SUNDAY DESSERT #65: Mazurek Królewski
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Poland 🇵🇱
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Intermediate
INSPIRATION: This dessert is found on nearly every Polish table at Easter. Why not ours, too?
RECEPTION/COMMENTARY: After the practice of fasting for 40 days during Lent, the Poles created this rich and sweet dessert for the celebration of Easter. Polish for "Royal Mazurka", this latticed dessert is supposed to look like the jewels in the crown of royalty.
The rules of making a mazurek are very loose and there are many varieties. The most traditional way is to fill the top with fruit preserves but it's not unheard of to have chocolate, nutella, peanut butter, almond paste, lemon curd, or meringue as the filling. Basically, you need some sort of thin shortcrust that is made with a nut flour and hard-boiled egg yolks (which is a convenient way to use up leftover Easter eggs) and then fill it with any topping you'd prefer. There's really no right or wrong way to do it and, as such, you will find that no two recipes are ever even close to being identical.
So. The review. The crust to preserves ratio is kind of wonky. It's like you're eating a whole bunch of pie crust with a slight hint of fruit aftertaste (peach and raspberry in my case). Maybe I needed to pile on more of the preserves? Or maybe I needed to make the crust even thinner? Or maybe that's how it's supposed to taste? I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love pie crust. But I was expecting this mazurek to taste more fruity. As a result, I gave it a 6/10. The crust really is delicious though and I'm in love with my new baking tool of including hard-boiled egg yolks to shortcrust dough. It's amazing how it adds another dimension of taste and richness that you can't get from butter alone. I'm pretty sure I just heard the French gasp...
Fun Fact: Some mazureks are beautifully decorated with a nut arrangement of pussy willows. Pussy willows are significant because they are the first plant to bloom in a Polish spring. Instead of using palm branches to commemorate Palm Sunday, the Poles wave pussy willows to signify Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
WOULD I MAKE IT AGAIN? I don't think so. Not unless I have a Polish baker guide me through this to make sure I got it right.
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