Kolacz Weselny- Poland #89

AKA Polish Wheel Cake. This is a yeast raised coffee cake similar in texture to a babka but made in a pan without a central hole, with with a sweet curd cheese filling. Theses wheel cakes were traditionally served at weddings and other holidays in the south of Poland, but are rarely seen today. There are many recipes. Some make a lattice top over the cheese filling, others adorn theirs with braids and bird shapes. This version has a crumb topping. This recipe makes 2 large wheel cakes.

Cake:

3-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 T. sugar

1-3/4 c. warm milk

4 eggs, room temperature

1 c. confectioners' sugar

4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

8 oz. butter, melted and cool slightly

Filling:

2 lbs ricotta cheese or farmer's cheese

4 large eggs

2 c. sugar

1 T. vanilla sugar

Optional (1 c. raisins, plumped in water and drained)

Crumb Topping:

4 oz. cold butter

6 T. sugar

2 T. vanilla sugar

1 c. all-purpose flour

Cake: Grease 2- 9"x3" springform pans.
In a medium bowl, mix yeast, 1 T. sugar, milk and 1 c. flour. Set aside in a warm place to rise until light and foamy, about 15 minutes.
In a standing mixer with the paddle, add flour, salt and yeast mixture and continue beating until well incorporated. The mixture will be to loose for a dough hook.
Gradually add melted butter and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth and starts to blister, about 10 mins..
Scrape down sides, cover and let rise in the same bowl until doubled in size.
Stir down batter and pour 1/2 into each pan. Cover and let rise again until it comes 1inch from the top.
Crumb Topping: In a bowl, mix 4oz. butter, 6 T. sugar, 2 T. vanilla sugar and 1 c. flour. Set aside.
Filling: In a mixer bowl, beat together ricotta cheese, 4 eggs, 2 c. sugar, and 1 T. vanilla sugar. If using raisins, drain and add by hand. Set aside.
Preheat oven 325F
When batter has risen within 1" of top of pan, pour 1/2 of the filling on top of each batter and allow to sink in,pushing it down, if necessary.
Sprinkle half of the crumb topping on top of each cake.
Bake about 50-55 minutes or until batter is golden brown.
Let cool to room temperature before serving. Store in the refrigerator.

Results:A bit time consuming because of all the rising time but well worth it. I didn't have vanilla sugar so I scraped the seeds from vanilla beans and added the quantity of sugar. A purest will probably slap their forehead at this strategy, but I'll never know. I used cottage cheese, which worked just fine, but next time I'll use ricotta cheese. The cake is delicious on the first day. Once placed in the refrigerator it becomes a bit dry. Two cakes this large is a lot. I ended up with 2 large and 1 small. Of course, there are always people who will take them off your hands.

A-Z Cakes with Linda

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