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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Opole
Yeast-based cake covered with a buttery streusel, made plain or filled with white cheese, poppy seed or apple. It is the wedding cake of Opole Silesia and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
Traditional sweet from Opole
Also known as: kołacz śląski, kołocz
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Kołocz śląski — Opole, Poland
Kołocz śląski is a low yeast cake, baked in a tray and cut into squares. On top it has a butter, sugar and flour streusel, applied in little pieces with the thumb, which becomes golden and crunchy; once cool, the cake is dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Tradition knows four versions: plain, filled with white cheese, with poppy seed and with apple. The cheese version can include raisins and lemon zest.
Kołocz is a ritual cake: it must not be missing from the family’s most important celebrations. The best-known custom is that of the bride and groom, who on the eve of the wedding bring kołocz to relatives and friends. The cake comes from the old medieval wedding cake, which was expensive and symbolized abundance for the new family; over time it also became an everyday cake.
In July 2011, the name kołocz śląski or kołacz śląski was registered as a protected geographical indication of the European Union. The name is reserved for production that follows the specification, in the Opole voivodeship and in some districts of the Silesian voivodeship. The cake has also been on Opole’s List of Traditional Products since 2007.
Opole
Kołocz is the wedding cake of Opole Silesia, and the voivodeship presents it as one of its best-known regional products.
Yeast dough made with wheat flour, milk, butter, eggs and sugar. Streusel of butter, sugar and flour. Fillings: white cheese with raisins and lemon, poppy seed or apple.
Served in squares, with coffee, dusted with sugar.
Weddings and family celebrations; also for everyday consumption.
Your questions
A Silesian yeast cake topped with a buttery streusel, plain or filled with white cheese, poppy seed or apple. It has a European Union protected geographical indication since 2011.
It comes from the old wedding cake. In Opole Silesia, the bride and groom traditionally bring kołocz to relatives and friends on the eve of the wedding.
Yes. Kołocz is the Silesian spoken form and kołacz the standard Polish form; the geographical indication registers both names.
Flavors of Poland
Stew of sauerkraut and cabbage with various meats, smoked sausage and dried mushrooms, slowly cooked and reheated over days until the flavors meld. It is one of the dishes most connected to Polish identity and appears in the national poem Pan Tadeusz.
Round yeast dough pastry, fried, without a hole, filled with jam—traditionally rose petal or plum—and dusted with sugar or covered in icing. It’s the sweet of Tłusty Czwartek, the fatty Thursday before Lent, celebrated across the country.
Dumplings made from unleavened dough, boiled in water and sometimes browned in butter, with savory or sweet fillings. The ruskie, filled with potato and fresh cheese, are the most common, and the cabbage with mushrooms variety is served on Christmas Eve.
Vodka made entirely in Poland from rye, wheat, barley, oats, triticale or potatoes grown in the country. The name is a national geographical indication that applies to both neutral vodka and flavored vodkas that follow the rules.
A sour soup made with zakwas, a fermented rye-flour starter, served with white sausage, a boiled egg and horseradish. It is one of the most important dishes of the Polish Easter and is sometimes served inside a loaf of bread.
Smoked pork cooked with dried plums, pears and other fruits, served with a sweet-and-sour fruit sauce and dumplings. The name means Silesian heaven, and the dish is on the Lower Silesia Traditional Products List.
Braided bread ring first boiled in very hot water and then baked, topped with salt, poppy seeds, or sesame. It’s sold from street carts in Kraków and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
A round wheat dough disk topped with raw chopped onion and poppy seed, baked until the edge is golden. It originated in the Jewish bakeries of Lublin’s old town and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
Grated raw potato cake with fried bacon, onion, eggs and a little flour, baked in a pan until the crust is golden. It’s one of the most popular dishes of Podlaskie, the northeastern region of Poland, and is on the List of Traditional Products.
Flavored vodka with bison grass that grows in the clearings of the Białowieża and Knyszyn forests in Podlaskie. It has a light green-golden color and the smell of dry hay, and the official name is a protected geographical indication of the European Union.
Croissant in a crescent shape, made from yeast-leavened puff pastry, filled with white poppy seed paste with fruit and nuts, and topped with icing and chopped nuts. It is Poznań’s Saint Martin’s pastry, eaten on November 11, and has protected geographical indication.
Beef roulade stuffed with bacon, pickled cucumber and onion, cooked in sauce and served with kluski śląskie — potato dumplings with a little indentation in the middle — and red cabbage. It’s the Sunday lunch of Upper Silesia.
Long pastry made from leavened dough, fried and usually filled with seasoned ground meat with pepper. It originated in Szczecin in the early 1970s, made on a Soviet machine from 1969, and is on Poland’s List of Traditional Products.
Honey cake with pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and other spices, molded in wooden molds or cut into shapes. It has been made in Toruń without interruption since the Middle Ages and is on Poland’s national list of intangible cultural heritage.
Two-layer chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream in the middle, covered in chocolate and often topped with a cherry. It originated in Warsaw in the late 1940s, and the name is linked to the W-Z avenue, opened during the city’s reconstruction.
A very sour sauerkraut soup with smoked pork ribs or other smoked pork, served with boiled potato on the side or with bread. It’s the dish of the highlanders of Podhale, the Zakopane region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains.
