Kuleczki Raffaello (Raffaello Balls)

Raffaello, a cream and coconut sweet, is definitely the biggest treat for me:) And there is no more fun than making your favourite sweets by yourself! So, I’m giving you my secret Raffaello recipe, I’m sure it will become an enjoyable sweetie by many…

Prep time: 20 min, easy

Waiting time: 1 hour

Serves: 30 little balls

Ingredients:

1 butter

1 glass of powder sugar

2medium eggs

150 g coconut shavings

100 g of digestive biscuits, dry waffles or ‘Herbatniki’ from Polish Shop (recommended)

50 g Hazelnuts or whole almonds

Method:

1.     Cream butter in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer. The butter should become soft and creamy.

2.     Add sugar and eggs to the butter. Keep creaming the ingredients.

3.     Put six tablespoons of coconut shavings into a separate bowl and save them for later. Add the rest into the butter and mix it in.

4.     Put the butter into the fridge to chill for about 1 hour.

5.     Crash biscuits or ‘herbatniki’. I use an electric blender, but you can use a rolling pin.

 

6.     Add the biscuit crumbs into the butter and mix them int.

7.     Mold walnut-size balls of the cream. Stuff them with a hazelnut or almond and cot with coconut shavings. To add an element of surprise, stuff some of them with hazelnuts and some with almonds.

8.     Put the ready balls into the fridge to rest. They will be ready in half an hour! Store them in a cool place. Enjoy!

Babeczki Kajmakowe (Kaymak Cupcakes)

A sweet treat for a picnic, surprise you beloved ones with heart-shaped kaymak cupcakes. Kaymak, originally from Middle East, is a sweet dairy product, similar to clotted cream. A walnut, covered under a dark chocolate coat, will add the cupcake a special character…

Prep time: 50 min, moderate

Cook time: 4 hours

Serves: 30

Ingredients:

Pastry shells

250g flour

150 g butter

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

3 tablespoon powder sugar (icing sugar)

Pinch of salt

Kaymak

250 ml cream 36% (Ask in Polish Shops for ‘Smietana 36%’)

4 tablespoons sugar

Decoration

Walnuts

Dark Chocolate

Method:

Pastry shells

1.     Sift flour into a mixing bowl.

2.     Add chopped butter, salt, and sugar. Beat in the egg.

3.     Mix the ingredients with your fingers.

4.     Add some milk and cream the ingredients together.

5.     Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in a kitchen foil and put into the fridge for about 30 minutes.

6.     Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

7.     Roll the dough so it’s about 3-4 mm thin. With a glass cut little circles of the dough, little bigger then your baking forms. I decided to use small heart-shape forms, but you can use any shape or size.

8.     Grease your baking forms and start putting the cut off circles into them. Smooth their edges with a knife. Prick the bottoms with a fork.

9.     Bake the pastry shells for about 25-30 so they’re gold.

10. Take them out of the oven and let them to cool down. Take the pastry shells out of the forms, very gently. They’re ready to filled in with kaymak now!

Kaymak (Simple Method)

1.     Boil the cream mixed with sugar, stirring occasionally. Boil it as long as it gets dense and golden, about 2 hours.

2.     Let kaymak to cool down.

Cupcake

1.     Fill in your pastry shapes with ready and cooled kaymak.

2.     Leave it to rest for about 20 minutes.

3.     Decorate cupcakes with walnuts.

4.     Melt dark chocolate and coat walnuts with it. Leave it to cool down.

5.     Serve your cupcakes on a plate, or put them into a box like a bonbon. Enjoy!

Babeczki z Budyniem i Jagodkami (Cupcakes with Milk Pudding and Berries)

Pretty and summery, the cupcakes with berries are a delicious and light pudding. Polish cupcakes are usually made of short crust pastry. They could be filled in with anything, from sweet to savory stuffing. Milk pudding is not only a popular cake filling in Poland, but also can be a nice pudding on its own. And berries are yummy, healthy and decorative. I took my cupcakes for a picnic on a beach in Bournemouth, everyone loved them!

Prep Time: 70 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

Pastry

250 g flour

150 g butter

100 g icing sugar

1 egg

Pinch of salt

Optional: pinch of vanilla

Milk pudding

2 eggs

150 g sugar

3 tablespoons of potato flour

1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar

½ liter milk

1 tablespoon of butter

2-3 tablespoons of favourite jam

Raspberries, blackberries or other fruit for decoration

Method:

Pastry

1.     Cream butter with a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl.

2.     Add, step-by-step, sugar, salt, eggs and flour, creaming the ingredients constantly.

3.     Mold a ball of the mixed pastry and put for about an hour into the fridge.

4.     Cupcakes forms coat with butter and breadcrumbs.

5.     Roll the pastry so it’s 0,5 inch thick, and put it into the forms.

6.     Bake cupcakes in pre-heat oven for about 20 min. Keep checking on them so they get nicely golden.

7.     Take them out of the forms, still warm, and let them to cool down.

Milk pudding

1.     Cream all the ingredients (apart from milk and butter) in a pot.

2.     Boil milk in a separate pot.

3.     Slowly pour boiled milk into the cream, and keep stirring.

4.     Boil the cream with milk and keep stirring to get cream-like consistency.

5.     Mix in some butter and leave to cool down.

Cupcakes

1.     Spread some jam inside the cupcakes.

2.     Fill them with milk pudding.

3.     Decorate with berries. You can also use almonds, nuts or fruit chunks.

Enjoy!