Yummy!
Friday, January 13, 2012 Publié par Eric Tenin
Today I discovered what a Makowiec is! It's a traditional Christmas Polish cake that can also be found in the North of France (not surprising since the North of France is a former area of polish immigration) and... in Paris! Hence the one I bought today in a boulangerie. Pretty good actually, even though it's a little dry ;-)
January 13, 2012 2:39:00 AM GMT+01:00
looks yummy. is that chocolate or prunes?
January 13, 2012 5:17:00 AM GMT+01:00
My question, too, Victoria. Only I was thinking chocolate or cinnamon. That would be a lot of cinnamon, though, so I vote for chocolate.
January 13, 2012 8:28:00 AM GMT+01:00
All thing yummy can be found in Paris :-)
I think cinnamon (?)
January 13, 2012 12:25:00 PM GMT+01:00
It isn't cinnamon, nor prunes, but poppy seeds. "Mak" in Slavic languages means poppy. This pastry can not only be found in Poland (frankly, I wouldn't call it traditional to that country), but also in Czech, Slovakia etc. Besides a roll, it is often made as a round cake with inner filling, e.g. http://www.varimezdrave.cz/makovy-kolac-s-mandlemi . Then, it's more juicy. ;)
January 13, 2012 12:42:00 PM GMT+01:00
Thank you ~~~~~~. I thought that was poppy. So glad to have the confirmation.
January 13, 2012 3:06:00 PM GMT+01:00
Poppyseeds? Interesting, but probably not something I would have tried unless, like Eric, I had heard the name and wondered for quite a while. I'm more of a fruit or chocolate girl myself. (Oh, for a raspberry pastry right now!)
January 13, 2012 3:20:00 PM GMT+01:00
btw., Eric where did you find it? was it in a boulangerie au Marais near to Saint-Paul? So far, that is the only shop where I saw it.
Christie: I don't want to sound too patriotic, but especially in the round cake it is pretty good. ;) the taste somewhere between liquorice and plum jam.
January 13, 2012 4:59:00 PM GMT+01:00
I may be in a minority of one, but I just can't get very excited about cakes and associated pastries - apart from the melt-in-the-mouth meringues which I used to get in my childhood from a bakery in Glasgow called The Fairy Dell which must have run out of magic dust as it has long ceased to exist. They have never been bettered. Oh, and those Chocolate Vienna triangular shaped biscuits which my grandmother always had in stock. They had layers of wafers of different flavours coated in dark chocolate. You never see them now, they were yummy, yummy, yummy.
Walnut Whips with the walnut INSIDE, not the later chocolate deficient efforts with the walnut on the top. The fun was working your way through the thick chocolate then licking the creamy filling to reveal the walnut residing within. Much more enjoyable way of removing your teeth than a painful visit to the dentist.
January 13, 2012 5:48:00 PM GMT+01:00
"Makowiec" sounds like an acquired taste.
January 13, 2012 6:09:00 PM GMT+01:00
I'll be patriotic and I'll say that "makowiec" is the best cake of all. And yes, it should be moist and have some raisins in it , with some icing on top. It goes lovely with black tea or coffee . In Poland you can also get "makowiec" that is cut in little squares that has a different cake base ( the rolled one is made of a sweet yeast bread, the squared has a shorcrust base), but there is a whole lot of different possibilities , just check it out : http://mojewypieki.blox.pl/html/1310721,262146,21.html?292264
January 13, 2012 8:02:00 PM GMT+01:00
Wow! Makowiec a Paris! I recommend to taste it in Poland :)
January 13, 2012 8:58:00 PM GMT+01:00
Other than that, Drummond, I take it you don't like pastries.
January 13, 2012 10:10:00 PM GMT+01:00
This is one of the things that makes Paris unique in all the world.... Beautiful (and tasty) things that come out of the best kitchens in the world set out in shops on every street for strollers from far and wide to taste, sample and admire... Many try to copy and some come close but Paris will always be the queen.... B.T.W. , The Winter Sale extravaganza at Galeries Lafayette, and a few other high end Paris fineries started a couple of days go, and if your in Paris for any reason, PLEASE do yourself a monster favor and go over to Galeries Lafayette to shop...even for an hour.
You'll never be the same !!
January 13, 2012 10:49:00 PM GMT+01:00
Parece gostoso!
January 14, 2012 4:13:00 AM GMT+01:00
I never knew this was Polish!!! I grew up in a Hungarian household and they were called "bajgli" - I always thought they were German, but are very traditional for Christmas in Hungary. My mother had a hand grinder for the poppy seeds (mak - with an acute over the "a" - in Hungarian). She would grind the seeds to a kind of paste, mix in icing sugar and some finely grated lemon zest - yummy! yummy! I liked this mixture, although never really liked the finished pastry. The other traditional filling is ground walnuts.
January 14, 2012 6:14:00 AM GMT+01:00
You can get this treat here in Brooklyn, in the Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint. Good to know you can find it in Paris too!