Polish Papal Cream Cake on St. John Paul II's feast day

Those of you who know me in real life know that, when Archbishop Gregory of Atlanta (now Cardinal Gregory of Washington) confirmed me on November 19, 2016, I took upon myself the name of Pope St. John Paul II, thus assuming him as a personal patron. Today is his feast day, so I thought this week’s recipe would be the “Polish Papal Cream Cake” (“Kremówka Papieska” in Polish) as it’s become in recent years—since people found out it was his favorite dessert. As a young boy, the young Karol Jr. (the future Pope) would get some money from his father (Karol Sr.) and go to the corner bakery after school to get some of this cake on a fairly regular basis. The affinity remained as he grew and became Fr. Karol, Bishop Wojtyla, Archbishop (and then Cardinal) Wojtyla, and Pope John Paul II.

For John Paul, connecting back to his Polish roots was his way of relaxing-- eating Polish food, watching Polish TV, reading Polish literature, speaking in Polish. No matter how long he was away from his homeland, he never lost that part of his identity, and always treasured the things that reminded him of where he had come from. 

I haven’t ever made this myself (but I remember having the idea but not being able to make this last year), but I have read a number of recipes, and this is my presentation of this one. 

This recipe begins with creating puff pastry. I have never made puff pastry, and that process is quite complicated and labor-intensive, so I’ll let Josh Weissman explain how to make it here. 

Once you have a completed pastry, move on to the cream. The first recipe I mentioned I would be going off of reminds us we have three crucial elements of mise en place (I’ve talked about this a lot in savory cooking, but of course, it’s just as important in sweet baking): (1) finding a bigger bowl than the one in which we’re mixing the cream and filling it with ice, (2) locating a fine-mesh strainer and (3) setting that strainer on top of a bowl about the same size as the original, in the ice inside the bigger bowl, to receive the contents of the mixing bowl. Hang on; this game of “musical chairs with bowls” will soon make more sense.

The recipe online says to “bring milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, cornstarch, and egg yolks to a boil, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. [My comment: you’re trying to create a custard cream, not a sweet take on scrambled eggs, so if you see little bits of egg yolk floating around, you’ve made an irrecoverable mistake and should throw everything away and start over. You want to pasteurize the yolks so they are safe, but you want to keep their creamy consistency] Keeping this mixture moving with a wire whisk by hand (since it’s so essential that this be done constantly) might get tiring, so I suggest using a hand-held mixer on low to medium-low speed, with a whisk beater instead of the traditional beater design. In a pinch, I suppose the traditional beater design might also work, but it’ll certainly incorporate less air into this mixture, so the risk that something will catch on the bottom and burn increases if you either don’t whisk by hand or use the mixer at a low speed with the right whisk attachment.

That online recipe then recommends switching to a wooden spoon to reach the corners and allowing everything to boil for another minute once everything has been incorporated thanks to the step above involving the whisk. Whether you switch implements, don’t allow anything to burn on the bottom or on the sides. Keep everything moving constantly. Once you’re satisfied with the cream, move it from the saucepan through the strainer into the small bowl about the size of the saucepan. The small bowl should be sitting on ice in a big bowl. According to the original recipe, the ice is only there to stop the cooking of the custard, not to chill it to room temperature or even further.

Then, according to the same recipe, assemble the cake first with one piece of puff pastry (you should divide your block of pastry made according to Josh’s recipe in half), then the cream, then the other piece, and chill in the fridge until set. The original recipe calls for a 13-by-9 pan, but I suppose any dimensions would work, as long as you make your pastry the right size for your pan and having more or less height than the original recipe assumes is acceptable to you.

Once the cake has chilled and set in the fridge overnight, dust with powdered sugar, cut into square portions, and serve.

To all of us under John Paul II's patronage, happy feast day! St. John Paul II, pray for us!

If you make this, be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you think!