This article originally appeared at forward.com. Reposted with permission. Read it here.
“In my house we never baked bread,” Łukasz Szlapa, a humble Krakowiak aerospace engineer and hobbyist bread baker, told me. “But we did bake szarlotka. It’s one of my first memories around food, the smell of baking apples, turning deep brown and caramelized in the szabaśnik, the ever-warm baking part of my grandmother’s piec kaflowy, the enormous, old, tiled stove that kept the whole house warm in her Beskidy village just south of Kraków.” There’s almost no Polish family without a szarlotka recipe—a short-crust apple pie with either a crumble or a second layer of pastry and occasionally a meringue topping. After all, the autumnal climate and its wonderful glut of apples suit it. Here we keep things classic with a slightly sour apple filling, the sweetness coming from a thick layer of crumble on top. Bake it and think of a little house with a big, tiled stove in the middle of the forest.
NOTE: Łukasz recommends using the early ripening papierówka apples, also called paper apples or white transparent apples. Cortland, Granny Smith, or any other tart baking apple will work as well.
Shortcrust Apple Cake With Streusel
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 batch Polkruche Dough
Topping
- Double batche Streusel (Kurszonka)
Filling
- 3 lb 5 oz apples peeled, cored, cut into 1" cubes
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 lemon (juice only)
Instructions
Making The Dough & Streusel
- Prepare the polkruche dough and streusel according to cookbook instructions (pages 191 and 346). Chill both for at least an hour.
Filling
- Put apples, sugar, and lemon juice in a large pot. Cover and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20 min or until apples soften. Set aside to cool for 30 min.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃) with convection setting on. Line a 13 x 9 in [33 x 23 cm] baking dish with parchment paper.
Dough Preparation:
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Work into a rectangle, approximately. the size of the pan. Trim edges for a tidy rectangle. Gently lift and place into the pan. Press to fit all the way, right to the pan edges. Prick all over with a fork. Chill the dough for 20 minutes. Blind-bake for 15 minutes, or until it's no longer shiny, and just beginning to turn golden brown.
- Once the base is blind-baked, remove it from the oven. Pour in all the apple filling and top with the streusel. Return it to the oven and bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until the streusel is golden brown and the filling bubbles.
- Allow to cool completely, then slice in squares and serve as is or with a dollop of whipped cream. If you like a delicious hot mess, don’t wait until it’s cool, just dig in right away. Store the cooled cake airtight at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or refrigerated for up to 5 days.
Notes
This recipe is from Laurel Kratochvila’s Dobre Dobre: Baking from Poland and Beyond. Reposted with permission. Read more about Kratochvila here.
Risen Shortcrust Dough (Ciasto Półkruche)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp full-fat sour cream
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp fleur de sel or 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1½ tsp double-acting baking powder
- 1 cup + 5 tsbp cold unsalted butter cubed
- 1½ cups confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until smooth and no streaks of sour cream remain.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder on low speed until homogenous.
- Add the butter and mix until the dough is sandy and no visible chunks remain.
- Add the sugar and mix until incorporated.
- Pour in the egg mixture in a slow stream and continue to mix on low speed until the dough comes together into a solid mass, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, form it into a thick disk, and wrap airtight.
- Chill for 1 hour or up to a week before using. In the freezer, this will last for up to 3 months. To use, simply defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
Notes
- Replace 50 grams of flour with 50 grams of cocoa powder
- ( in total: 3½ cups plus 1 heaping tablespoon [450 g] all-purpose flour and ½ cup plus 1 heaping tablespoon [50 g] cocoa powder).
- Mix in the cocoa powder with the flour and salt.
Streusel (Kruszonka)
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 7 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 9 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and granulated sugar.
- Use your hands to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a crumbly texture and no visible pockets of butter remain.
- Chill for at least 20 minutes in the fridge before using in your recipes, or store airtight in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
Hungry for more than recipes?
The Foodaism Weekly Newsletter brings you original essays, food stories, and cultural insights that go beyond what’s on the plate.
Join a community of thoughtful eaters who believe food is more than fuel — it’s meaning, memory, and connection.
Subscribe on Substack — free, curated, and full of flavor.
Because food is a story worth telling.
