Hello all and welcome to Monday Coffee Break. I’m posting late tonight (house buying excitement/toddler antics have delayed my writing!) so for all intents and purposes let’s call this Monday Wine Break Tonight, shall we? Good. My Malbec agrees. Let me start by saying I hope everyone’s holiday was a smashing success, and by that I mean, you ate way too much, had a few cocktails, and laughed a lot. Let’s take a gander at my humble Turkey Day Table…
and let’s get one with the bird in here…
I also made these cute little recipe booklets for our family, that had Thanksgiving day recipes in them.
I used a template from The TomKat Studio to make the recipe booklets and also the menu for my table.
To my suprise there were actually no weird antics or bizarre happenings that occurred this holiday when my family gathered together. My husband and I have decided that that, in itself, is quite bizarre. So instead of familial madness…
Photo from Ecological Sociology
…I decided I wanted to share this recipe for Makowiec with you. This polish poppyseed pastry is a family tradition on my husbands side of the family. His Grandmother used to make it on every holiday and the family would devoir it. When she passed away a few years ago, he asked me if I would be willing to try to make it. Of course I was honored, and I gave it my best shot.
The first year was good, but not exactly as he remembered. The second year, I was almost there. Then this year…I nailed it: “This is exactly like my grandmother’s tasted.” I used a recipe from Kiss Me I’m Polish ( I feel like this is how I hit the home run this year).
Ingredients
4 cups flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees)
1/2 cup sugar
7 Tbsp butter, melted
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 portion of filling (you will need two jars of poppyseed filling, one for each roll)
1. Dissolve yeast, 1 Tablespoon sugar in the warm milk. Add 3/4 cup flour and let stand in a warm place for 15 minutes.
2. Beat the egg yolk with 1/2 cup sugar light and double in volume. Add the yolk mixture, 1 egg, salt, remaining flour, and butter to the yeast mixture.
3. Knead dough until it becomes smooth and elastic, and stop sticking to your hand. Cover and and let stand in a warm place until it is double in size (about 1 hour).
4. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Roll each piece into a rectangle about 1/4″ thick and brush on the egg white. Spread the poppy seed filling onto each rectangle, leaving a clean 1/2″ border around the edges.
5. Roll up the dough and seal the seams as best as you can. Brush the beaten egg mixture on the tops of the roll and bake for 40 minutes at 400 F.
Not too shabby, eh? For me, this is what holiday’s are all about. Carrying on family traditions and making those special people in your life feel even more extra special. Is there really any better way to do both of those things than with food? I say no. No , there is not.
And so I leave you with this folks. I hope you enjoyed this almost midnight version of Monday Coffee/Wine Break…I know I did. See you on Thursday with a recipe that I think might surprise everyone…The fact that I pulled it off definitely suprised me!
xoxo,
