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Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry)

April 2, 2017 by Lois Britton 11 Comments

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The word mazurek can be a dance and type of music.  It’s a surname and also one of the traditional Easter cakes in Poland – although it will seem more like a tart to American readers. Let’s take a look at Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry).

Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry)

Mazurek starts off with a shortbread-like crust, which may be topped with a layer or combination of layers consisting of fruit jam, dried fruit, a thick caramel, chocolate, or nuts.

The sweet, shortcrust dough is very dry and a little challenging to roll out. If you’re pressed for time or want to involve children in the process, you might substitute purchased sugar cookie dough (something easy to find in the USA).

Slice it, pat it into the pan, and finish according to the recipe instructions. I don’t think anyone will be any the wiser, and you’ll avoid a lot of purist pastry hassle.

Toppings for your Mazurek crust

  • Jam (alone or under other toppings)
  • Caramel sauce
  • Nutella
  • Fruit pie filling
  • for the decorative elements:
    • Piped meringue
    • Piped nutella, or chocolate or white chocolate ganache
    • Dried fruit
    • Sliced almond
    • blanched whole almonds
    • Small candies (I used green tic tacs to make a pussy willow branch)
    • Cut-out, prebaked sugar cookies 

Designs for your Mazurek

  • Flowers
  • Bunnies
  • Pussy willow branch (a traditional symbol of Easter in Poland, used in place of palms on Palm Sunday)
  • Repeating geometric patterns
  • words to adorn your mazurek:
    • Wesolego Alleluja
    • Alleleuja
    • Wielkanoc

Like so many foods in Poland, the tarts are beautifully decorated. The possibilities are endless. 

Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry)

I got to sample several mazurki when we lived in Poland.  This is the first year, I’m trying my hand at making Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry) for our tradition of hosting an afternoon tea party on Easter Day.

I’m making a rectangular one with a caramel topping, decorated with piped chocolate ganache, sliced almonds, and dried apricots.

My second maurek is egg shaped, topped with Nutella (actually the Jif brand of chocolate hazelnut spread because I find it less runny). The egg shape I’m decorating with pastry cutouts, white ganache piping, and Tic-Tac mints to create a pussy-willow branch.

Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry) in an egg shape

 

Mazurek makes a beautiful centerpiece for your Easter table, and when it’s time to slice into it, you’ll have a delicious dessert! Check out my Royal Mazurek post and this one with inspiring photos. 

Smacznego!

Lois

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Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry)

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  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A decorated tart for Easter


Ingredients

Scale

Shortcrust pastry:

  • 2 cups (300g) all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup butter (150g) butter
  • 7 tablespoons (80g) sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons milk

Toppings:

  • heaping 1/2 cup (150g) jam, preferably sour, such as plum, marmalade, or black currant
  • 1 can Dulce de leche (400 or 500g), or can sweet condensed milk
  • almonds, chocolate, dried apricots for decoration

Instructions

  1. If using a can of sweet condensed milk, it should be cooked in a pot of water on a low heat for 3 hours. (The can MUST be covered by water the entire time), this will caramelize the sweetened condensed milk
  2. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)
  3. Combine the flour, butter, and sugar until uniform
  4. Add in the egg and milk, work the dough until it comes together; it will be crumbly, I used a food processor
  5. Form into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap
  6. Refrigerate for at least one hour
  7. Roll out the dough, directly on parchment paper to a rectangle, slightly larger than a 9 x 13 inch pan (my Polish pottery dish was 10.5 x 12.5 inches or 26 x 32 cm)
  8. Trim the dough to the size of your pan
  9. Place the dough, on the parchment, into the pan
  10. If you’re making a free form shape, such as an egg, roll out the dough on the parchment, use two round shapes, one larger than the other to get the rounded top and bottom of your egg, trim using straight lines between the two arcs to create your egg shape, move dough on the parchment to a baking sheet
  11. Roll the dough you’ve trimmed off into long ropes, use these to create a edge around your pastry, dams to hold in the filling, cut out a rabbit or chick for decoration, small items will brown more quickly
  12. Spread jam on the dough
  13. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown, approx. 25 min, cool
  14. Spread with dulce de leche or caramelized sweetened condensed milk and decorate as desired

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @PolishHousewife on Instagram and hashtag it #polishhousewife

Now that you know what a typical Polish mazurek is like, in my next post, I’ll tell you about a another variation on this pastry.

Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Dessert, Easter, Polish, Polish Desserts, Tea Party

Previous Post: « Potato and Cheese Pierogi (Pierogi Ruskie)
Next Post: Sausage in a Jar (Biała Kiełbasa w Słoikach) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. cj

    April 10, 2014 at 9:40 am

    Would love to invite you to share your food photos with us over at Food Foto Gallery . com – There’s no complicated approval process like the big sites. Any photos related to food (that are not watermarked) are accepted & get posted automatically. We also share our daily faves on social media, giving exposure to food bloggers when we can. Let me know if you have any questions and hope to see you at the site 🙂

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      April 12, 2014 at 10:59 pm

      Will do, cj; thanks!

      Reply
  2. David

    April 2, 2017 at 9:48 am

    I wish we weren’t traveling for Easter – otherwise, I might be making this or (more likely) kolache!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      April 2, 2017 at 11:20 am

      Next year!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Mazurek Kijowski (Kiev, Ukraine) Polish Easter Pastry says:
    March 23, 2014 at 11:45 pm

    […] my last post, I discussed the characteristics of typical Polish mazurek.  I got to sample a variety this year […]

    Reply
  2. Kostka Alpejska (Cube from the Alps) - Polish Housewife says:
    March 9, 2018 at 4:35 am

    […] friend Elzbieta made Kostka Alpejska (Cube from the Alps) as one of her Easter cakes along with Mazurek a few years ago, and I was lucky enough to sample it during an Eastertide visit to her home. Cube […]

    Reply
  3. Mazurek Królewski (Royal Mazurek) - Polish Housewife says:
    March 20, 2018 at 3:31 am

    […] a dance, a type of music, and even a surname, but my favorite Mazurek is the pastry. Last year, I made two for our Easter celebration, one topped with a chocolate hazelnut spread, the other with caramel. […]

    Reply
  4. Easter brunch, the Polish-Bolivian-Brazilian-American way (plus some how-tos) | Where Is My Suitcase says:
    April 21, 2018 at 5:39 pm

    […] fashioned into various spring or Resurrection-related designs). I used the dough recipe from this site, and the dulce de leche tip from this site, although I actually did open the can and heat up its […]

    Reply
  5. Polish Desserts for Easter - Polish Housewife says:
    February 21, 2019 at 7:36 pm

    […] Mazurek (Polish Easter Pastry) — a shortcrust pastry brushed with jam and topped with chocolate hazelnut spread and seasonal decorations […]

    Reply
  6. No-fail Easter Lamb Cake - Polish Housewife says:
    April 14, 2019 at 11:14 am

    […] you’re serving a lamb cake or a mazurek, I wish you and yours a joyous […]

    Reply
  7. 17 Polish Dessert Ideas With Recipes says:
    September 24, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    […] https://polishhousewife.com/mazurek-polish-easter-pastry/ […]

    Reply

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