This Chocolate Mocha Karpatka is my adaptation of a Polish cake that became popular in western Ukraine during the final decades of the 20th century. The original Karpatka is made from choux pastry with a vanilla crème pâtissière filling. My version flavors the cream puff dough with chocolate and the filling with coffee, a delightful combination.
Recipes often cross borders in neighboring countries. Many inhabitants of western regions of Ukraine have Polish roots, and some have relatives in Poland. When Karpatka became a popular dessert in Poland in the 1970s, this recipe came to Ukraine and was quickly embraced by local cooks.
The dessert is named after the Carpathian Mountains, Karpaty in Polish and Ukrainian, because the peeked and knobby surface of the cake, when dusted with confectioner’s sugar, resembles snow-capped mountain peaks.
Even though it looks dramatic, this Chocolate Mocha Karpatka is easy to prepare from pantry ingredients—milk, butter, eggs, flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, chocolate, vanilla, and instant coffee. This recipe works best when all ingredients are measured out by weight.
Karpatka’s two baked layers, essentially a giant cream puff, are made from choux pastry, which can be prepared in advance — baked, chilled, well-wrapped, stored in an air-tight container, and frozen for up to one month. When ready to use, these layers must be thawed overnight in the refrigerator and crisped for 8-10 minutes in a pre-heated 360°F (180°C) oven.
The stabilized cream filling can be made a day ahead but may need to be re-mixed with a dash of heavy cream to smooth it out. The cake can be assembled the day before or on the morning of the day served and refrigerated.
Chocolate Mocha Karpatka is best eaten on the day assembled, but will still be delicious for 2-3 days, if tightly wrapped and chilled. Karpatka will soften the longer it is stored. But it shouldn’t be frozen because the filling texture will change.
Chocolate Mocha Karpatka makes a luscious dessert. The buttery, chocolate puff pastry layers are complemented by a decadent, velvety mocha cream filling, creating an enticing blend of texture and sweetness that pairs well with black tea or coffee. Accompanied by a flute of champagne and a handful of raspberries or berry coulis, this Chocolate Mocha Karpatka is a perfect way to celebrate a special occasion.
Chocolate Mocha Karpatka
For the mocha pastry cream filling
4 cups (946 ml) whole milk
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
⅔ cup (130 g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon espresso powder
2 large eggs
4 egg yolks
½ cup (60 g) cornstarch
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
4 tablespoons (56.7 g) unsalted butter
1 ounce (25 g) 60 % cocoa dark chocolate bar, finely chopped or grated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
For the chocolate choux pastry
3 tablespoons (30 g ) Dutch cocoa powder
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (140 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (236 g) water
3 tablespoons (50 g) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon if using table salt
8 ounces (115 g) unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
4 large eggs, not all may be used or an additional egg may need to be added
Preparing mocha pastry cream: Whisk together the egg yolks and whole egg in a large bowl. Add ⅔ cup sugar and cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Set aside.
Combine 4 tablespoons of cold milk with gelatin in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes until the gelatin softens.
Combine the remaining milk, espresso powder, softened gelatin, and ½ cup sugar in a large saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once milk begins to boil, please remove it from the heat and slowly drizzle ½ cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, stirring vigorously. Then, add the remaining milk to the eggs, stirring constantly. When all the hot milk is added, pour the mixture into the saucepan and return to the stove on medium-low heat.
Cook the mixture for 5-9 minutes, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until the mixture has thickened and resembles a pudding. Continue cooking for another 2 minutes, whisking to dissolve any lumps. (Resistant lumps can be eliminated by pushing through a fine strainer with a spatula.) Add chopped chocolate, butter, and vanilla, stir, and let stand for 5 minutes, allowing butter and chocolate to melt. Once melted, stir well to combine, then transfer pudding into a heatproof bowl, laying a piece of plastic wrap over the surface to prevent skin from forming and cool to room temperature.
Mocha cream filling
Preparing choux pastry layers
Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Line two 8-inch (21cm) springform pans with parchment paper and grease with butter or cooking spray.
Prepared springform pans
Sift cocoa powder and flour together to remove clumps. Whisk after sifting so both ingredients are uniformly dispersed. Set aside.
Left: sifting flour and cocoa ; Right: blending dry ingredients
In a large saucepan, combine water, sugar, salt and butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly so the sugar, salt and butter melt before the water starts to boil.
Left: melting butter, sugar and salt in water: Right: combining with flour/cocoa mixture
Remove the saucepan from the heat when the butter has melted and the water has come to a boil. Immediately add the flour/cocoa powder mixture and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. Once the flour absorbs the water and forms a dough, return the pan to the stove on medium heat. (The dough will resemble wet mashed potatoes.)
Cooking pastry dough
Cook the dough for 2 minutes, constantly stirring until the dough forms a ball that does not stick to the pan sides and a thin film forms on the bottom of the saucepan. Remove from the heat.
Transfer the dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and let the dough cool for 10 minutes or until it is no longer hot to the touch but still very warm.
Adding eggs
With the mixer on low speed, add one egg at a time, mixing until fully incorporated before adding the next egg, scraping the sides of the bowl periodically to ensure thorough mixing. (Check the consistency of the dough for looseness after adding several eggs. Cocoa powder makes the dough heavier, so more egg may be needed for the pastry to puff up correctly during baking.)
Check dough consistency before adding the last egg. (It is important not to add too much egg, resulting in a flat-deflated puff layer.) When lifted with a spatula, the dough is ready when it forms a V-shaped tail. It should be smooth, homogenous, shiny, not matte, and firm enough to hold its shape. Once this texture is achieved, stop adding the remaining eggs. If the dough is too stiff, you may need to add the last egg or another egg in ¼-½ cup increments to achieve the correct consistency.
Place the dough in a sealed plastic bag or an air-tight container and set aside for at least 1 hour to cool to room temperature.
When ready to bake, divide the dough in half, and with a spoon, drop the dough in uneven but closely spaced mounds on the bottom of each prepared pan. With an offset spatula, lightly spread the dough to the edges in one of the pans, which will become the cake bottom, but leave the dough uneven in the other pan.
Dough ready for baking –Left: top layer; Right: bottom layer
Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 5 minutes. (The initial high heat will give the puffs an evaporation boost, helping to expand the pastries.) Reduce oven temperature to 375ºF (190ºC) and continue baking for 25 minutes more. Do not open the oven door at this point so the pastry does not deflate. After 25 minutes, the layers should be hardened on top. Open the oven door and quickly prick the top of each layer several times with a toothpick so that steam escapes.
Bake for another 5-7 minutes at 375ºF (190ºC) so the pastry can dry out a little. Transfer the layers from the oven to a cooling rack and prick the layers again to permit the remaining steam to escape. Set them aside to cool for 10 minutes before removing layers from the baking pans to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Baked layers
Assembling the Karpatka: Dab a teaspoon of mocha cream in the middle of the serving platter to anchor the cake. Place the ring from the springform pan on the platter, and line the walls of the ring with an acetate sheet or parchment for easier removal. Fit the bottom layer of choux pastry inside the ring (the one that is less puffed up). Press slightly to make it flatter.
Evenly spoon the mocha cream on top of the pastry layer and smooth it with an offset spatula.
Cover with the top choux layer, pressing a little so it adheres to the filling. Then, refrigerate the cake for 4-6 hours or preferably overnight until the cream has set.
When ready to serve, remove from the ring, acetate or the parchment paper if used, dust with powdered sugar, and serve with berries, a berry purée or chocolate sauce.
Serves 10-12
Ready to serve
Photo credits: All photos: Slava Johnson
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