Ingredients

• 1 cup/240 ml plain low-fat yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup/120 ml cold water
• 1 cup/130 g all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 to 2 tbsp grapeseed or vegetable oil, plus more as needed
• Plum jam or another jam (or butter and sugar or applesauce) for serving

Directions
1 Place the yogurt, eggs, water, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk until the batter is very smooth. You can also do this in a blender or food processor if you’d prefer, but it should not be necessary. The batter should be well blended and the consistency of light cream.

2 Cover the batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (This allows the flour to absorb some of the liquid, and it makes the batter lighter.) If you’ve got time, leave the batter in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 hours. If not, 20 minutes should do it.

3 Heat a small frying pan or a crepe pan, if you’ve got one, over low heat and spread just enough of the oil over the bottom to cover it thinly. (You can also do this with a brush.)

4 When the pan is heated, pour in enough of the batter—about 1/4 cup/60 ml for a standard crepe pan—so that it makes a thin, smooth film covering the entire pan.

5 Cook over low heat, occasionally shaking the pan. Lift up the edges to check the pancake; when it is lightly browned, usually about 2 minutes, flip it over, either by gripping an edge with your fingers, or with a spatula (Or, of course, flip it in the air like they do in the movies, if you dare).

6 Cook for 2 minutes more, or until lightly browned. The finished pancake should be thin, but not at all fragile.

7 Treat the first pancake as an experiment; if it has cooked too fast, lower the heat. If the batter seems too thick, beat in 1 tsp water, and add another if necessary.

8 As they are done, stack the pancakes on a plate covered with a paper towel to absorb any oil. Keep them warm if you can, but these are usually eaten at room temperature, so they needn’t be very hot.

9 These are always served with something rolled up inside them. Powidła is the traditional thing, but you can use another type of jam, butter and sugar, applesauce, or anything, really. Let children put the spreads on themselves. You are allowed to pick them up and eat them with your fingers.

Serves 6 to 7 (makes about 15 pancakes)

Plum jam recipe

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 lb/2 kg very ripe cooking plums
• About 2 1/4 cups/505 g sugar (You may not need all of it.)

Directions
1 Put six to eight 1-cup/240-ml jam jars in a pot of boiling water to sterilize them. (You can also run them through the dishwasher.) Let cool.

2 Prepare the plums by cutting each one open and removing the pit. If they are ripe enough, the pits should slip right out. There is no need to cut them further.

3 Pour the plums into a large soup or stew pot, and bring to a simmer over low heat. They will need to simmer, we’re afraid, for the whole day—8 hours minimum, but 10 is better.

TIP: As noted above, this can be done with interruptions, 4 hours here, 4 hours there. The cooking time will vary slightly, depending on the ripeness of your plums: Very juicy ones will take longer, drier plums will be finished more quickly.

4 Stir occasionally, and of course make sure the plums do not burn. Do not add water since, as noted, the point is to eliminate the water.

5 About 1 hour before the plums are done cooking, add half of the sugar. Mix it into the plums, and taste—this is very important. If your plums are very sweet, you might not need to add any more sugar. If not, add the rest now. We use very little sugar in our powidła, because we don’t like very sweet jam, but we recognize that this is a matter of personal taste.

6 Continue simmering. When the powidła is done, it should be very thick, and not at all runny. If there is any liquid left at all, it needs to be simmered longer.

7 Pour the jam into the sterilized jars, wipe the rims, and seal tightly. Place the jars in a pot, fill the pot with water so that it covers each jar by about 2 in/5 cm of water, and bring to a boil. Let the water boil for 10 minutes.

8 Remove the jars from the pot, cool, and store.

Makes six to eight 1-cup/240-ml jars of jam

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Excerpted from From a Polish Country House Kitchen by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden. Copyright © 2012. Photography by Bogdan & Dorota Bialy. Excerpted with permission from Chronicle Books.All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.