91/365: Mazurek

91/365: Mazurek, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

April 1st

500 grams of flour
250 grams of butter
150 grams of powder sugar
3 egg yolks

Mix the flour and butter until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs
Mix in the sugar and egg yolks until you have a dough. If it is too dry, add a little cream.
Wrap up in cellophane, refrigerate for about an hour.

This is your pie and cookie dough. Roll it out thin, and be careful that it doesn't burn in the oven. And let the crusts cool before you take them out of the pans and pour in the filling.

The filling is chocolate, and you're on your own there- it's a matter of preference. The general rule is to sit a pot inside a saucepan of simmering water, and melt down a combination of dark and milk chocolate. You can add nutella, you can add fudge spread- just be careful that it doesn't get too hot and start clumping.

Pour it into the pie crusts, shake them gently to spread it evenly. And then start decorating.

For the above I used mini choux, green pumpkin seeds, almonds, milk dragees, and a cookie.

Done? Congratulations, you have just made a traditional Polish Easter cake, the mazurek. But you can't eat any of it until after the Resurrection!

The idea is to get creative with your decorating. As a child I used to play with cookies and that horriffic coloured icing which comes in little tubes and requires samsonic force to be squeezed out...until somewhere around 2007 I discovered seeds.

Seeds look classy. They look sophisticated. They look rustic, quaint, traditional.

They taste better than the icing. Although I did make some of my own almost-royal icing this year and used it on some of the cakes- particularly those with no nuts, meant for my sister who claims nuts make her sick. Also, if I get too comfortable with the seeds my mother complains that there are 'no crazy mazurki'...

So, for your appreciation, here are all the Easter treats we baked this year:

...and in 2009...

...and in 2008.

How's that to make your mouth water?

Here, I made a flickr set with ALL of my mazurki pictures from the last three years.