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Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Breads

Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll

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Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll, is very popular in southwestern Pennsylvania where Ed grew up. My mother-in- law would often make Makowiec and similar rolls with a nut or apricot filling.

It’s a must have for Easter and Christmas in Polish homes, but it’s not saved for these special occasions. You might see it offered regularly for drugie śniadanie, second breakfast.

Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll a must have for Easter and Christmas

Janet recently asked on the PH Facebook page if I had a Makowiec recipe, which prompted this post. This recipe is adapted from OlgaSmile.com, a popular Polish food blog.

Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll a must have for Christmas and Easter

Makowiec, especially this truly Polish version, isn’t very sweet, so American palates may prefer it with a little glaze poured over the top to add a little sweetness to each bite.

Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll a must have dessert for Christmas or Easter pastry

Like all traditional recipes, every family will put their own spin on Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll. You’ll find variations in the recipe notes.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll a must have for Easter and Christmas

Makowiec Polish Poppy Seed Roll

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Yield: 2 rolls
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A soft yeast bread wrapped around a poppy seed filling

Ingredients

  • for the dough:
  • 1 cup (250 ml) milk
  • 4 teaspoons (15 g) sugar
  • 2 packets (14 g) yeast
  • 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • for the filling:
  • 10 ounces (300 g) poppy seeds
  • 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 2 egg whites
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • for glaze (optional);
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

  1. Cover the poppy seeds in boiling water and let sit for a few hours or overnight
  2. Heat the milk to 110 F (43 C), pour into a large bowl
  3. Stir in the sugar and the yeast, let sit for 5 minutes
  4. Stir in the flour, salt, egg yolk, butter, and vanilla, kneading my hand to work in all of the flour
  5. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let rise until doubled in size about 90 minutes
  6. While the dough rises, strain the water from the poppy seeds using a paper towel lined colander
  7. Grind the poppy seeds in a spice (clean electric coffee grinder) or a food processor, you’ll get the best results with a spice grinder, but you’ll have to process in batches
  8. Mix sugar, butter, egg whites, honey, ground raisins (process in your spice grinder or just add to the food processor and mix) and almond extract
  9. Punch down the dough, and divide in two
  10. Roll each piece into a 14 inch x 10 inch rectangle
  11. Spread half of the poppy seed filling in each rectangle, avoiding the edges
  12. Roll up (on the long side), pinching to seal the dough, tucking the end underneath and pinching to keep the filling from leaking out
  13. Place the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet, seam side down
  14. Cover with dish towel and let rise 35-40 minutes
  15. Preheat over to 350 F (175 C)
  16. Brush with egg beaten with oil, bake for 35 minutes
  17. Cool
  18. (Optional) stir milk into powdered sugar and pour/drizzle over the rolls
  19. Cut into 1/2 inch slices

Bialy or Bialystoker Kuchen – a “bagel” from PL to USA

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Picture the setting, it’s happy hour at a local watering hole, I’m meeting friends of friends. Everyone around the table, while we all have other professions, is interested in food. When my new friend found out that I write a blog about Polish food, he asked if I was familiar with the Bialy, which he pronounced be-alley.

He’d heard about the Bialy when his colleagues here in Tucson learned that he would be in New York City on business. While not available at the first bakery he tried, my new friend got directions to an old bakery in a neighborhood, outside of Manhattan, and found his Bialy.

Bialy or Bialystoker Kuchen topped with onion, garlic, sesame and poppy seeds

He described the Bialy as like a bagel but better. It didn’t have the very crusty exterior, the inside was lighter and more tender, and the best part, it was topped with onions. The folks in the bakery told him that the Bialy has a short shelf life, about 6 hours, so that might be why there not as widely known as bagels, which come to think of it don’t have a very long shelf either.

The story goes that the Bialy comes from the city of Białystok (which means White Slope in Polish) in northeast Poland. Bialy is Yiddish and short for bialystoker kuchen, the Polish name of this roll. Biały is Polish for white and pronounced more like be-oway. (When I see the word, it’s the only way I can hear it in my head.)

The recipe moved to the United States with Jewish immigrants who were escaping the pogroms and Holocaust, although their popularity seems limited to the area of New York City. The yeast dough, which, unlike bagels, is not boiled before baking, gets a depression in the center that will be filled with onions, and maybe garlic, poppy or sesame seeds, or bread crumbs.

Mimi Sheraton has written a book on Bialys, The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World (available via my affiliate link). Sheraton, a famed food writer, tells the poignant, personal story of her worldwide search for a Polish town’s lost world and the daily bread that sustained it.

Since Bialys have been referred to as bagels that aren’t boiled before baking, I used my bagel recipe and shaped the rolls with an indentation rather than a hole in the middle. They are fabulous. If you’re going to eat bread, this is what you want to have. The texture is lightly chewy, and the savory warmth of the topping adds a smidge of yummy interest to every bite. There are a lot of steps to the instructions, but don’t let that put you off. I easily whipped these up one evening after work. They’re so worth the effort!

Smacznego!

Lois

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Bialy or Bialystoker Kuchen

Bialy or Bialystoker Kuchen

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 2 hours 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 2 hours 30 mins
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Bread
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A gentler, less chewy version of a bagel

Ingredients

  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons oil, divided
  • 1/3 cup finely diced onions
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon poppy seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 egg

Instructions

  1. Place water in a mixing bowl, sprinkle with yeast, stir in sugar
  2. Let sit for about 5 minutes, until a foamy layer begins to form on top
  3. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and 2 cups of flour until combined
  4. Add the additional flour to make a stiff dough, kneading for about 5 minutes
  5. Grease a large bowl with one tablespoon of oil, add the dough to the bowl and turn to coat all sides with oil
  6. Cover and let rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size
  7. While the dough rises, saute the onion in 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until it just begins to get a little color
  8. Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minute
  9. Remove from heat, add poppy seeds and sesame seeds, season with salt and pepper
  10. Punch down the dough and divide into 6 portions
  11. Gently stretch the surface of the dough, tucking it to one side and pinching together, to give you a smooth surface
  12. Place the pinched side down on a lightly floured surface, cover and let rise for about 20 minutes
  13. Preheat oven to 475 degrees
  14. Make an indentation in the center of each bialy using your thumb or a tool
  15. Place on a parchment covered baking sheet, spacing as far apart as possible
  16. Fill the indentation with a spoon full of the onion mixture
  17. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of oil and gently brush over the bialy
  18. Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden with brown spots
  19. Keep wrapped in plastic after the bialy cool, freeze if you’re keeping for longer than a day, but I doubt they’ll last that long

The tool I used to make the indentation in my Bialys is a mini tart shaper (available from my affiliate link)

Paczki for Fat Thursday (Tlusty Czwartek)

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We ate Paczki for Fat Thursday when we lived in Poland, but this is the first year that I’ve made my own. Like everything else, homemade is always better. If I’m perfectly honest, I couldn’t understand the fuss about store-bought Paczki. It’s probably because I was, based on the appearance, expecting an American doughnut. I found the pastry itself too dense and bread-y and the jam too scant. Now that I’ve had homemade, I know that all of you who have enjoyed mama’s or babcia’s paczki were holding out on me!

Paczki for Fat Thursday

My own Paczki? The outside is crisp; the dough is rich and delicate, like an orange scented brioche. The jam, in my case orange marmalade, really is just an accent. As I said, homemade is always better! So with the last week of Karnawal approaching, let me urge you to make your own paczki for Fat Thursday.

Paczki for Fat Thrusday

Although I’ve doubled the flour used, I’ve used the recipe from Polish Cookery, the translation of Uniwersalna Ksiazka Kucharska (the Universal Cookbook, published in the early 1900s) by Marja Ochorowica-Monatowa, which bills itself as Poland’s best-selling cookbook adapted for American kitchens. This was the first of my many Polish cookbooks. It’s translated and adapted by Jean Karsavina, originally published in 1958. I have to agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Karsavina’s remarks in the preface:

Poland, like France, is a country where people really know food. One can stop at a peasant home in the country, a wayside inn, a modest restaurant in a working-class neighborhood, and be served a meal with remembering. Good food is tradition. Polish hospitality is legendary.

Gone from the original book in Polish are the recipes for Roast Boar’s Head and Turkey Garnished with Two Dozen Roast Field Thrushes, and the original author’s assertion that the book’s purpose was to “give brides a knowledge of how cooking is done, so that they may supervise the servants properly.” This was essential, Ms. Montowa says because, “everyone knows how apt servants are to cheat, especially if the lady of the house makes no attempt to interest herself in planning menus or fails to check bills and accounts. If,” she tells us, “there is time on one’s schedule for singing lessons, piano practice, water coloring, and fine embroidery, surely there is also a half-hours each day which can be made available for one’s housewifely duties. . .” It’s a long way from my great-grandmother who was raising 10 children, homesteading with her cattle-ranching husband in the Arizona Territory at the time. 😉

paczki with powdered sugar

Whether you are supervising the staff or making your own pastry in homage to a pioneer ancestors, I hope you’ll give Paczki for Fat Thursday a try this year, especially if you’ve never had homemade. Give Karnawal a good send off. My friend Klaudia tells me the nicest and most traditional jam to use it a rose jam, but you can certainly use other fruit jams or marmalade.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Paczki for Fat Thursday (Tlusty Czwartek)

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A brioche-like, jam filled pastry eaten to mark the last week before Lent

Ingredients

  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 cups boiling milk
  • 1 packet of dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup lukewarm milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
  • 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • flour, jam, deep fat for frying

Instructions

  1. Stir 1 cup flour into boiling milk
  2. Remove from heat and beat until smooth
  3. Cool
  4. Dissolve yeast in the 1/4 cup milk
  5. Add to the four mixture
  6. Stir and let stand half an hour
  7. Cream egg yolks and sugar, add vanilla and orange rind
  8. Stir into the dough when it begins to rise
  9. Add remaining flour and butter and beat until it forms a sticky dough
  10. Cover and let stand 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size
  11. Turn out on a floured board, knead just a few times
  12. Divide dough in half and roll to 5/8 inch thich
  13. Cut out circles
  14. Place a teaspoon of jam, the fruit only, not runny syrup, on half of the circles
  15. Cover with remaining circles, press edges together
  16. Cover and let rise again
  17. Fry a few at a time in deep fat, 340 -345 F for about 4 minutes, taking care not to burn the dough
  18. Drain and serve rolled in powdered sugar, granulated sugar, or glaze

Notes

This cookbook layers the jam between two cutouts. If you have a long pastry tip, you could also pipe jam into paczki after frying.

 

pinterest paczki

Racuchy, a healthy pancake

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A recent outing with a new friend from Poland brought me this easy to make recipe for Racuchy, a healthy pancake, in this case flavored with banana.

Racuchy, a healthy pancake from Poland with just 3 ingredients!

Maggi, my source for this recipe, is here for a few months with her two young sons while her husband is training to become an instructor pilot in the F-16. He was one of Ed’s first students in Poznań. I don’t think Maggi and I  ever met in Poland, if we did it would have been a brief hello at a the Pilot of the Year Ball, an occasion when I would meet at least 50 new people, Polish pilots and their wives. What can I say? They were all young, very tall, and beautiful; it was hard to keep everyone straight in my mind.

Now we’ve had a chance to spend time together and get to know each other. Maggi is brilliant, a woman with multiple advanced degrees, who is a stay at home mom for now, or household manager as she calls it. That’s so true. I work at a large church as the Parish Administrator. Officially, I take care of the business affairs of the church, but the best way I can describe it to some is to say that it’s like I’m the mom of a very large family and we live in a very big old house. Roof leak after the rain, need to register for a conference, order cake for a parish celebration, dead bird in the garden, bills to be paid, my list of responsibilities goes on and on.

Maggi asked about the Polish recipes on my blog. I told her what was  the most popular, and she gave me this recipe for racuchy. It’s so simple that I could remember it as we chatted while I drove us to our destination, but she followed up with a Facebook message to be sure I wouldn’t forget.

I made racuchy (pronounced rat-su-hay) this morning and Ed and I both enjoyed them. To keep challenging herself during her household manager years, Maggi has become a personal trainer and studied nutrition. Her recipe has three ingredients, is gluten-free and has no added sugar. The texture is nice, I didn’t miss the structure added by the gluten in wheat flour as I often do. The banana flavor was just right. The butter in the photo? That was Ed’s very American suggestion. Maggi serves hers with berries.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Racuchy, a healthy three ingredient pancake from Poland!

Racuchy, a healthy pancake

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Yield: 10 - 12 pancakes
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A super healthy, 3 ingredient pancake, with no added sugar and gluten-free!

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 banana
  • 5 tablespoons rolled oats
  • pinch salt

Instructions

  1. Blitz all of the ingredients in a blender
  2. (Maggi’s recipe doesn’t call for salt, but I think a pinch brightens other flavors)
  3. Pour onto a hot, greased griddle or frying pan
  4. Turn when the bubbles around the edge begin to pop

Notes

I’ve written the recipe as it was given to me. I only had two large eggs when I made this and my bananas were small, so I used two. It’s forgiving; they were perfect!

Racuchy a healthy pancake with just 3 ingredients!

Low Carb Banana Muffins (Paleo & Gluten Free)

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Two bananas had been parked on the kitchen counter for too long. They were well past the speckling of brown in the yellow peel banana. Mushing them into some kind of bread seemed like a good idea. A quick search of the internet, and I found a recipe for inspiration on Gimmedelicious.com. Not only are these low carb banana muffins, they fit the bill for paleo and gluten free too.

Low carb banana muffins

The muffins are light, almost souffle-like. I’ve adapted the recipe by adding chopped cherries rather than chocolate chips, not that I have anything against chocolate chips. There just weren’t any on hand.

If you’re committed to eating a paleo or gluten free diet, these muffins are just the thing. I might be better off if I fit that description, but I haven’t made that lifelong commitment. I do, however, like to try things. Ours is a kitchen where you’ll find coconut flour in the freezer. These low carb muffins are very satisfying in a way that food that’s low on the glycemic index tends to be. I can feel the benefits of that fact that my baked goodie had no added sugar and no white wheat flour. I’m satiated, I don’t feel hungry, I’m not tempted to pop back into the kitchen to eat the other five muffins.

At the same time, I can’t say this is the best banana muffin/bread I’ve ever eaten. That distinction belongs to this recipe. I missed the al dente quality that wheat flour and it’s gluten provide, and the way sugar seems to amplify the banana flavor. Maybe there’s a perfect option out there. Perhaps next time I’ll try combining the two recipes, get the added fiber of the coconut flour, use less wheat flour and sugar. Maybe you can have it all.

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Low Carb Banana Muffins

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 25 mins
  • Yield: 6
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Description

A low carb, paleo, gluten free banana muffin

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup almond butter
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1/4 cup diced cherries, fresh or frozen in a pinch

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Spray muffin pan (6 muffins)
  3. Combine bananas, egg, almond butter, and vanilla (I used my food processor)
  4. Add coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder,baking sods, and salt (again a quick blitz)
  5. Stir in cherries
  6. Spoon into muffin cups
  7. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until browned
  8. Cool before removing from pan

 

 

Smalec Recipe

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Smalec is something that Americans eye warily at first. Polish friends and my husband said “it’s pork fat; you spread it on bread like butter.” I didn’t find them very convincing!

Of course, I eventually came around. The theme for my time in Poland was to try everything, experience new things, especially when it came to food.

Smalec - known in Poland as the poor man's butter

It is a common thing in Polish restaurants to be served a basket of bread with a bowl of smalec for the table as soon as you sit down, much like chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant.

It doesn’t take long to discover that some smalec is better than others. Some of it just seems like lard, with very little of the flavorings. Some smalec is a chunky spread, full of crispy brown bits, chock full of delicious things that were until recently a mystery to me. This recipe is the latter!

Smalec, a traditional Polish spread

There was a little pub in Poznań that sold 100+ different beers, mainly Polish, I think. It was always packed with a very young crowd. Their limited food menu included smalec and bread, the perfect nibble to accompany 100+ kinds of beer. We started making a point of going there with our friends Angelika and Keith because we wanted to have the smalec.

I firmly believe that our food preferences are tied to the memories associated with the foods. For me, smalec is a rustic dish, shared in intimate settings with people you love.

Here are somethings I learned in making smalec that I’ll share with you. It can be difficult to buy a kilo of pork fat in the United States. I called several places and found two options for me in Tucson. One of the local supermarkets was willing to save pork fat for me as the trimmed their cuts of meat. It took several days for them to have enough. But they did eventually call and had a package of pork fat waiting for me at $1.57 a pound. I called two speciality butcher stores, and one of them had 3 pound packaged blocks of frozen pork fat. They were willing to cut it to size.

Now that we’ve secured the main ingredient, the surprising thing for me was that almost all smalec recipes include tart, green apples. I had no idea! I’ve also read (with the aid of google translate) that some recipes includes diced dried fruit. My guess would be diced prunes; they’re very popular in Polish cooking. I went the classic route with just apples.

This recipes makes a lot. I filled 7 cute little Polish pottery ramekins. It keeps in the fridge for two weeks, so obviously I need people with whom to share. I’ve put one ramekin in the freezer as a test, and I’m happy to report that defrosted smalec is every bit as good as freshly made. I’ve toyed with the idea of freezing it without the apple, and just adding it in before serving. I guess you could always just scale down the recipe.

I’d love to hear what you think of smalec!

Smacznego!

Lois

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Smalec - known in Poland as the poor man's butter

Smalec Recipe

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A rich, rustic spread for bread, aka the poor man’s butter

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds pork fat, coarsely ground or finely diced
  • 1/2 pounds bacon, coarsely ground or finely diced
  • 3 medium onions (about 3 1/2 cups), finely diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon marjoram
  • 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cores, and grated or finely diced

Instructions

  1. In a large frying pan, cook the ground pork fat for 10 minutes over medium heat, it will begin to render fat
  2. Add the ground bacon, onions, garlic, salt and pepper
  3. Stir, scrapping the bottom frequently
  4. Reduce heat to low if necessary
  5. I kept cooking and stirring for another 50 minutes, until the rendered fat level began to be high tee than the chopped bits in the pan
  6. Add the marjoram and grated apple
  7. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally for a uniform consistency
  8. Store in the fridge
  9. Serve with a dark bread and small dill pickles

Notes

Best consumed with beer or vodka!

 

Polish Smalec - poor man's butter, but fit for a king!

Mockmill Grain Mill

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A month ago, I would have said that I have every attachment I need for my KitchenAid mixer. Now, I know that I also needed a grain mill! Until recently, my friend, Prethi, was the only person I’ve known with their own mill. Prethi’s is a large appliance, set up in the basement of her home. It was just like the grinding stones I’ve seen in ancient gristmills, scaled down to a table top version. On one of the many fun days I spend cooking with Prethi in her kitchen, she took me downstairs to show me the mill. It was her dry mill, I think she has a wet one too. They are necessary items in a well-appointed Indian kitchen. On the day I visited, Prethi was grinding white lentils to make flour for dosas. My kitchen is too small to devote much space for a mill, so it was exciting to see that I too can easily make my own flours with a Mockmill, a compact attachment for stand mixers.

Mockmill

Mockmill

The Mockmill uses real stones, just like Prethi’s for grinding non-oily grains. It attaches easily to my mixer and dispenses flour into the mixing bowl. The coarseness of the grind can be adjusted, from bulgar for tabouleh to the finest flour. The grinding stones turn easily with no strain on the motor.

The thing I noticed as I ground rye on the finest setting was that not everything that came out of the mill was the same size. That’s because grains consist of three basic parts: endosperm, the germ, and the bran. Most commercial flour is just ground endosperm. The slightly coarser germ and bran have been sifted out. These two missing parts contain most of the grain’s minerals, vitamins, and fiber.

Nutrition

The Mockmill is designed in Germany by people who are passionate about eating better, much like my friend, Julie. I’ve mentioned Julie on this blog before. She sees a nathuropathic oncologist and eats very clean since her cancer diagnosis. One of the things I’ve learned from Julie’s wisdom is that it’s better to grind flax seeds right before you eat them rather than buying a box of ground flax to add to your morning smoothie or yogurt. The seeds offer the most nutrition right after they’ve been processed. While I won’t grind flax seed with the mill because of the high oil content, I have to think the optimal nutrition immediately after grinding is also true of other seeds, such as wheat berries, corn, lentils. The book Flour Power by Marletta F. Basey confirms this line of thinking.

Mockmill cleaning

Cleaning

Let me share one last thought on the mill before I get to my baking project. The manufacturer mentions that it’s easy to clean. I felt like I should check that out for you. It was with much trepidation that I took the mill apart to clean the grinding compartment with a pastry brush. I needn’t have worried. It really did disassemble and go back together very smoothly. German engineering at its finest! Cleaning isn’t necessary between uses, but if you were going to pack it up for an extended length of time, you might want to, so it’s nice to know that you can.

Polish Sourdough Rye Bread

I ordered a five pound can of rye seeds from Amazon. Intent on giving my favorite Polish Sourdough Rye Bread a try with freshly ground rye flour. The timing was right. I’ve had trouble getting a sourdough starter to “start” in Tucson. My baking buddies have suggested that the dry desert air might lead to fewer wild yeasts.

We’re in the middle of our monsoon season, so this is as close as we get to humidity in Arizona. It took longer to get my flour and water mixture cooking than in Poznan (where it happened overnight), but we finally have a good rye starter.

I used my freshly ground rye flour to feed my starter everyday and to make this dense loaf, full of sun flower seeds, just like the bread we bought at Piotr i Pawel (the supermarket closest to our flat in Poznan).

 

Polish sourdough rye

Most days, I left the Mockmill attachment on and just ground a half cup daily to feed the starter. When I wanted to tidy up, I ground enough for several days and kept the flour in the freezer until needed.

 

If you are a serious baker or know someone who is, now is the time to pick up a Mockmill!!!

 

I received product to review in exchange for this post. The thoughts expressed here are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Shortbread

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We have a gift exchange during our staff Christmas potluck lunch in December. I work at a church, so that’s why it’s not a “holiday” potluck. We exchange real gifts at this gathering, not white elephants (those are saved for the Epiphany party, of course). The gifts are given Secret Santa style. I was the lucky recipient of a beautifully decorative shortbread.

shortbread

Since my boss, the Interim Rector, had brought an identical shortbread for us to sample during the  potluck. I had a really good idea who my secret Santa was. That’s good for you and me, because I asked for his recipe which he gladly shared, adding that what makes this shortbread different is the addition of corn starch, which keeps the end product a little softer than most.

Another secret he shared is that he heats his stoneware baking molds in the oven while its preheating. When the buttery batter is patted into the hot mold, it melts enough to completely fill all of the little nooks in crannies in the detailed mold. His mold is from Hartstone. They are still making stoneware. This beautiful mold isn’t in their current inventory, but I noticed several just like this on eBay in the $20-25 range. With the heart pattern this shortbread and/or pan would make a great Valentine’s gift.

A friend brought me a tin of Walker’s shortbread when I was in the hospital after delivering our twin daughters. As an experienced mom of three, she said, “you’re going to get lots of things for the babies. This is for you. A little something to enjoy when you’re up during the middle of the night.”

Twins

Torrejon Air Base, Spain, 1983

Ever since then, shortbread has become a comfort food in my dictionary. If you’d like to give it a try, here’s the Canon’s recipe for shortbread.

shortbread 1

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Shortbread

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 60 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
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Description

A rich, short pastry, delicious plain or baked in a decorative mold!

Ingredients

  • 1 pound butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • Pinch of salt (this would be my addition because I think even sweet favors are brightened by a hint of salt)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 (may heat mold during preheat)
  2. Melt butter
  3. Add sugar
  4. Add butter and corn starch, one cup at a time
  5. The mixture will be very crumbly
  6. Pat into two 8 inch molds (for a thick shortbread) or into one sheet pan (will be thinner)
  7. Bake for 40 minutes
  8. Reduce heat to 300 and bake 20 minutes longer

Notes

Freezes well!

 

Pancakes and Blis!

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It’s January 1st, so let me wish you Happy New Year, Szczesliwego Nowego Roku, and share my favorite pancake recipe with you, American style pancakes, not Polish (which are more like crepes). We’ve been meaning to make pancakes ever since Christmas. Santa left a bottle of Blis maple syrup in my Christmas stocking. Santa is full of surprises! (available via the preceeding affiliate link)

blis maple syrup

We first learned of Blis syrup, it’s aged in bourbon barrels, while watching Brew Dogs on their visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The two cheeky Scots used the syrup, as well as other local flavors, in the beer brewed for the show. Ed and I both thought the idea of maple syrup from bourbon barrels sounded interesting, but my clever husband remembered it for several months and tracked it down in our local Williams Sonoma shop. It’s dear, but so worth it! The maple and bourbon flavors meld beautifully, giving the taste the most interesting and sophisticated complexity.

If you’re making a special breakfast or need a gift for a foodie, track down a bottle Blis! It’s unique, and you’ll be remembered as someone very in the know!

blis

My pancake recipe comes from a three ring binder cookbook, one my mom gave me forty years ago, The New Pillsbury Family Cookbook. It’s dated, the recipes make no mention of microwaves, food processors, nor instant read thermometers. Many pages have torn out and are sort of in the right order, but it’s a book that I keep going back to for wonderful basics that I love. I used to make Mickey, Minnie, and Donald Duck pancakes with this recipe when our girls were young. Nowadays, everyone is content with simple circles, so production moves along much faster.

If you’re usual pancakes come from a box, I hope you’ll give these a try. Mixing them up will take only a minute or two more, and they’ll taste 10 times better! You’re worth it! Smacznego!

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blis

Pancakes and Blis!

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Yield: 16 4-inch pancakes
  • Category: bread
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

A classic American breakfast, so much better when made from scratch!

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat griddle to 375
  2. Combine eggs, buttermilk, and oil
  3. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
  4. Stir only until large lumps disappear, too much mixing will make for tough pancakes
  5. Pour onto a lightly greased griddle
  6. Cook until bubbles form and edges are cooked
  7. Flip pancakes and brown other side

Notes

If you find yourself without buttermilk, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and milk to make 2 cups, let it sit for a few minutes and you’re ready to go!

 

 

Pretzel Rolls

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I am a big fan of good bread and sliders. When you find them together, jackpot! I made these pretzel rolls thinking I might use them in sliders. They ended up with pulled pork, so that’s pretty close. They are so delicious, we ate several of them with just a spread of butter.

Pretzel rolls

I want to give credit where credit is due and tell you that I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. I’ve adapted to correct one glaring omission. They need salt on the top! I was lucky enough to have some nice salt from our road trip through France last year. It fit the bill perfectly!

Pretzel rolls pulled pork

Some of the comments on the original recipe suggested that they wouldn’t make it again because they found it too dense. Density is one of the key traits for pretzels, bagels, etc., any bread that gets boiled before baking. The longer you boil, the more substantial crust you’ll have. Boiling cooks the outside of the dough, setting it, limiting expansion for the most part, so as the bread cooks and tries to expand, it has no where to go. You end up with a very dense center. The same is true of my Polish Sour Dough Rye bread. You don’t boil it, but you do brush the top with boiling water, yielding a flat top and a wonderful dense bread, chocked full of sunflower seeds.

You can make this bread as rolls, or fashion it into two small loaves if you prefer. Give it a try! The process is easier than to think and very forgiving. You’ll start seeing store bought bread in a new, less desirable light.

Pretzel rolls

My other big project in the kitchen this weekend will be a venison stew that I made in Poland. Not having friends who are hunters close by, venison is harder to come by here. Ed made a trip crosstown to a butcher shop that has venison, and half of our weekly food budget later, we’re ready to cook. The post will be up before Monday!

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Pretzel Rolls

  • Yield: 8 rolls
  • Category: Bread
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Description

A delicious dense, chewy pretzel roll or loaf!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • I envelope rapid rise yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 quarts water
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • Coarse salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. In a saucepan, melt milk and butter to 110 F, butter will only partially melt
  2. Add yeast and brown sugar
  3. I mixed this dough by hand, adding everything to the sauce pan, you can transfer to a bowl and use a mixer if you prefer
  4. Stir in salt and 2 cups flour, beat for 3 minutes
  5. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough
  6. Knead on a floured surface until the dough is smooth
  7. Place in a greased bowl, turn to oil all of the dough
  8. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
  9. Preheat oven to 400 F
  10. Heat 3 quarts water with baking soda, bring to a boil
  11. Punch dough down and divide into 8 equal pieces
  12. Roll each piece into a smooth ball
  13. Boil each piece for 2 minutes, turning after 1 minute
  14. Remove the rolls loaves using a slotted spoon and place on a greased baking sheet
  15. Beat egg and 1 teaspoon water, use a pastry brush to to paint the rolls with the egg wash
  16. Sprinkle each rolls with a pinch of coarse salt
  17. With a very sharp knife, gently cut a cross in the top each each roll
  18. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350 F
  19. Bake 10 – 12 minutes until the rolls are evenly browned