Fried cookies called chrusciki are St. Hedwig's tradition at Polish Festival

Chrusciki played an important role in Sandi Murphy's childhood, and just one whiff of the fried, twisted cookies can work like a time machine.

Her "babci," she says, using the Polish endearment for grandmother, made huge batches of the sweet special occasion treats at Thanksgiving and tried to save them for Christmastime.

But hungry grandchildren were always well aware of the secret stash.

"She used to hide them in boxes on the steps in the attic," Murphy says, smiling. "But we knew they were there."

Shaped like bow ties and sometimes referred to as angel wings, chrusciki are classic, hard-to-resist Polish cookies that look delicate, but can keep for a long time. To maintain the crunch, the pastry's signature powdered sugar is dusted on just before serving. 

"If you put the powdered sugar on before, they get mushy," Murphy says.

The cookies, which hold warm memories for many Polish-Americans, will be a featured dish in the dessert tent again at this year's 62nd annual Polish Festival hosted by St. Hedwig's Church.

The free, six-day festival, held at the Wilmington Riverfront, begins Monday and runs through Sept. 29.

Making chrusciki for St. Hedwig's annual Polish Festival is a time-honored tradition. For more than six decades, a group of volunteers has gathered at St. Hedwig's Church hall off Linden and South Harrison streets in Wilmington to begin the labor-intensive process.

Parishioners volunteer their time as a show of devotion to their Catholic faith and Polish heritage. All festival proceeds go to the St. Hedwig's Parish, which first began ministering to Wilmington's Polish immigrants in 1890.

This year, the chrusciki volunteers are led by Murphy. For two days, in four different shifts, they'll make the cookies that spark fuzzy feelings of nostalgia.

"Some people call them the Polish pretzels. It's the twist," volunteer Terri Sarapulski says.

Nancy Lagowski grew up eating the cookies, but this is the volunteer's first experience cooking them.

"My grandmother never made them. We always bought them from a Polish bakery," Lagowski says, but added there were other homemade, traditional Polish foods in her home like babka; pierogi; and gołąbki, the stuffed cabbage rolls.

Recipes and ingredients for chrusciki vary. Some call for sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar and rum.

St. Hedwig's recipe calls for 32 egg yolks, 2 sticks of melted butter, 1 cup of sugar, two cans of evaporated milk, some vanilla extract, 5 pounds of flour and a jigger of whiskey.

And that's just for one batch. They'll repeat the process 10 times.

"One of the ladies from the parish used to run a catering business. We've used this [recipe] for a long time," Murphy says. 

"Whiskey?" asks a volunteer, glancing at the handwritten recipe.

"Always. The jigger sometimes turns into a large jigger," Sarapulski jokes.

"How do people not know there's whiskey in it?" says a surprised Sally Fillion as the volunteer ties on an apron. 

"I didn't know," Lagowski says.

Murphy says the chrusciki crew has its work cut out for it. Last year, they used 40 pounds of flour and it wasn't enough. They ran out of cookies.

This year, they've increased the amount of flour to 50 pounds and hope that it lasts throughout the festival.

The cookies cook fast, but the blending and rolling is time-consuming. After the eggs are cracked, yolks are separated from whites and blended with melted butter and sugar into an industrial mixer. (The egg whites will be used later to make coconut macaroon cookies, which are also sold at the Polish Festival.) 

Next comes the whiskey, vanilla and cans of evaporated milk. The flour is shaken in gradually, allowing it to blend together.

Church volunteer Steve Fillion helps remove the heavy dough from the mixer, and Murphy begins to knead it by hand.

"It's got to be soft, but not sticky," she says and stops to pinch the dough between her fingers. "I think we're there." 

The dough is then rolled out as thin as volunteers can get it. Thinner dough makes for crunchy cookies. Rolling pins were used years ago, but the church now has an electric dough roller that does the work for them.

Well, except this morning. Fillion can't get the machine to turn on.

"It doesn't have juice," he tells the volunteers as he fiddles with the motor.

Some begin miming rolling by hand, as Fillion tries to work out the "technical difficulties." 

"Well, there's always the old-fashioned way," says Murphy, just before Fillion gets the roller machine to operate. The crew cheers as the motor roars to a start.

The secret to success? "We prayed over it," Murphy says. "We all pull together, no matter what. There are good people here." 

The cookie making now goes faster and becomes almost like a factory line. Murphy and Fillion put the dough through a machine several times and then place the thin sheets on a table lightly dusted with flour.

From there, volunteers Kathy Dunworth, Nancy Lagowski and Sally Fillion cut the dough into ribbons and then fold each one into a neat bow tie. They work so fast, they joke that they feel like Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance from TV's famous "I Love Lucy" candy factory episode.  

Still, each takes the time to make sure the chrusciki are authentic.

"You have to give it a little tug so it looks pretty," Lagowski says, showing off a perfect twist.

The ribbons of twisted dough are placed on trays and then handed to Sarapulski, who mans several hot cast-iron pans filled with oil.

She fries the cookies quickly in the oil – maybe only 30 seconds at the most – just until they're lightly brown. "You can't have too much flour or that gunks up the oil," says Sarapulski, a chrusciki veteran.

Murphy says boxes of cookies also will be sold at the festival, but those will be made by professional bakers. Krystyna's Polish Bakery had been the longtime provider of Polish desserts for the festival, but the business is no longer operating.

Murphy says another bakery is doing the cooking this year.

"Serpe's Bakery is going to be Polish for a week," she says.

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico

IF YOU GO

WHAT:  St. Hedwig's 62nd annual Polish Festival. The chrusciki, or Polish angel wing cookies, made by church members will be sold in the dessert tent.

WHEN:  The festival is open 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Sept. 28 and 3 to 10 p.m. Sept. 29. Lunch is served 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and Sept. 28. 

COST:  Free admission and parking

WHERE:  Wilmington Riverfront

INFORMATION:  Visit polishfestival.net