Mazurek with dolce de leche

Can I squeeze in one more Easter recipe...? I made it Saturday afternoon as the last thing on my Easter baking list.  Last because it is the easiest. You can mess it up a bit here and there and it will still turn out irresistible. 

Mazurek is a Polish tradition and certainly is my family's. It's exclusively prepared on Easter: crumbly/crunchy crust with a caramel-type top. I've made it many times before, using different ingredients and methods.

This year, I didn't experiment at all. I went for an old recipe (in my mom's cook book) and a caramel cover that doesn't require any work.

Hania and Julian decorated Mazurek. I thought it looked spectacular. Especially after the whole tray fell on the floor ... and the little chick got that funny look.

Recipe (the crust) adapted from Kuchnia Polska (old old version, not sold any more)
time: for cake = 20 preparation + 1 hr inactive + 15 min baking; for caramel = 3 hrs cooking

 ingredients 
for bottom
2 cups (480 ml) flour; I used 1/2 cup (75 g) regular flour + 1 1/2 cups (180 g) whole spelt flour
1/2 cup (80 g) powder sugar
10 Tablespoons (150 g) butter, cold and diced
1 medium egg, cold
zest from 1 medium lemon, grated
for top
1 small can (530 g/19 oz) condensed sweet milk
nuts and things for decoration

 instructions 
to prepare crust: In a food processor with steal blades, pulse butter with sugar and flour till oatmeal texture (10 seconds). Add egg and lemon zest. Pulse more till a mass forms (and not any longer). Take the dough out of the machine, form a ball, wrap it with a plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F (fan forced function). Take out your rolling board. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your baking sheet. Put the paper on the rolling board. Take the cold dough out of the fridge. Cut off 1/3 of it and put it aside. Using a rolling pin, roll the rest (2/3) of the dough, on top of the parchment paper, till tin and fitting your sheet. Transfer everything onto the baking sheet. From the rest of the dough, using your hands, roll a bar, finger-wide. Attach it to the edge of the cake to build a border. Puncture the dough with a fork in a couple of places.

Place the baking sheet in the hot oven for about 15 minutes till you see some goldening around the edges or in the middle of the crust. Take it out. Let it cool to room temperature before applying a topping.

to prepare topping: submerge an unopened can of condensed milk in a pot with boiling water and cook it on low heat for 3 hours. Take it out, let it cool for 30 minutes. Open the can, stir the content with a fork and spread it on top of cooled crust.

Decorate it to you liking...

NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES

• the only place you can mess it up is baking till burned, so keep an eye on the oven and the cake;
• during the cooking of the can, the white-colored milk inside changes into a thick, deep golden caramel; I don't know why but it does...
• it beats standing and siring milk with sugar for hours - what we used to have to do as kids;
• I actually cooked two cans, doubled the crust and made two Mazureks; one is never enough...