Christmas Time

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It's the time when the whole house smells of gingerbread and spruce. In the morning on the 24th of December my dad shops for a fresh Christmas tree, mom makes pierogis and borsch in the kitchen (pierogis with cabbage and mushrooms are traditional Polish Christmas dishes) and me and my sister bake cookies. Then there is time to decorate the tree. And when the first star shows on the sky we have Christmas dinner with twelve dishes. Before we start we share a Christmas wafer and wish each other good health, happiness and good life.

For Christmas, I usually bake poppy seed roll, cheesecake, gingerbread cake and lots of different cookies. And my mom also boils, yes boils babka (cake) from an old family traditional recipe. She is pro in making boiled babka :)

I'm still in the stage of discovering Canadian products and looking for ingredients to make traditional recipes that I brought from home. This year baking is not as festive as previous years but I ended up making ginger bread cookies.

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 tablespoons honey
2/3 cups sugar
1,5 teaspoon baking soda
1 teasppon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teasponn ground clove
half tespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1/3 cup warm milk

Mix all ingredients together (add egg and milk at the end) and knead the dough. Roll the dough 5 mm thick and use cookie cutters to cut out christmas shapes. Whatever leftover dough roll out again and cut out more cookies. Bake cookies in 180 Celsius degrees for about 15-20 minutes. When they cool you can decorate them, use icing or melted chocolate, anything you want :)

Gingerbread cookies are soft right after taking them out from the oven, later they get hard but if you put them in a plastic bag for couple days they will get softer again. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Recipe inspiration from Kwestia Smaku.

Great day, great people, great sweets! Food Blooger's Bake Sale Holiday Edition.

20 bloggers, tons of sweets and one idea to support Calgary Meals on Wheels.

Last weekend at the Casel Marche Calgary Food Bloggers were selling home-made sweet goodies.

The founder of the event Vinnci also inivted POLKA girl. I had a chance to meet great people, exchange experiences and of course support Meals on Wheels.

We raised an unbelievable amount of $2,050.31!!!

It was one day of ingredients shopping and four days of baking for me. I made faworki, traditional Polish pastry, rugelach with pecans and appricots (my favourtie) and also mini apple orange and coconut pies and mini chcocolate rasberry muffins. I hope all of you who bought them really enjoyed them :) There were some people for whom faworki brought up their childhood memories. It was really great to hear.

I also had an occassion to get some tips on food photography from Rafal Wegiel. He taught me about the importance of light and my camera seetings.

So it was wonderful day!

I am really looking forward to the Bake Sale Spring Edition!

The night before the Bake Sale I was making faworki :)

Food Blogger Bake Sale, Holiday Edition

Do You like home made baking? Then you can’t miss this event, the Food Blogger Bake Sale, Holiday Edition! Saturday December 8th from 10 am till 4 pm in Casel Marche. Come by to get some delicious cookies, cakes, cupcakes and more. Great Polish goodies made by POLKA girl will be there too :) All the money from the sale goes to Calgary Meals on Wheels.

I would like to thank Vincci, the founder of the Food Blogger Bake Sale, for inviting me for the event! I am really happy to meet Calgary bloggers while also helping others in need.

Rugelach with pecan and apricot stuffing

It took me a little bit longer than I promised but here it is, the recipe for Rugelach, traditional Jewish pastry that can be made with sour cream or cream cheese. They don’t look that exciting but they are delicious! You will not regret it when you try out this recipe. They were gone immediately. The amazing dough with its flavorful stuffing will melt in your mouth.

To make the dough use:
200 g unsalted butter
200 g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
2 cups flour

To make the stuffing use:
200 g pecans
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
50 g dry apricots
½ cup icing sugar
lightly whipped egg white

Use a mixer to mix the butter and cream cheese. When it becomes smooth add the flour. Put the dough in the fridge for an hour. Blend the pecans, cinnamon and icing sugar. You would then the add chopped apricots and melted butter while adding the egg white at the end. Roll the dough 3 mm thick, cut into circles with around a 20 cm diameter (you can use a bowl or I used a pot lid with sharp edge). Divide the circle into 8 triangles, put stuffing on each of them and roll. Bake at 180 Celsius degrees for around 25 minutes, until they are golden brown.
Enjoy!