Krakow-style cheesecake with nuts and raisins is a traditional Polish cheesecake baked in a rectangular cake pan. It is made with Polish-style farmer’s cheese and shortcrust pastry on the bottom and top.
Usually, the shortcrust pastry on top is decorated with a distinctive grid and glaze. Thus, this traditional Polish dessert is often called ‘a cheesecake with grid’. For this type of cheesecake, you should use full-fat farmer’s cheese.
It could be assumed that cheesecake reached Poland in 1683, thanks to John III Sobieski and his victory at the Battle of Vienna, in joint command of Polish, Austrian and German troops. However, Cracovians modified well-known Vienna style cheesecake and added a decorative grid.
Ingredients:
- Dough:
- 1lbs all purpose flour
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 packet of vanilla sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ block of butter
- 1 egg
- 2 yolks
- Cheesecake filling:
- 1 block of butter
- 2,5lbs full-fat farmer’s cheese
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 8 yolks and 5 whipped whites
- grated orange peel/nuts and raisins
- 3 tsp potato flour
Recipe:
- Into a large bowl sift together flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix with a spoon.
- Add egg and yolks and knead the dough. Divide it into 4 pieces and set aside three of them in the fridge for about 30minutes. Roll out the rest of the dough.
- Put the dough on the bottom of a rectangular 11×15 cake pan.
- Grease the sides of the cake pan with butter (you can also use baking paper instead).
- Then, grate the butter and sugar until creamy mass. Continue beating, add potato flour, yolks and whites. Then, spoon by spoon add cheese. Finally, add grated orange peel and combine all together with a spoon.
- Pour the cheese filling into the bottom layer of the cheesecake. Next roll out the rest of the dough, cut it into strips and arrange on top to form a grid.
- Bake for 70-80 minutes at 170°C/338°F.
Enjoy!