A Special Recipe For Holy Week

My family’s favorite Easter pastry

This is a special week for many of our readers. Hindus are wrapping up Holi, the festival filled with colors, signifying the start to spring. Our Jewish friends have been celebrating Passover.

For many Christians, it is the start of Holy Week. And in my family, that meant preparations for Easter Sunday.

This year, Easter is sneaking up on a lot of us. We’ve been distracted by the pandemic, focused on finding vaccines, juggling all manner of changes to our lives.

But there is still time to bake, and I want to share my family recipe for Mazurek.

It is a rich, shortbread based Easter cake, topped with marzipan, jam, icing, candied fruit and optional nuts that you find in Baltic countries as well as Poland.

My brother Frank is especially good at baking Mazurek, but it is something any pastry lover can attempt.

It is literally easier than pie, because you are simply patting the crust into the pan.

A few tips if you decide to make one:

1) Don’t overbake the shortbread

2) Thin the marzipan with a little milk to make it spreadable.

3) Let it cool before adding the toppings

4) If it gets a little difficult to cut, warm it 10 seconds at a time in the microwave

Whichever holiday you are celebrating, may it be healthy and peaceful. Better times are coming! (I’ll be back to celebrate with our Greek friends in a few weeks.)