Polish Kolaczki

Polish Kolaczki, the last batch of Christmas cookies for 2019.

I seem to refine this recipe every year. This year I discovered the value of putting the discs of dough between layers of parchment paper. It made rolling out the dough much easier. I would take one disc out of the refrigerator at a time, dust it with the sugar mixture and roll out the dough between the paper. It worked great! 

Adam’s Polish Kolaczki

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1/3 cup of confectioners' sugar for rolling

1 can Solo brand Apricot filling

Sift flour and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the cream cheese and butter together with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until completely incorporated and creamy (3-5 minutes).

Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add in the flour. I used 5 additions and completely mixed in the flour each time. The dough will be soft but not sticky.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and flatten each to ¾” thick. Place discs between layers of parchment paper and refrigerate until hard, at least 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 375°. Move the oven rack  in the center of the oven.

Sift together the granulated and confectioners' sugars.

Take one of the disks of dough from the refrigerator and lightly dust both sides with the sugar combination. Spread granulated sugar on your pastry board or work surface between layers of parchment paper. Roll out pastry to about 1/8” thick. 

With a pastry wheel or sharp knife, trim the dough into 2" squares.

Place a dollop of filling into the center of each square. I used ½ teaspoon to ¾ teaspoon for each.

Gently grab two opposite corners and fold one over the other, gently pressing down to try and seal them together. 

Gently move it to a parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat with all remaining squares, placing them about 1” apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are golden. Do not overbake.

Let cool about 10 muntes on the pan on a wire rack and then move them gently to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, dust with confectioners' sugar. It was recommended to me to wait until I was ready to use the cookies before dusting them dusting them with the confectioners' sugar.

Walnut Filling

For the Walnut Filling:

2 cups freshly ground walnuts (finely)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup of boiled milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix filling in a medium bowl. The mixture should be thick. If the filling is not spreadable, use the rest of the milk. I used all of it. It will thicken as it sits.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

A yummy piece of Pumpkin Crunch Cake!

I didn't realize that I had never posted this recipe until it showed up as a memory in my Facebook page from 5 years ago. I ended up making it on Saturday and took it to church for our after service social. It disappeared in minutes.

It's a little bit messy--sort of like a pumpkin pie without a bottom crust, but everyone loves it. I think it would be even better with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it was gone before I had a chance to do a taste test!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box yellow cake mix

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I think it needed more)

1 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pour mixture into greased pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture and top with pecans. 

Drizzle melted butter over pecans. 

Bake 50-55 minutes.

When cool cut into squares. Serve with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.

Libby's New Fashioned Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Libby's New Fashioned Pumpkin Pie bakes up beautifully!

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”  The Libby Pumpkin folks must have followed that mantra—the pumpkin pie recipe on their cans of pumpkin have not changed in over seventy years. Until this year. This year debuts a new pumpkin pie recipe to accompany the old one on the can label. I took the challenge and tried it out and I and my guests gave it eight thumbs up! The new recipe has a little more ginger, no granulated sugar, but sweetened evaporated milk instead, and comes out a little bit creamier. I found the cooking time to be a bit longer as well and be sure to put a foil cover on the crust to prevent over-browning. This will now be my go to pumpkin pie recipe!  

LIBBY'S NEW FASHIONED PUMPKIN PIE

INGREDIENTS

15 ounces (1 can) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

1 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

1 3/4 cups (1 can) or 14 oz. NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs

1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell*

INSTRUCTIONS

MIX dry ingredients in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and dry ingredient mixture. Gradually stir in milk(s).

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F; bake for 30-40 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

COOL on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

This pumpkin pie slices up beautifully.

RECIPE SOURCE: Nestle Very Best Baking Website https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/147629/new-fashioned-pumpkin-pie/?recipeSortBy=Relevancy&keywords=new+pumpkin+pie#

*I'm really not keen on refrigerated pie dough although I do use Pillsbury when I do, but I've learned a trick to make the pie dough taste better. When you have let it come to room temperature, take 2 Pepperidge Farm Shortbread cookies and pulverize them in a food processor to fine crumbs. Unroll your pie dough and sprinkle dough with about a tablespoon of crumbs. Use your hand to smooth out the crumbs evenly. Take a rolling pin and lightly roll the dough pressing the crumbs into the dough. Flip the crust over and repeat. Spray your pie pan with butter-flavored spray or coat it with a couple of teaspoons of real butter. Place your dough inside and pinch out the border. Refrigerate until ready to use. This makes for a much better tasting crust!

Easter Traditions--old, and new.

A few of my own personal Polish and Ukrainian Easter Eggs.

I miss the traditions associated with the Polish Easters from my childhood in Michigan—everyone wearing the ashes of Ash Wednesday, the fasting of Lent, the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday, the Stations of the Cross at noon on Good Friday, the blessing of the Easter Basket on Holy Saturday, and, of course, the beauty and solemnity of Easter Sunday with masses of fragrant Easter lilies surrounding the altar, brilliant white candles ablaze, and the smell of incense in the air. Even Easter lilies don't smell like they used to--they are very pretty, but not very fragrant.

I love Polish and other Slavic Easter eggs decorated in vibrant colors. The Polish word for decorated eggs is pisanki. I once tried creating them myself, but a tragic accident involving a broken bookshelf destroyed every one of my eggs. Since then, I began to collect eggs rather than create them. Some of my collection is visible here on my page. I found an outstanding website, Pisanki – the decorated Easter eggs in Poland,  that goes into much detail on the history of Polish Easter Eggs. There are also examples of eggs from different regions of Poland.

New Pysanky from the Ukraine, 2019.

At my grandmother’s home in Detroit, our Lenten fast was broken with a traditional Polish Easter soup (Biały Barszcz)—bowls filled to the brim with smoked meats, eggs, cheese, and rye bread, ladled over the top with a tangy white broth made from the cooking of the Easter kielbasa.

If you are looking for a recipe for our traditional Polish Easter soup, you can find it on my website here.

I found an idea for serving Polish Easter soup in rye bread "bowls". I thought it was a very creative idea. Click here to go to the website.

Dessert was usually a white cake covered in coconut in the shape of a Pascal lamb often made by my Aunt Hattie.

I often make a Easter Egg Nest Cake---it's a yellow cake accented with orange zest, and frosted with Sander's Buttercream Icing. 

A few weeks ago, I made a different cake that I thought would be a great cake for Easter because of its colors of purple-blue and vibrant yellow. The flavors of lemon and blueberry also make for a nice finale for an Easter Brunch.  

I found the recipe at Delish.com and made no changes to the recipe. It was delicious!

Lemon Blueberry Cake

INGREDIENTS

Lemon Blueberry Cake

1 18-oz. box vanilla cake, plus ingredients called for on box

Juice and zest of 1 1/2 lemons, divided, plus more zest for garnish

1 3/4 c. fresh blueberries, divided

3 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

3 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

pinch of kosher salt

2 thin lemon slices, for topping

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350º and grease three 9" cake pans with cooking spray. Line with parchment. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, then stir in juice and zest of 1 lemon.

In a small bowl, toss 1 cup blueberries and flour until completely coated (to keep the berries from sinking). Gently fold blueberries into the batter.

Divide cake batter evenly among prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Showing the beautiful layers of lemon buttercream and blueberries.

Make frosting: In a large bowl using a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat butter and 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Add remaining lemon juice and zest and heavy cream and beat until combined, then beat in vanilla and salt. (Add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar as desired for texture and flavor.)

Place a dab of frosting on cake plate (to keep cake in place) and place parchment strips on each side of the cake plate. Place down first cake and top with frosting, then top with second cake and frost.

Repeat with third cake and frost sides.

Garnish with remaining blueberries, lemon slices, and zest and serve.

I found the recipe here: Delish

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipes/a52625/lemon-blueberry-cake-recipe/

Happy Easter in Polish!

Adam's Chicken Riggies

Adam's Chicken Riggies

Adam's Chicken Riggies

I really enjoy finding and preparing U.S. regional dishes--Key Lime Pie from Florida, Shrimp and Grits from Charleston, City Chicken from Polish neighborhoods in the midwest, Cheesesteak Sandwiches from Philadelphia, etc.

I found this particular recipe on the Internet and it intrigued me as it appears to be a regional dish specifically associated with the Utica/Rome area of New York State. It is a spicy pasta with chicken and red and green peppers in a creamy tomato sauce dish.

I found most of the recipes for this dish to be much too spicy for me (and there are endless variations on the Net) so I played around with the recipe until I made one that suited my palate.  My contribution was using premade arrabiata sauce. You can easily make this dish spicier by adding additional arrabiata sauce, or dried red pepper flakes. I like it just as it is in this recipe. This recipe will easily feed five to six people.

Ingredients

MARINADE

1/2 cup dry sherry (I used 1/2 cup white grape juice and 1 teaspoon wine vinegar)

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

SAUCE:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 medium sweet red and green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 15 ounce can Italian diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups arrabiata sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 box (16 ounces each) uncooked rigatoni

1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

4 ounces cream cheese, cut up

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1-1/2 cups grated Romano cheese

Directions

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine sherry, 2 tablespoons oil, garlic and oregano. Add chicken; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Drain chicken, discarding marinade. Heat 2 tables olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches; cook and stir until no longer pink. Remove from pan.

3. In same pan, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add peppers, onion and garlic; cook and stir until tender. Stir in diced tomatoes, arrabiata sauce, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 8-10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Add chicken; heat through.

4. Meanwhile, in a stockpot, cook rigatoni according to package directions. In a small saucepan, combine cream and cream cheese over medium heat; cook and stir until blended. Add to chicken mixture; stir in Romano cheese.

5. Drain rigatoni; return to stockpot. Add sauce to pasta; toss to combine.

6. Plate pasta and sprinkle with fresh chopped basil.

Variations of this recipe on the Internet call for a much spicier version—too spicy for me. If you want to easily control the spiciness of the recipe you can add additional arrabiata sauce to taste.

If you try this recipe, I would love for you to post a comment and let me know what you think!