salted caramel cake

06 Apr Salted caramel Mazurek with hazelnuts

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An easy Polish Easter cake

It wouldn’t be a Polish Easter without Baba and Mazurek cakes. It’s been a busy, joyful holiday so far, filled with walks in the woods, Easter egg hunts, lamb feeding and a generous amount of feasting. In my last post, I showed you the dish I contributed to the Wielkanoc feast this year – pierogi that are eaten inside the traditional fermented rye soup. Today, I’m sharing my sweet contribution – salted caramel Mazurek. It’s a very easy cake to make, though can be quite elaborately decorated. I’ve seen people go to great lengths creating intricate patterns from nuts and raisins.

My Mazurek

I’m a „less is more” cook, and don’t have the time or energy for anything that I consider to be faffy (blame the ADHD, again). To me it feels more elegant to whimsically throw some delicious, caramelised nuts over the top of it anyway. I love a geometric pattern, as long as I’m not trying to create it on top of a cake. Each to their own, as we say in the UK. For me, a Mazurek needs to contain some salt, for flavour balance. This is not traditional. The main differences between this Mazurek and the one in Polska are the caramelised hazelnuts (instead of pacans), the coconut sugar in the dough, and about 50% more filling. I also added a couple of extra toppings – Ferrero Rocher chocolate eggs and a crumbled Biscoff biscuit. They made the whole thing even more indulgent.

A recipe for Salted caramel Mazurek with hazelnuts

A Polish caramel cake traditionally made for Easter, it can be decorated in any way you wish.

Salted caramel Mazurek with hazelnuts
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Salted caramel Mazurek with hazelnuts

Recipe by Zuza ZakCourse: DessertCuisine: PolishDifficulty: Easy
Servings

8

servings

This is another version of Mazurek, based on the original salted caramel Mazurek in Polska cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 300g plain flour

  • 125g coconut sugar

  • 200g butter, salted, room temperature

  • 3 egg yolks

  • 2 tablespoons soured cream or creme fraiche

  • Filling

  • 600ml sweetened condensed milk

  • 1 tablespoon butter

  • 1 tablespoon coconut sugar

  • 100g hazelnuts

  • A few pinches good quality sea salt

  • Small chocolate eggs (I used hazelnut praline filled eggs), halved

  • Biscoff biscuit, crumbled (optional)

Directions

  • Place the tins of condensed milk in a pan and cover so that there is at least 2cm or an 1inch of water over the top. Bring to a boil, the turn the heat down and simmer for 3 hours, adding more water, so that the cans are always covered. Once cool, open the cans and stir a little salt through the caramel.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  • Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar and butter in a large bowl and mix between your fingertips until it’s all thoroughly combined and resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yolks, vanilla and soured creme and bring it together into a dough with your hands.
  • Grease your cake tin, which needs to be quite flat. Line this with the dough, pressing it into the sides. If you have baking balls then put them in and bake for 15min until golden. Cool.
  • In a frying pan, melt the butter, add the coconut sugar for the topping, followed by the nuts. Toast for a few minutes until caramelised. Allow to cool.
  • To put it all together, spread the caramel over the pastry and decorate with the caramelised nuts, chcolate easter eggs and the crumbled Biscoff biscuit (if using). Sprinkle with more sea salt.