Chocolate Mazurek for Polish Easter

Mazurek is a classic Polish Easter dessert. About 3-4 cm high, rectangular, oval or round. Usually made with pastry crust or on wafers (the kind used for ice creams, only flat). As for the filling - it is always quite sweet and there is a great variety of classic fillings.

But the most crucial aspect in this cake is the decoration. The mazurek is always very elaborated and  usually features some Easter motives - eggs, chicks, bunnies, catkins ( here you have two photos of quite typical mazurek). Cake decorating is always a huge problem for me so this time I made only a simple geometric pattern, filling wafer holes with chocolate and almonds.

My mazurek has a rich chocolate filling studded with nuts, almonds and dried fruits. It is usually the first cake to disappear from our Easter table. :) Enjoy !

Chocolate Mazurek

3 large rectangular thin wafers 
3/4 cup full fat milk 
3/4 cup sugar 
250 g butter 
500 g (18 oz) whole milk powder
3 tablespoons dark cocoa 
2 tablespoons nutella spread (or other chocolate- hazelnut spread)
50 g (2 oz) unsweetened coconut flakes
150 g (5 oz) approximately chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds) and
100 g (4 oz) prunes and dried apricots cut into fine strips
100g (4 oz) raisins (dark and light, soaked in rum for 1 hour)

For decoration: 
100 g (4 oz) white chocolate 
100 g (4 oz) dark chocolate 
2 tablespoons butter 
6 tablespoons pouring cream 12-18% fat 
a few whole almonds

Bring to a boil milk with sugar (the latter must be completely dissolved - it is important!). Add the butter and mix until it melts. Leave to cool. Add powdered milk and cocoa and mix until everything is smooth and thick. Add nutella and mix again. Incorporate coconut flakes, one finely crushed wafer, nuts and dried fruits.  Spread the filling evenly on one wafer, cover with the other. Put a large chopping board and a pile of books on top of the cake. Leave on the counter overnight. After decorating you have to store it in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in aluminium foil.

Decoration:
Melt each chocolate separately with half of the butter and cream in a microwave oven ( 180 W for about 1-2 minutes; remove, mix to check if it melted, and if necessary put it again to microwave for several seconds) or in a water bath.  Fill 2 pastry sleeves with 2 kinds of chocolate and decorate your cake. Insert some almonds in soft chocolate.

Easter Holidays Sauce

Easter is approaching quite unexpectedly for me this year. We have barely recovered after Polish style Christmas and here again I have to think about the action plan and all the traditional food preparation for Easter.

Today, I would like to show you a simple green sauce. I can not imagine Easter in our home without it. With the considerable quantity of fresh herbs and greens, it gets a nice colour. I serve it usually with hard boiled eggs ( a must on Polish Easter table). But it also goes nicely with roasted meats or pâté. I love to dip some radishes or slices of fresh cucumbers in it. You can also use it as a dressing for salads.

Green Sauce for Easter

1 egg, hard boiled and finely chopped

1 cup parsley, finely chopped

1 cup chives, finely chopped

1 cup dill, finely chopped

1/2 cup chinese chives (optional) or spinach leaves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon horseradish cream

1 teaspoon mustard

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

250ml sour cream or greek yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

Put chopped eggs and herbs in the bowl (instead chopping by hand you may use a small food processor to do the job for you, you need only a few brief pulses). Add the mustard, horseradish cream, mayonnaise and cream and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve chilled.

Little pies with sauerkraut and mushroom filling

It took me a long time to perfect my recipe for these little pies filled with sauerkaraut and wild mushrooms. In Poland they are perfect accompaniment for clear soups, especially barszcz (beet soup that you may know by the Russian name borscht).
My pies are tiny, just for one bite. Here are some photos that will help you to learn how to shape them.

Little pies with sauerkraut and mushrooms
(Paszteciki z kapustą i grzybami)

about 100 tiny pies

Filling:
25g dried mushrooms
3 tablespoons butter for frying
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 medium white cabbage (approximately 500 g)
1/2 kg drained sauerkraut
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed fennel seed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
fine dry bread crumbs (optional)

Buttery yeast dough:
3 and 1/4 teaspoon dried yeast
100-125 ml sour cream 21% fat (about 6 -8 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon sugar
500 g flour
1 and 1/3 teaspoon salt
200 g butter
1 egg
3 egg yolks

On Top:
1 egg lightly beaten
3 teaspoons white sesame seeds
3 teaspoons black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon nigella seeds

Filling:
Soak mushrooms in water for 1 hour. Boil them in soaking water until tender (about 20 minutes). Reserve about 1/3 glass of the liquid. Drain the mushrooms and chop them very finely. Shred white cabbage very finely and cook for about 15 minutes in a large quantity of slightly salted water. Add sauerkraut and cook for another 10 minutes. Drain very well, let it cool and chop one more time. Brown onions in butter in large skillet. Add cooked cabbage, mushrooms, reserved mushroom cooking liquid, ground cumin and fennel. Fry for another 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the filling is too wet, you can add a few tablespoons of fine breadcrumbs.

Buttery yeast dough:
Mix yeast with cream and sugar. Leave for about 20 minutes or until it starts to bubble. Chop flour with butter. Add lightly beaten egg yolks, whole egg and yeast mixture. Knead the dough quickly, like a pastry dough (it should be shiny and quite soft). Cover and leave to rise on the counter (for about 50-60 minutes) or leave in the refrigerator overnight. (If you choose to refrigerate the dough, on the next day it should be taken out from the fridge and left on the counter for about 1 and 1/2 - 2 hours until it reaches room temperature).

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Arrange a filling in form of the roll and put it 5 cm from the edge of the dough. Wrap the dough around the filling, pressing well with your fingers to seal the filling inside. Cut off entire roll of dough with the filling and lay it on the counter (seam side down). Brush the top with egg mixture and sprinkle with sesame, caraway and nigella seeds. Cut in small triangles. Place the pies 5 cm apart on the oven tray lined with baking paper. Repeat the entire procedure with a new batch of filling.

Allow the pies to rise (usually when you finish filling your second tray the first one is ready to go to the oven). Bake for about 20 minutes or until the pies are golden.