Polish Carpathian Cream Cake (Karpatka)
by Marta Beimin
Marta Beimin (martaxeats) is a cook based in Gotland (a small island in Sweden) who is spreading awareness of her Polish heritage through food. She shared with us her recipe for Karpatka; a traditional Polish cream pie filled with custard. In this version Marta uses our cooking chocolate to make a rich chocolate custard, which is layered between Choux pastry with sour cherry jam.
Marta's recipe is evocative of her native Poland, "when you look at the Choux pastry from above, it is shaped like a mountain landscape." We find this recipe works particularly well with our 70% Ecuadorian Dark Cooking Chocolate; the fudgy/brownie notes work well with the tartness from the jam.
Ingredients
Method
Chocolate choux:
125ml water
125ml milk
125g unsalted butter
150g flour, sifted.
20g sifted high quality cocoa powder
5 eggs at room temperature
Additional: 1 flat teaspoon baking powder
Chocolate filling:
750ml milk
100g castor sugar
2 egg yolks at room temperature
2 tablespoons high quality cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
5 heaped tablespoons potato starch
4 tablespoons flour
200-250g very soft unsalted butter
100-120g 70% Dominican Republic 70% Cooking Chocolate, melted and cooled down
Sour cherry jam:
300g fresh/frozen sour cherries without the pits
10-20g castor sugar
2 teaspoons potato starch
2 tablespoons cold water