Mazurek (cake)
Mazurek (plural: Mazurki ) is a traditional cake of Polish cuisine that is rooted in Polish Easter customs and has been baked for centuries alongside the babka at Easter. Its exact origin is unknown. Mazurki are relatively thin, of variable size, tend to be rectangular in shape and are most commonly found as sheet cakes .
They are made from at least two types of dough, the base always being shortcrust pastry . On the outside, the surface is always surrounded by a dough crown made of sand dough . A second layer of dough can also be applied to the base, for example made of sand dough, batter , sponge cake or macaroon mixture . Yeast dough and puff pastry are unsuitable. Now the cake is either baked and then covered and decorated with jams or couvertures of various kinds (including cream, nut, chocolate or colored fruit couvertures ), or it is spread with one or more jams and very often with adorned with a sand dough lattice. At the end, an Easter mazurek is always decorated and often labeled with dried fruit, almond chips, coconut or chocolate sprinkles, icing and other aids. Let it rest for two to three days to pull it through.
Homemade Easter mazurki of various sizes are often given away to family, friends and acquaintances. They are also usually part of the Święconki - the food that is carried in a basket at Easter for the traditional food blessing.
The rest of the year, the mazurek is also available, but only in simpler forms.
See also
literature
- Maria Lemnis, Henryk Vitry, W staropolskiej kuchni i przy polskim stole . 4th edition. Interpress, Warsaw 1986, ISBN 83-223-1712-3 .
- Robert Strybel: Polish Holiday Cookery and Customs . Hippocrene Books, New York NY 2003, ISBN 0-7818-0994-0 , ( The Hippocrene cookbook library ).