
  • Spread the mixture over the prepared tin with a spatula –
  • Getting to all the edges as nearly as possible.
  • Bake for 7- 8 minutes.
  • DO NOT OVERBAKE or it will crack later.
  • Take out the cake and tip it onto the sugared paper.
  • Peel off the paper which was under the cake.
  • Using a metal spatula can be helpful.
  • Put the third sheet of baking paper on top of the cake.
  • Roll up the cake from the narrow end with the paper inside.
  • Leave the cake to cool completely.

Method – Filling

  • Use a small saucepan to thin down the jam by adding a little water, mixing and heating it gently.
  • Leave to cool completely.
  • *
  • Mix the cheese ingredients to taste.
  • You want a soft spreadable mixture.

Assembling the cake

  • Unroll the cake gently and flatten a little.
  • Spread on the jam over the whole cake.
  • Spread on the sweet cheese mixture over the jam.
  • Roll up the cake again.
  • Leave in a cool place for about an hour before serving.
  • Serve as thick slices
  • *
  • Can taste even better the next day as the jam seeps into the cake.
  • Served on Royal Doulton – Flirtation from the late 1970s.

You can try this with a variety of options with different jams and flavours for the sweet cheese. 

Fruity Twaróg Desserts

  • These desserts are a more fruity version of twaróg desserts 
  • As well as flavoured jellies and twaróg, puréed tinned fruits such as peaches, apricots and pears or runny jams are used.
  • The jelly, fruit and twaróg mixture is left to set in a bowl and scoops are then put into individual serving dishes.
  • The flavours and fruits used here are just examples – use the flavours of jellies that you like as well as the fruit.

Ingredients – Raspberry

  • 1 packet of raspberry jelly
  • 250 – 350g of twaróg , yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  •  4 tablespoons of raspberry jam

Ingredients – Peach

  • 1 packet of lemon or orange jelly
  • 250 – 350g of twaróg , yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • 1 tin of peaches

Ingredients – Apricot

  • 1 packet of lemon or orange jelly
  • 250 – 350g of twaróg , yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • 1 tin of peaches

Toppings

  • Fresh fruit chopped
  • Tinned or bottled fruit chopped
  • Thickened syrup made from tinned fruit juices and potato flour
  • Sauce made from runny jam or jam and water (heated and cooled)
  • Grated chocolate or chocolate flake
  • Mint or lemon balm leaves

Method

  • Make up a packet of jelly with 200ml of boiling water.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Drain the fruit from the syrup.
  • Purée the fruit .
  • Or gently heat the jam with some water and then cool.
  • Whisk in the twaróg and fruit or jam into the cooled jelly mixture.
  • Pour into a large bowl.
  • Leave to set in the fridge.
  • Put scoops into individual glasses.
  • Add the toppings.

Note – you can make two flavours and serve scoops of each.

Twaróg Dessert

  • This dessert is one I make when I do not wish or have time to to make a layered torcik. 
  • The jelly and twaróg mixture is left to set in a bowl and scoops are then put into individual serving dishes.
  • The more twaróg you use the softer will be the mixture.
  • As I do not really like to drink milk using twaróg ensures I get calcium in my diet.
  • The flavours and fruits used here are just an example – use the flavours of jellies that you like as well as the fruit.

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of lemon jelly
  • 250 – 400g of twaróg , yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • Juice and rind of 1 lemon
  • *
  • Toppings
  • Bottled blackcurrants – drained
  • Grated chocolate or chocolate flake

Method

  • Make up 500ml of jelly as per the packet instructions.
  • Add the lemon juice and rind.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Whisk in the twaróg and mix till all  is blended in.
  • Pour into a large bowl.
  • Leave to set in the fridge.
  • Put scoops into individual glasses.
  • Add the toppings.

Pulpety – Meat & Cheese

  • I came across this version of pulpety  (Polish meatballs) recently and thought I would give these a try as I always have lots of yoghurt cheese.
  • Both beef and pork are used in this recipe and I often do mix these two meat minces together.
  • Dried breadcrumbs are not used in this recipe.
  • The bread is not moistened with milk.
  • The following amounts made 30 pulpety.

Ingredients

  • 200g minced beef
  • 200g minced pork
  • 200g twaróg(curd cheese) or yoghurt cheese (well drained)
  • 2 small onions diced (I might wiz them up in a mini-chopper next time)
  • 2 teaspoons of Italian herbs
  • Fresh white breadcrumbs from a slice of white bread or a roll.
  • 1 egg
  • Salt & pepper
  • *
  • 500ml of chicken stock – can be from a cube or concentrate
  • *
  • 500ml of a sauce of your choice – I used a simple tomato sauce

Method

  • Mix all the ingredients together to a uniform mixture.
  • Hands are best at the end – the mixture is quite sticky.
  • Pinch off small bits of the meat mixture and roll the piece between your hands to make small round balls and place these onto a floured board or tray whilst you make them all.
  • Leave these to chill in a cool place or in the fridge for an hour or so.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4-180°C.
  • Heat the chicken stock in a deep wide frying pan.
  • Add some of the pulpety and simmer with a lid for around 5 minutes.
  • Have a large ovenproof dish ready with your sauce.
  • Remove the pulpety with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce.
  • Repeat with the rest of the pulpety.
  • Put a lid on the dish.
  • Cook in the oven for at least 1 hour.
  • You can lower the heat and cook for longer.

Sauces

The varieties here are endless – make one of your favourite sauces for example mushroom or tomato.

You can then serve them with potatoes, pasta, rice or to be very Polish – buckwheat or pearl barley.

 

Served in Royal Doulton – Burgundy – 1959-1981

 

 

Pierogi with Leeks & Peas

  • Well over a year ago when on a trip to Gdańsk, in one restaurant I saw on the menu pierogi (Polish filled pasta) which had leeks, peas and soured cream as a filling.
  • Although I did not try these, I thought they sounded good and tried out this  mixture as a filling for buckwheat pancakes.
  • At last I have had the time to try this out as a filling for pierogi.
  • I adjusted the filling I had made for the pancakes by using cream cheese (or twaróg or yoghurt cheese) rather than soured cream.

Filling

  • 2 leeks – chopped
  • 50 – 75g frozen peas
  • 2-3 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 -3 tablespoons of cream cheese, twaróg or yoghurt cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

  • Using a deep large frying pan with a lid (a glass one is best), melt the butter and gently cook the leeks to soften them but not brown.
  • Add the frozen peas and cover with the lid and cook for a few minutes.
  • Stir the mixture and continue to heat without the lid to drive off excess liquid.
  • Purée most of the mixture – keeping some of the peas whole.
  • Stir in the cream cheese (twaróg or yoghurt cheese).
  • Season to taste.

Ingredients – Dough

  • 250g pasta flour or plain flour & 2 tablespoons of fine semolina
  • 150ml water
  • 1 tablespoon oil – sunflower or light olive
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg yolk

Method – Dough

  • In a jug or bowl mix together the water, oil and the yolk.
  • Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
  • Pour in the liquid from the jug and initially use a knife to mix this into the flour and then use your hands to mix the liquid and flour to get a ball of dough.

 

  • Turn this out onto a floured board and knead the dough for a few minutes until you have a smooth ball.
  • Cover and leave to rest for about ½ an hour.
  • *
  • Cut the dough into half.
  • Prepare a large tray and cover it with a clean cotton or linen tea towel and sprinkle this with flour.
  • On a floured board roll out the dough a half at a time until you have a sheet of thinly rolled dough.
  • Cut out circles using a 7 cm diameter cutter.
  • The excess dough can be re-mixed and rolled out again.
  • Around a half tablespoon of filling is put on  each circle and then they are folded over and the edges pinched together to make a good seal.
  • You learn from experience how much filling to put in as too much will make it hard to seal them and if not properly sealed they will burst on boiling.  Do not worry if you have a few mishaps – it still happens – even with experience – it is hard to salvage one that has gone wrong – just accept that there will be a few that you do not cook.
  • Place the sealed pierogi on prepared tray until they are all made, do not let then touch each other.
  • *
  • To cook the pierogi, use a large pan of boiling water to which you have added some salt and a drizzle of oil.
  • Drop the pierogi in one by one and allow them to boil.  I usually do about 6 to 7 at a time.
  • As they cook they will float to the surface, let them boil for 2 minutes and then remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and put into a colander above a pan for a few seconds to drain and serve with melted butter.
  • Continue boiling batches in the same water.
  • If you want to make all the pierogi to serve together then you need to get a large oven proof dish.
  • Melt lots of butter in the dish.
  • Keep the dish warm in a low oven.
  • As you take out the cooked pierogi add them to the dish and coat them with the melted butter.
  • Keep on adding more as they cook.

Plate- Alfred Meakin – Midwinter – Spanish Garden 1960s

To Serve

  • These are good served just with the melted butter.
  • I also liked the gently refried ones, in the butter, the next day.

 

Sernik – Simple Version

  • At the end of 2020 I looked at the statistics for my blog.
  • I found that over the five and a half years  – sernik – baked cheesecake is my most looked at post and has been for a few years.
  • As today is The Epiphany – The Three Kings – I thought another version of a Polish Classic would be good.
  • Recently I got this recipe from my cousin in Wembley.
  • This is  a simple version – not very different from my mama’s but does not have any added butter or soured cream.
  • The original recipe was on a packet of bought twaróg.
  • The original recipe used 1 kilogram of  twaróg and as you can imagine it was large!
  • I have cut down the amount of ingredients to make a more manageable sernik.
  • I have adjusted some of the other ingredients as my own yoghourt cheese is always a little “wetter” than the bought twaróg.
  • There is no cake base at all in this recipe – but of course you can add one.
  • Be aware that the cake rises and then collapses on cooling.

Royal Grafton – Woodside – 1940-1959

Ingredients

  • 500g twaróg – yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
  • 4 eggs separated
  • 140g icing sugar & 2 tablespoons & extra for dusting
  • 1 tablespoon of semolina
  • 2 tablespoons of potato flour (cornflour should be okay)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or rum

Method

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 160°C
  • Use a cake liner to line a loose bottomed 20cm or 22cm cake tin.
  • Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is pale and creamy.
  • Add the twaróg or yoghurt cheese and the vanilla essence or rum and whisk all together.
  • Fold in the semolina and the potato flour.
  • In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites till they are stiff.
  • Add the 2 tablespoons of icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.
  • Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.
  • Spoon the mixture into the lined cake tin.
  • Bake in the oven for  60 – 70 minutes.
  • Check earlier and cover if it is starting to catch.
  • When the cake is ready switch off the oven and leave it in there for at least 40 minutes.
  • Take out the cake to cool in the tin.
  • Once it is cold – take the cake out of the tin by loosening the outer ring or placing the cake tin with the loose bottom on a tin can and sliding the cake tin down.
    *
  • Dust the cake with icing sugar before serving.
  • *
  • I think this cake is best made the day before you want to serve it – so it is well cooled and set.

Options

  • You can use this basic mix with a number of variations:
  • Chocolate drizzle on top.
  • Mixed peel added to the mixture.
  • Different cake bases.
  • Fruit in thickened syrups served with it.
  • and so on ….

Served on a Vintage glass cake stand and Paragon – hand painted tea plates with a sauce made from thinned down raspberry jam.

Chocolate Limes – Torcik

In England there are some old fashioned sweets called chocolate limes, which I really like. They consist of a crunchy lime coating over a dark chocolate paste centre.

I have been making several chilled cakes – torcik – and thought I would try out a variation based on this chocolate and lime idea.

This torcik is a variation on ones that I made previously with different fruits and bases.

I tried out a few variations on the proportions of the ingredients and decided that just having two layers worked best with a chocolate flake decorations on the top.

  1. Biscuit & chocolate base
  2. Sweet curd cheese with lime jelly

Ingredients

  • 100g of plain biscuits such as petit beurre, morning coffee or rich tea
  • 40g butter
  • 50g dark  chocolate
  • *
  • 300g twaróg or yoghurt cheese (could use full fat cream cheese)
  • 150g icing sugar
  • 80g butter
  • 4 yolks
  • 1 packets of lime jelly
  • *
  •  Cadburys flake or grated dark chocolate to decorate.

Method

  • Use a 22cm diameter loose bottomed or spring-form tin.
  • This is a smaller size than for my previous ones.
  • Lightly rub the base with some butter.
  • *
  • Crush the biscuits into small crumbs.
  • Melt the butter and chocolate gently, stirring to prevent burning.
  • Add the biscuit crumbs and mix well together.
  • Put the mixture into the base of the tin and press it down firmly.
  • Leave till it is cold.
  • *
  • Dissolve the lime jelly in 150ml of boiling water and leave to cool.
  • The tricky bit is having the jelly at the right temperature to use.
  • *
  • Cream together the butter and icing sugar.
  • Add the egg yolks, one by one, alternating with the twaróg.
  • Mix thoroughly.
  • *
  • Gently mix in the cool jelly.
  • Pour the mixture over the base.
  • Level the top.
  • *
  • Leave for around 30 minutes so the jelly is starting to set.
  • Decorate  the top with sprinkled grated chocolate or flakes or both.
  • Leave to set – best in the fridge – for at least 3 hours.
  • Take great care when removing the torcik out of the tin.
  • Use a long thin spatula to ease the edge.
  • Use a tin to place the cake tin on to move it apart from the base.

 

Tea plates Waterlily by Taylor and Kent

Cherry Torcik

  • The inspiration behind the flavours in this torcik is from a Black Forest Gateau, which is a chocolate cake with sour cherries and Kirshwasser – a cherry spirit, and often with cream.
  • It is claimed to have been invented in 1915 but other sources say it was in the 1930s.
  • It was very popular in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • This torcik is a variation on two that I made previously with different fruits and bases.

When making a torcik you need time to let one layer set before starting on the next.

This torcik is composed of 3 layers

  1. Chocolate sponge base
  2. Sweet curd cheese with black cherry jelly
  3. Drained bottled cherries in black cherry jelly

Ingredients – base

Ingredients – cherry layers

  • 300g twaróg or yoghurt cheese (you could use full fat cream cheese)
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 80g butter
  • 4 yolks
  • 1 packet of black cherry jelly
  • *
  • Sweet or sour bottled cherries
  • 1 packet of black cherry jelly

Method

  • Use a 22cm diameter loose bottomed or spring-form tin.
  • Lightly rub the base and sides with some butter.
  • *
  • Melt the butter and chocolate and leave to cool a little.
  • Stir in the cake crumbs.
  • Mix together well.
  • Place on the base of the tin and pat down with a spoon.
  • Leave to go cold.
  • *
  • Dissolve the cherry jelly in 150ml of boiling water and leave to cool.
  • The tricky bit is having the jelly at the right temperature to use.
  • *
  • Cream together the butter and icing sugar.
  • Add the egg yolks, one by one, alternating with the twaróg.
  • Mix thoroughly.
  • Gently mix in the cool jelly.
  • Pour the mixture over the sponge base.
  • Level the top.
  • Leave to set – best in the fridge – for at least 3 hours.
  • *
  • Mix up the black cherry jelly as per the instructions with 500ml of boiling water.
  • Leave the jelly to cool.
  • *
  • Drain the cherries from the juice.
  • Arrange the drained cherries over the black cherry/cheese layer.
  • Gently put the black cherry jelly over the cherries – use one spoon to pour this over the back of a second spoon.
  • Leave it to set again in the fridge – can take several hours.
  • Take great care when removing the torcik out of the tin.
  • Sprinkle some chocolate curls or flakes around the serving plate.

 

Tea Plates by Royal Crown Derby – Derby Posies  – 1972

 

 

 

Pierogi leniwe

Pierogi leniwe – means lazy pierogi or  lazy dumplings.

I wrote about kopytka – Polish potato dumplings a good while back and these have the same shape.

Traditional recipes use twaróg – Polish curd cheese – I use my own yoghurt cheese.  I have found that you can use crumbly, white, mild, English cheeses such as: Cheshire, Lancashire or Wensleydale.

They can be served savoury or sweet – with melted butter, à la Polonaise (buttered breadcrumbs) or skwarki (crisp, fried, small squares of bacon) or sweet with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Ingredients

  • 400g of twaróg (curd cheese), yoghurt cheese or  a white, crumbly cheese.
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 160 – 200g of plain flour
  • ½ teaspoon of salt

Method

  • Mix the yolks with the cheese.
  • Add the salt
  • Weigh out the flour to give an idea of how much is needed – this will depend on the cheese and the size of the eggs.
  • Add the flour and mix first with a wooden spoon and then by hand, you might not need all the flour or you may need more.
  • Mix until you have a soft dough.
  • Divide the dough into quarters and using a floured board shape the dough and roll it with you hands until you have a long sausage about 3cm in diameter.  If the dough sticks to the board then you need to add more flour.
  • Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into pieces, make the first cut at a diagonal and make the thickness about 1 to 1.5cm. You will get a sort of oval shape.

  • Repeat this with the rest of the dough.
  • Fill a large pan with water, add some salt and bring this to the boil.
  • When the water is boiling, add the dumplings one by one, do not over fill the pan or they will stick together. I tend to do around 8 at a time.
  • As they cook they will float to the surface, give them about another minute and then remove them with a slotted  or a perforated spoon and put them in a colander.
  • I have a colander sitting in an empty pan by the side of the large pan in which I am boiling the dumplings.

IMG_20151020_094418143

 

 

 

 

  • I find that the maximum from putting  them into the water to taking them out will be 3 minutes, if you cook these too long they will start to fall apart.

Here served as suggested above with  melted butter and with skwarki (crisp, fried, small squares of bacon).

Served on –

  • J & G Meakin – Topic – around 1967
  • Wedgwood – Chelsea garden – early 21st century.

Here served  à la Polonaise (buttered breadcrumbs)  in a handled dish by

Rörstrand Sweden Granada Ovenware  from the 1960s

 

 

They can be also be served  sweet with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Torcik – with Bottled Blackcurrants

This torcik is a variation on two that I made previously with different fruits and bases.

When making a torcik you need time to let one layer set before starting on the next.

This torcik is composed of 3 layers

  1. Sponge cake base
  2. Sweet curd cheese with lemon jelly
  3. Drained bottled blackberries in blackcurrant jelly
  • For the base I used a kefir sponge cake which I cut into thin slices.
  • I adjusted the ingredients in the lemon/cheese mixture from previous ones and did not use egg whites.
  • I used real fruit juice Polish jellies and bottled blackcurrants.

 

 

Ingredients

  • 500g twaróg or yoghurt cheese (you could use full fat cream cheese)
  • 200g icing sugar
  • 100g butter
  • 4 yolks
  • 1 packet of lemon jelly
  • 1 packet of  blackcurrant jelly
  • *
  • Thin slices of sponge cake – I used my kefir sponge cake
  • *
  • Blackcurrants drained from a jar of bottled blackcurrants (keep the juice)

Method

  • Use a 25cm diameter loose bottomed or spring-form tin.
  • Lightly rub the base and sides with some butter.
  • Using thin slices of sponge cake make a layer on the base of the tin.
  • *
  • Dissolve the lemon jelly in 150ml of boiling water and leave to cool.
  • The tricky bit is having the jelly at the right temperature to use.
  • *
  • Cream together the butter and icing sugar.
  • Add the egg yolks, one by one, alternating with the twaróg.
  • Mix thoroughly.
  • Gently mix in the cool jelly.
  • Pour the mixture over the sponge base.
  • Level the top.
  • Leave to set – best in the fridge – for at least 3 hours.
  • *
  • Mix up the blackcurrant jelly as per the instructions with 500ml of boiling water.
  • Leave the jelly to cool.
  • *
  • Arrange the drained blackcurrants over the lemon layer.
  • Gently put the blackcurrant jelly over the blackcurrants – use one spoon to pour this over the back of a second spoon.
  • Leave it to set again in the fridge – can take several hours.
  • Take great care when removing the torcik out of the tin.

Coffee set & plates – Counterpoint by Royal Doulton  from 1973 – 1987.

Note

  • Next time I would pour several tablespoons of the juice over the sponge base.
  • Here I put a little of the the juice on the serving plate and let it soak in before serving.