BA Bake Club: Plum Karpatka

Bon Appétit

Senior Test Kitchen editors Jesse Szewyczk and Shilpa Uskokovic dive into a recipe for plum karpatka, a Polish dessert Jesse describes as th

Key takeaways

• Jesse Szewyczk recommends beating choux pastry batter aggressively to incorporate air for a more dramatic puff.
• The karpatka recipe uses a no-bake cheesecake filling stabilized with gelatin to prevent weeping.

Main topics

• Plum Karpatka recipe breakdown
• Choux pastry techniques

Notable quotes

I called it the drag queen of Polish desserts because it's just big and boisterous and kind of silly.

Conclusion

The episode provides practical, technical advice for mastering complex

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:04) I'm Trilpa Ozkokovic. And I'm Jesse Supchak. Speaker 5 (0:07) We're both senior test kitchen editors at Bon Appetit. And Speaker 3 (0:10) this is BA Bake Club. Speaker 5 (0:14) Bake Club is Bon Appetit's community of confident and curious bakers. We're Speaker 3 (0:18) creating the nerdiest and most wholesome corner of the baking internet. Speaker 5 (0:22) Every month, we publish a recipe on bonappetit.com that introduces a baking concept that we think you should know. Then Speaker 3 (0:29) you'll go bake, and you can send us any questions you have or pictures of your finished creations. And Speaker 5 (0:34) we get together here on the podcast to talk about the recipe. The Speaker 3 (0:37) September Bake Club recipe for glazed apple pie fritters is live now on bonappetit.com. And we'll tell you a bit more about those at the end of the episode. Speaker 5 (0:46) But today, today we're diving into Jesse's Polish roots with his recipe for a plum karpatka. Speaker 3 (0:56) Listen, I've been I've been pitching a karpatka for years. This is just OK, I'm gonna be real. I didn't grow up eating karpatka. And we'll explain to you what this is. I feel like this is I'm building suspense here. Yes. But it's this Polish cake that I stumbled across several years ago. And I was like, this is cool. Speaker 5 (1:15) How do you describe it in your text? I love the phrase that you use. Speaker 3 (1:19) Oh, let me keep it. I called it the drag queen of Polish desserts because it's just big and boisterous and kind of silly. Showy. Yeah. Speaker 5 (1:28) It's a lovely dessert. Thank you. And Speaker 4 (1:30) you Speaker 5 (1:30) gave it a really nice, in a way, it was almost like a very New York Speaker 4 (1:33) spin. Yeah. With the cheesecake. Yeah, Speaker 5 (1:36) yeah, yeah. That's the whole thing. Okay, the photos that our bake clubbers have sent in of the karpatka have been absolutely incredible. They're Speaker 3 (1:42) big, yeah. Speaker 5 (1:43) I feel like there were a lot of skills that came together in this one from past bake club bakes. Speaker 3 (1:50) Yeah, those of you who have been around for a while, we did a peribreast, which is this big kind of tire of shoe that you fill with like a sweet filling. And for Speaker 5 (2:02) those who are listening, it's shoe as in shoe paste. Shoe paste, yes. Speaker 3 (2:06) Okay. Sorry, Jesse, didn't mean to cut you off. Not the gym shoes. Big tire shoe. And that was like a traditional way to cook pettish shoe. You know, you can make cream puffs, eclairs. And this is baking shoe in a cake pan, Speaker 5 (2:22) which Speaker 3 (2:23) I feel like is a very unique way to bake it. So it's like building upon that foundation we learned. several months back to create something completely different. Speaker 5 (2:32) I love that you did that because that's what baking is about. It's like these few things that you have and then you re-spin it in different directions. Okay, before we go any further, let's take a moment to get a brief, like, step-by-step tour of this recipe, okay? And for that, we're going to need our jaunty bake club music. Here it is. Okay, Speaker 3 (2:52) Jesse, walk us through this recipe. Yeah, and buckle up because it's a challenge. Not hard. But it takes some effort. Okay, let's start. Sure. So you're first going to start by making plum compote. And that's very easy. You just cook some plums with sugar and salt. And then when that's nice and thick, you're just going to finish it with some lemon zest juice and some vanilla. And that's your jam. So make sure you cool that, though, because it'll be warm. You need it to be nice and cool and thick. So as that's cooling, you're going to make your petichou, which we might be familiar with. So you're going to bring... a stick of butter cut into little pieces, some sugar, some salt, and water to a simmer. And with simmering, you're going to add some flour and then cook that into this like thick doughy paste. And then take that out, let it cool for a while, and then you're going to whip that in a mixer with some eggs. Divide that between two cake pans and bake them, and then watch as they dramatically turn into these giant wonky discs. So cool your discs, and as those are cooling, you can work on your filling. So this is like a no-bake cheesecake. So you're going to start by blooming some gelatin in some cold water. Let that sit. Then heat up just a tiny bit of cream. Pour that over that so it dissolves the gelatin. And then to that, you're going to add some cream cheese, some powdered sugar, some vanilla, some salt. And then you're going to beat that all together while adding some more heavy cream to kind of lighten it. And then that's your filling. So you can assemble everything at this point. So those two shoe puff discs you have, you keep one in a cake pan and then you put your filling in, you swirl it with the jam, put the other on top like a sandwich, let it sit overnight and it sets into this beautiful karpaka. And that's that. Speaker 5 (4:36) The drag queen of Polish desserts is here to impress. That's how the drag queen Speaker 3 (4:39) gets her beat on. The full beat. Speaker 5 (4:42) Have you ever... Made before Speaker 3 (4:46) this? I'm being called out and the answer is honestly no. Speaker 5 (4:49) You know, I Speaker 3 (4:50) love that. So this was a learning experience for us all. Yes. Yeah, and it was really fun. Speaker 5 (4:56) I want to get philosophical here and be like, just because we've never made something before doesn't mean we don't have the authority to make it. Speaker 3 (5:03) Do you know? I've made every component. I just haven't arranged the puzzle pieces in this fashion. Speaker 5 (5:09) Exactly. Yes. And we hope that that's what people in Bake Club, our members, take away. That by having these building blocks, you can make all these things, even if they're the first time you're making them. Speaker 3 (5:20) Ciopa, that's beautiful. Thank you. Speaker 5 (5:24) Okay, what occasion do people, like, well, it's a cake. You can eat it at any time. Sure, sure, sure. But, like, traditionally, I wonder when a karpatka is usually served and eaten. Speaker 3 (5:34) I think, like, traditionally, in Polish culture, it's for, like, holidays, like Easter, Christmas. And I guess this was, like. My summer version. Speaker 5 (5:44) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Speaker 3 (5:45) yeah. Like the flirty summer version of a crow podca. Speaker 5 (5:48) And I think something, the Easter connection, I'm thinking about, like my husband is Serbian. Speaker 3 (5:56) Miro? Speaker 5 (5:56) My Speaker 3 (5:57) husband. Speaker 5 (5:59) And they also have a lot of like shoe-based pastries. Like what? They have like something called a princess krovne, which is eclairs. Speaker 3 (6:09) Sure. Speaker 5 (6:10) Actually, they're cream puffs, to be honest, but no chocolate top. I'm not sure why they're called princess krovne, but they are. But I think Easter and Christmas, especially Easter, I think it's like after that fasting period. And then you're able to use all these rich ingredients like eggs and, you know, which... The defining factor of choux, I think, is how many eggs there are in the pastry. Yeah, Speaker 3 (6:29) it's like eggy. It's like doughy, eggy in a nice way, like custardy. Speaker 5 (6:33) Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I want to talk more about the pate a choux because it is really deeply fascinating. But let's start with, you know, the first component that you named, which is the compote. Why did you decide to go with plums? Speaker 3 (6:44) Well, a few reasons. I guess you can kind of use any jam you want. If you want sheet, you can buy a thing of jam. That's fine. But... I was thinking, oh, like what is a late summer produce? Because it's not quite the peak of summer anymore, nor is it cold weather. Speaker 5 (6:59) Yeah. And Speaker 3 (6:59) I feel like stone fruit is kind of that transitional fruit. But also plums are very traditional in Polish cuisine and baking. You know, like in like American culture, we have all these sayings about apples, like an apple a day keeps the doctor away or a good apple or various things. Like the Polish equivalent is plums. Like there's all these different sayings about plums. And it's just, and also like when you use red plums and you make a compote, that color is crazy saturated. It's very dramatic. It is like it stains your hands saturated. And I thought that would just be stunning. And I don't know, stone fruit's so underrated. Speaker 5 (7:36) Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:37) So I really wanted to give it a moment. Speaker 5 (7:39) How chunky do you like your compote? Speaker 3 (7:41) Nah. Not at all. A little bit. Speaker 5 (7:43) Yeah. Does it matter for the karpatka? Like how chunky it is? Like can people leave it a bit chunky or make it a bit smaller? They Speaker 3 (7:50) can leave it chunky, but just make sure you cook it down enough that it's not wet. Because you want it to thicken up enough that it doesn't seep out, you know? Speaker 5 (7:56) Oh. Yeah, yeah, Speaker 3 (7:58) yeah. Speaker 5 (7:58) So you want to dry enough. So when you slice it, it doesn't just weep all over. It's like thick and jammy. So Speaker 3 (8:04) if you're able to keep chunks while cooking it out, that's cool. Sure. But I think it might be hard. Speaker 5 (8:10) Got it. Speaker 3 (8:10) Yeah. And Speaker 5 (8:11) plums are pretty high in pectin. They Speaker 3 (8:13) are, yeah. Speaker 5 (8:14) They make a good like jam. Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:16) When it's warm, it can feel a bit loose. But then after like overnight in the fridge, it does thicken up quite a bit. Is Speaker 5 (8:22) that your recommended amount of chill time for the compote? Can anybody chill it for less and still manage to get away with it? Speaker 3 (8:28) I think you could, if you chill it for like an hour and it's like a shallow metal bowl, you're fine. Also, you can, if you're in a rush, which I was many times making this, I'll put it on a sheet tray. Speaker 1 (8:39) So Speaker 3 (8:39) it's like a very thin layer. And then that chills in like, I don't know, 20 minutes, you know. Smart. Speaker 5 (8:45) Yeah. So you just don't want it to be so warm that it will melt like the cheesecake filling. That's all we're trying to do, really? Speaker 3 (8:51) Yeah. Okay. Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Speaker 5 (8:54) Okay, that's great. Okay, we'll move on to the second component, which is our star. The shoe. The shoe. And I remember this is when you had a bit of a eureka moment. Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:05) I mean, honestly, like looking back, I'm like, maybe I'm stupid, but... Speaker 5 (9:08) Stop. Don't say that about yourself. Okay, Speaker 3 (9:11) I'm sorry. Speaker 5 (9:11) Apologize to Jesse, my friend. Speaker 3 (9:13) Okay, let's move on. So like, okay, when you make shoe, you bring your water to a simmer. with your butter, and then in that you can add salt and sugar if you want, and then you add your flour, and you cook it in the pan until it kind of sticks. And then that glob, you mix with eggs. And people mix it by hand. They just add the eggs. Sometimes they even crack the eggs right in the pan once it's cooled a bit. Some people do it in a mixer, and I thought that incorporating the eggs was just mixing them in. That's that. And the first couple tests, it got some nice height, sure. But then one day I'm like, I'm just going to mix it like crazy. Like when I add the eggs, I'm going to put it on high and I'm going to let it go for like five full minutes. And I could tell that the batter was aerated. It felt and looked different. And then I baked it and it was like. Speaker 5 (10:02) Dramatic. It Speaker 3 (10:03) was like a hat. Speaker 5 (10:05) Yeah, it was. It was like a little Speaker 3 (10:05) gnome hat. It puffed so much. I'm like, that's it. So just you need to like literally mix the shit out of your shoe and incorporate that air like physically, like mechanically. And it's going to expand and. Give you like two times the puff. Speaker 5 (10:19) Hmm. And does it matter, like, if you use a stand mixer versus a hand mixer? I don't think Speaker 3 (10:25) so. I think the stand mixer probably works better in this case. But you could use both. Speaker 5 (10:31) Yeah. The trick is to just keep going. Just keep going. With the crap out of it. Speaker 3 (10:35) Yeah. So you get a lot of air incorporated in there. Which makes sense because it's egg-based, you know? Yeah. Speaker 5 (10:39) And the egg is like trapping all that air. Speaker 3 (10:41) Yeah. So... It was really fun, though, to watch it expand. I remember someone, we'll get to this later, but someone was like, oh, because it expanded too much. I'm like, no such thing. Speaker 5 (10:48) Yeah. Speaker 3 (10:50) And Speaker 5 (10:50) then how, because choux in many ways is a very unique sort of dough. You're really cooking, you're pre-cooking the flour into this like weird, as you said, glob. Speaker 3 (10:59) Yeah. Speaker 5 (10:59) How do you know when it's ready to come off the heat? Speaker 3 (11:01) Sure. For me, like once when I'm cooking this dough, when I see a very thin kind of... They say like film, I guess is the word. A thin film starts to develop on your pan. That's a good sign typically that you've cooked it long enough. Speaker 5 (11:19) Oh, got it. Yeah. Because there's enough moisture, I guess, gone. So it starts sticking to the bottom. I Speaker 3 (11:25) think it's like at that point the starches are like pre-gelatinized and you're good to go. Sure. Yeah. Speaker 5 (11:30) Okay, so you make a shoe and you said one of the secrets to getting a really dramatic puff is to... Really beat it aggressively. Yes. Then we're putting it in the oven, and this you bake it in two cake pans. Yes. Which, unlike your peri-breast, which you bake on a sheet tray. Yeah, Speaker 3 (11:44) like freeform. Speaker 5 (11:45) How do you get these two discs out of the pan? Like, is it easy to flip out of the pan? Yeah, Speaker 3 (11:50) because you have a parchment round in the bottom of each one. So getting them out is not the hard part. I would actually say that getting the batter in the pan is slightly difficult because it's very sticky. Oh. And it's lined with parchment. Yeah. So it like moves around, you know? So I would suggest like taking a little bit of your shoe and making a little like little blobs. Goo dots. Goo dots. And then gluing your parchment down and then smearing the shoe on top. Got it. And if it's not perfect, it's fine because I found like say it's uneven. Speaker 5 (12:22) It Speaker 3 (12:22) kind of just adds to the uneven whimsy texture that you're going to get. So you don't have to be too precious. And Speaker 5 (12:27) what about greasing the sides of the pan? Do we have to? Speaker 3 (12:29) Got it. No. Not Speaker 5 (12:31) at Speaker 3 (12:31) all. I learned that the hard way. It's kind of like a souffle, you know, when they're like it needs to climb on something like the sugar. I think that greasing the sides made it too slippery and it didn't want to expand upward. Speaker 5 (12:42) Yes. Speaker 3 (12:43) Can Speaker 5 (12:43) we extend the same logic to the pan? Like if