Karpatka is a traditional Polish cream pie with some sort of vanilla buttercream filling – areated butter mixed with eggs beaten and steamed with sugar (krem russel)[1][2], areated butter mixed with crème pâtissière (according to Polish gastronomy textbooks made from whole eggs)[2] or just thick milk kissel enriched with melted butter[3].[note 1] Professionally it is made of one sheet of short pastry covered with a layer of choux pastry with a thin layer of marmalade and a thick layer of cream in between.[1][2][4][5] Nevertheless, the version with two layers of choux pastry is popular.[5][6] The cake is cut into squares or rectangles and dusted with icing sugar.[1][2]
The dessert takes its name from the mountain-like pleated shape of the powdered choux pastry, which resembled the snowy peaks of the Carpathian Mountains – Karpaty in Polish.[7]
The origins of the desert are unclear; it most likely emerged at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, but its popularity only became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s.[5] The official name "karpatka" was first coined or recorded in 1972 by a group of philology students.[5][8] Traditionally, one large slice of the pie was served with coffee or tea.
There are "karpatka" baking mixes available in shops across Poland. In 1995, "Karpatka" became a trademark registered for a company called Delecta for the determination of cream powder in the Polish Patent Office.[5][9][10]
^For the purposes of this article, it is assumed that any boiled cream made of milk kissel enriched with egg yolks (or whole eggs) qualifies as crème pâtissière
References
^ abcdKonarzewska, Małgorzata (2011). "3.8 „Ciasta parzone (ptysiowe)"". Technologia gastronomiczna z towaroznawstwem: podręcznik do nauki zawodu kucharz w technikum i szkole policealnej. Vol. 2. Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. p. 116. ISBN978-83-7141-980-5.
^ abcdeFlis, Krystyna; Procner, Aleksandra (2009). "„Wyroby z ciasta parzonego" (page 159), „Wyroby z ciasta francuskiego" (page 181),". Technologia gastronomiczna z towaroznawstwem: podręcznik dla technikum. Część 2 (XVIII ed.). Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. ISBN978-83-02-02862-5 (część 2), ISBN978-83-02-03170-0 (całość). Note: the theory part (page 159) mentions krem russel and krem półtłusty śmietankowy. Krem półtłusty is a cream made of areated (whipped) butter mixed with krem śmietankowy (fr. crème pâtissière). A recipe for the krem śmietankowy can be found in the chapter „Wyroby z ciasta francuskiego” in the „Napoleonki” recipe (page 181) – it doesn't contain cream as the name may suggest, it is a boiled cream made form milk, sugar, wheat flour, eggs and vanilla or vanilla essence.
^ abS.A, Wirtualna Polska Media (October 28, 2019). "Karpatka". kuchnia.wp.pl.
^ abTomasz Ciechoński. "Delecta kontra Dr. Oetker: Wojna dwunastoletnia o karpatkę". Gazeta Wyborcza. 37 (wydanie z dnia 15/02/2011 Mój biznes, s. 26). Agora SA.
