An ' (, plural: ' ; also spelled ') is a braided ring-shaped
bread
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made food ...
that is boiled and sprinkled with
salt and
sesame
Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is c ...
or
poppy seeds before being baked. It has a white, sweetish, moist and chewy crumb underneath a crunchy golden-brown crust. Traditionally sold from street carts, it is a popular snack in the Polish city of
Kraków, where it has the status of a regional food with
protected geographical indication. It is closely related to, but distinct from,
bagel
A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is fi ...
s,
bublik
Bublik (also ''booblik'' or ''bublyk''; rus, бублик, búblik, plural: ''bubliki''; uk, бублик, lit=, translit=búblyk) is a traditional Eastern European bread roll. It is a ring of yeast-leavened wheat dough, that has been boiled ...
s and
pretzels
A pretzel (), from German pronunciation, standard german: Breze(l) ( and French / Alsatian: ''Bretzel'') is a type of baked bread made from dough that is commonly shaped into a knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical ...
.
Etymology
The term ' is
Polish. The Polish noun ', or ', derives from the verb ', "to parboil", which refers to the distinctive technique of boiling the dough before baking. The adjective ' denotes anything coming from or related to the city of Kraków.
Description
An ' is a ring-shaped baked product. It takes the form of an oval or, seldom, a circle with a hole in the middle. Its surface is formed by strands of dough, round or oval in cross-section, twisted into a spiral. The colour ranges from light golden to light brown, with a distinct sheen. A typical ' is in diameter, thick, and weighs .
The visible strands of the spiral on the crust are firmish to the touch and the surface varies from smooth to slightly rough. The crumb inside is pale, soft and slightly moist. The taste is sweetish, which is typical of bakery products that are first parboiled and then baked. ' are traditionally decorated by sprinkling them with various ingredients, including coarse salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds,
nigella
''Nigella'' is a genus of 18 species of annual plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native to Southern Europe, North Africa, South Asia, Southwest Asia and Middle East. Common names applied to members of this genus are nigella, devil-in-a-bush o ...
seeds, mixed herbs or mixed spices (
paprika,
caraway
Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.
Etymology
The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...
,
pepper), grated
cheese
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
,
onion flakes, etc.
Ingredients and preparation
The dough for ' is made from
wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...
, up to 30 percent of which may be replaced with
rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
flour. Other ingredients, per of flour, include:
* of
fat
In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...
,
* of
sugar,
* of
yeast,
* of salt,
* of water.
The dough is prepared using the
single-stage method. Once suitably mixed, the dough is set aside for initial rising, which may take from a few minutes in summer to an hour in winter. The dough is divided into small portions, which are rolled out and cut into strips. The baker twists two or three strips into a spiral and then forms a ring by twisting them around his hand and presses it against the table. The ring is placed on a board or mesh for
proofing, and then
parboiled
Parboiling (or leaching) is the partial or semi boiling of food as the first step in cooking. The word is from the Old French 'parboillir' (to boil thoroughly) but by mistaken association with 'part' it has acquired its current meaning.
The wo ...
in water with a temperature of at least until it rises to the surface. The water may be sweetened with very small amounts of
honey. The ' is then decorated and baked.
Once it has cooled, an ' may be placed in packaging. If packaged before it has cooled, it quickly loses its crunchiness and becomes rubbery. ' are usually sold unpackaged and unlabelled.
History
The earliest known references to ' being baked in Kraków, Poland's former royal capital, appear in the accounts of the court of King
Vladislaus II Jagiełło and his consort, Queen
Hedwig Hedwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Hedwig (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Grzegorz Hedwig (born 1988), Polish slalom canoeist
* Johann Hedwig, (1730–1799), German botanist
* Romanus Adol ...
. An entry dated to 2 March 1394 mentions the product using both its Polish name and its equivalent in Polish
Medieval Latin, ', or "rings": "for the queen, for rings of '
1 '".
In 1496, King
John Albert granted the bakers' guild of the city of Kraków a monopoly on baking white bread, including '. This privilege was subsequently confirmed by all Polish kings up to
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.
Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...
. Initially, ' could be made only during
Lent by bakers specially designated for that purpose by the guild. The guild issued a decree in 1611 regulating the sale of ' inside the city walls and the choice of bakers who were allowed to sell them.
A radical change took place in the 19th century. On 22 January 1802, a decree was signed which stipulated that any baker had the right to bake ' when it was his turn to do so. The bakers authorised to bake ' were selected by the drawing of lots. The custom of drawing lots probably ended in 1849, there being no evidence that it continued after that date. This could mean that, over time, the rules were relaxed and any baker could make ' on any day of the year, as is still the case today.
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, //Kraków city
, //Kraków county
//Wieliczka county
/mapframe>
' were sold from stalls which opened before 6 a.m. so that the inhabitants of Kraków could buy them freshly baked early in the morning. The guild monitored the quality and freshness of the products, eight of its members being responsible for carrying out checks on stalls. Any transgressions were severely punished. Eventually, people started selling ' in other ways. As late as the 1950s, they were sold straight from wicker baskets.
In modern times, ' have been sold not only in shops and bakeries, but also from street carts. There are between 170 and 180 such carts offering ' in Kraków today. An average of almost 150,000 are sold on the Kraków market in a single day.
The ' often features in campaigns to promote Kraków. As a well-known symbol of Kraków and Lesser Poland, it is often used in advertising aimed at locals and tourists alike. It has also won an award at the ' (Our Culinary Heritage) competition, and received a prize at the 2003 Polagra Farm international fair in Poznań. It always features at the ' bread festival, an event that is held regularly in Kraków.
See also
* List of breads
References
Sources
This article incorporates some text from Council Regulation (EC) No. 510/2006, "Obwarzanek krakowski" EC No. as published by EUR-Lex. According to the website'
copyright notice
"except where otherwise stated, reuse of the EUR-Lex data for commercial or non-commercial purposes is authorised provided the source is acknowledged ('© European Union, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/, 1998-2016'). The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by th
Commission Decision of 12 December 2011
"
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Further reading
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External links
10 Must-Have Foods from Polish Cities
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{{Street food
Culture in Kraków
Polish cuisine
Street food
Sweet breads
Yeast breads
Polish products with protected designation of origin