Home recipe kuchnia polska

Drożdżówki z serem i kruszonką

Name: Drożdżówki z serem i kruszonką
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 190 min
Cuisine: kuchnia polska
Ingredients: 450 g mąka pszenna (typ 450 albo 500, plus trochę do podsypania); 30 g drożdże świeże (albo 10 g drożdży instant); 200 ml mleko (letnie, najwyżej 37°C, czyli 99°F); 65 g cukier; 2 pcs jajka (w temperaturze pokojowej); 65 g masło (roztopione i przestudzone); 1 pinch sól; 320 g twaróg tłusty albo półtłusty (suchy, zmielony albo przeciśnięty przez praskę); 100 g cukier puder; 50 g masło (miękkie); 1 pc jajko; 1 tbsp cukier waniliowy; 0.5 pc cytryna (tylko otarta skórka); 1 tbsp mąka ziemniaczana (tylko do wilgotnego sera, niekoniecznie); 80 g mąka pszenna; 40 g cukier; 40 g masło (zimne); 1 pc jajko (do posmarowania); 20 ml mleko (do jajka); cukier puder (do posypania, niekoniecznie)

Round rolls made from fluffy yeast dough with sweet cheese filling inside and buttery crumble on top, just like in a Polish bakery. The recipe yields 12 pieces, includes a method for a thick cheese filling that doesn't leak, and substitutes for cheese and yeast abroad.

Servings: 12 sztuk
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Difficulty: Medium

Trzy polskie drożdżówki na białym talerzu: dwie z nadzieniem pod kruszonką i strużkami lukru, jedna zawijana z rodzynkami

The story behind the recipe

Polish Wikipedia describes drożdżówka as sweet yeast bread with filling, often topped with icing, glaze, or crumble. Fillings can include poppy seeds, white cheese, pudding, blueberries, and other fruits; there are also cheese-poppy seed drożdżówki. This same roll has several names in Poland: in Greater Poland, it's called szneka (from the German Schnecke, meaning snail), in Podlasie it's bułka słodka, and in Silesia kołoczyki. The exact time when drożdżówka appeared in Polish homes and bakeries is uncertain: verified sources do not provide this information.

The oldest dated recipe for such rolls that I found is referenced in the Traditional Products List of the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2010, "Śląskie kołaczyki wykwintne" was entered on it: small, round yeast rolls with cheese, poppy seed, or apple filling, topped with crumble and powdered sugar, measuring 5–10 cm in diameter. The card quotes the book by Walburgi Fójcikowej "Nasza kuchnia," published in April 1937 in Czeski Cieszyn. The dough is beaten there until it "pulls away from the bowl and gets bubbles," the risen rolls are filled with cheese or poppy seeds, brushed with an egg mixed with sweet cream, and sprinkled with crumble, and after baking, brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar. On the same list, since 2023, there is "Bułka drożdżowa z kruszonką z Dzwonowej" from Podkarpacie, a rectangular pastry with cheese and crumble, which was already baked for holidays in the 1960s and served to guests at family celebrations, as well as during harvest and potato digging.

Drożdżówka with cheese is primarily an everyday roll from the bakery, enjoyed with tea and for second breakfast. Ania Gotuje mentions that she bakes them in the evening so they are ready for school in the morning. They had disappeared from schools for a while: according to the mp.pl service, a regulation from the Minister of Health in August 2015 removed drożdżówki from school shops, and the portal wrote in a headline about the "drożdżówkowe underground." Since September 1, 2016, after the regulations changed, drożdżówka returned to the shops.

Ingredients

Ciasto drożdżowe

450 g mąka pszenna (typ 450 albo 500, plus trochę do podsypania)
Abroad: USA i Kanada: all-purpose flour; Wielka Brytania: plain flour; Niemcy: Type 405 albo 550
30 g drożdże świeże (albo 10 g drożdży instant)
Abroad: USA: fresh cake yeast bywa trudno dostać; zamiast tego 10 g instant yeast albo 12 g active dry yeast
200 ml mleko (letnie, najwyżej 37°C, czyli 99°F)
65 g cukier
2 pcs jajka (w temperaturze pokojowej)
65 g masło (roztopione i przestudzone)
Abroad: unsalted butter
1 pinch sól

Masa serowa

320 g twaróg tłusty albo półtłusty (suchy, zmielony albo przeciśnięty przez praskę)
Abroad: USA i Kanada: farmer's cheese albo odciśnięty dry curd cottage cheese; Niemcy: odsączony Quark albo Schichtkäse; Austria: Topfen; Wielka Brytania: twaróg z polskiego sklepu
100 g cukier puder
Abroad: powdered sugar / icing sugar
50 g masło (miękkie)
Abroad: unsalted butter
1 pc jajko
1 tbsp (15 ml) cukier waniliowy
Abroad: Niemcy: Vanillezucker; USA i Wielka Brytania: 1 łyżeczka vanilla extract
0.5 pc cytryna (tylko otarta skórka)
1 tbsp (about 9.5 g) mąka ziemniaczana (tylko do wilgotnego sera, niekoniecznie)
Abroad: potato starch / Kartoffelstärke albo cornstarch

Kruszonka

80 g mąka pszenna
Abroad: all-purpose flour / plain flour / Type 405
40 g cukier
40 g masło (zimne)
Abroad: unsalted butter

Do wykończenia

1 pc jajko (do posmarowania)
20 ml mleko (do jajka)
cukier puder (do posypania, niekoniecznie)
Abroad: powdered sugar / icing sugar

Method, step by step

Take the eggs, butter, and cheese out of the fridge in advance so they reach room temperature. For the starter: crumble the yeast in a cup, mix it with a teaspoon of sugar from the listed amount, add 2 tablespoons of flour and about one-third of the lukewarm milk, no more than 37°C (99°F), and stir. Cover and let it sit for about 15 minutes until it foams and rises.
Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the remaining sugar, salt, eggs, the starter, and the rest of the milk. Knead by hand or with a mixer hook, and when the dough starts to come together, gradually add the melted, still lukewarm butter. Knead for about 10–15 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and starts to pull away from the bowl. It should remain soft and slightly sticky; do not add too much flour.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place without drafts for 1–1.5 hours until it doubles in size.
For the crumble: cut the cold butter into small cubes, add the flour and sugar, and quickly rub it with your fingers until small, moist clumps form. Store the bowl in the fridge until needed.
For the cheese filling: grind or press the cheese through a ricer. In another bowl, cream the soft butter with the egg, powdered sugar, and vanilla sugar, then add it to the cheese along with the grated lemon zest and mix until smooth and thick. If the cheese is moist, stir in a tablespoon of potato starch.
Briefly knead the risen dough on a floured surface and divide it into 12 equal parts. Shape each into a smooth ball, slightly flatten it with your hand, and place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving plenty of space between them. Cover with a cloth and let rise for about 45 minutes until the rolls noticeably puff up.
Make a deep indentation in the center of each roll: press firmly with the bottom of a floured glass until almost to the baking sheet, leaving a thick edge. Place a full spoon of cheese filling into each indentation and slightly smooth it out.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), top and bottom heat. Beat the egg with 20 ml of milk and brush it around the edges of the dough around the cheese. Take the crumble out of the fridge and generously sprinkle it over each drożdżówka, both the dough and the cheese. Let them sit for about 10 minutes to rise a bit more.
Bake each sheet separately on the middle rack for 18–20 minutes until the edges are golden and the crumble is browned.
Transfer the drożdżówki to a rack to cool. Before serving, you can dust them with powdered sugar through a sieve.

Tips

If the cheese filling leaks or is runny, the cheese was too wet. Ania Gotuje notes that cheese from a bucket cannot be runny. Drain the cheese and grind it or press it through a ricer; Moje Wypieki used cheese three times. If the cheese is moist, add a tablespoon of potato starch, as in the Coffee & Vanilla recipe. If the cheese is very dry and crumbly, Polish Your Kitchen adds one or two tablespoons of sour cream.

If the dough is sticky, Ania Gotuje writes that the dough should be soft and sticky. Do not add too much flour to the bowl; just sprinkle some on the countertop and your hands while shaping, as advised by readers of Polish Your Kitchen.

If the starter doesn't rise, the milk was too hot or the yeast was too old. The milk should be just lukewarm, no more than 37°C (99°F); if the starter doesn't foam after fifteen minutes, make it again with fresh yeast.

If the rolls merge into one flat cake, Ania Gotuje advises leaving plenty of space on the baking sheet, as the drożdżówki will rise further. Bake them on two sheets.

If the indentation disappears in the oven, press it firmly with the bottom of a glass, as described by the Women's Agricultural Circle from Wilkowice, and place a full spoon of cheese filling in it.

For other fillings, Wikipedia mentions poppy seeds, pudding, blueberries, and other fruits, as well as cheese-poppy seed drożdżówki. Polish Your Kitchen recommends poppy seed filling, and in the Smaker recipe, some rolls get a plum filling. The kołaczyki from the Traditional Products List have cheese, poppy seed, or apple filling. Instead of crumble, you can drizzle cooled drożdżówki with icing made from powdered sugar and lemon juice, as in the recipes from Kwestia Smaku and Ania Gotuje.

For serving, the Women's Circle from Wilkowice recommends drożdżówki with warming tea. Ania Gotuje packs them for her children to take to school. After cooling, you can dust them with powdered sugar.

For storage, Margot from Coffee & Vanilla keeps drożdżówki in an airtight container and writes that they are also very good the next day. Verified sources do not provide information on whether and how to freeze them.

Abroad, the cheese must be dry. In the USA and Canada, the closest option is farmer's cheese from Polish delis and some supermarkets (Polish Your Kitchen uses 500 g (1 lb) for her drożdżówki) or drained dry curd cottage cheese. In the UK, you can find twaróg in Polish shops. In Germany, use Quark drained overnight in a cloth or firmer Schichtkäse, in Austria Topfen. Margot from Coffee & Vanilla, a blogger from Brighton, makes the filling with cream cheese because it is easier to buy and doesn't need to be mashed, and Anna from Polish Your Kitchen confirms that cream cheese works well. Fresh yeast is hard to find in the USA: Red Star sells it seasonally, only in some states. 30 g (1 oz) of fresh yeast can be replaced with about 10 g (⅓ oz) of instant yeast or 12 g (½ oz) of active dry yeast. Flour: in the USA and Canada, all-purpose flour; in the UK, plain flour; in Germany, Type 405 or 550. Vanilla sugar in Germany is Vanillezucker; in the USA and the UK, replace a tablespoon of vanilla sugar with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Potato starch can be found as potato starch or Kartoffelstärke, and if necessary, it can be replaced with cornstarch. Similar rolls with cheese can be found in bakeries as Czech and Texas kolache, Austrian Topfengolatschen, or Eastern Slavic watruszki.

Photos

Okrągłe drożdżówki z białym serem oraz z ciemnym nadzieniem i kruszonką w koszyku pod lnianą serwetą, z Sanoka

Drożdżówki z serem i z budyniem na ladzie polskiej piekarni, z ręcznie pisanymi cenami

Trzy drożdżówki gęsto posypane kruszonką na małym talerzyku

Cakes and desserts Breakfast Polish cuisine Vegetarian Substitutes abroad

I made it

Did you make this dish? Tell us how it turned out and what you changed. You can add a photo and a rating.