Kranz!

This pastry is a family recipe, from the Polish side. I never got to meet my grandfather, nor any other members of that line. The siblings of my father, yes, but no one from beyond that. Who knows who they are? Falkowski isn’t common, but it's not uncommon in certain areas either. So, the secret history of the Falkowski version of Kranz may never be known!

Anywho, the recipe that we have is somewhat cryptic and it's very strange for a pastry. I am not publishing it because it is truly unique to my family and if you want something similar you can try this
Recipe. It's very similar, ingredient amounts and how it's all put together are different, but it's very close.

Our recipe starts out like you are making biscuits, cutting butter into flour and sugar and stuff. Then, you add egg yolks to that, and cut them in (I have never ever added eggs to a recipe this way, is it truly as odd as I think it is?). Then you add yeast and milk (not warmed) and stir a bit. You have a lumpy, gooey batter now and it sits in the fridge for usually over night when we make it. Then you treat it like bread dough, kneading it with flour and stuff. The end result is soft, rich, eggy danish and it's very, very good. We usually have it at Christmas.

I made some for a dinner/D&D (dungeons and dragons) night I have with co-workers this week, because one of our group is off to Germany. It's a German/Polish/Jewish food, with large number of variations and so I thought it would be good. And one of my co-workers, who is more Polish than I, has had it before. So I was relived to finally meet someone outside of my family who has heard of it.

If you ever want my family's kranz, you will have to join us for Christmas or a special occasion. =)