{"id":8390,"date":"2026-10-19T23:31:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8390"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:50:13","slug":"kremowka","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/kremowka\/","title":{"rendered":"Krem\u00f3wka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Krem\u00f3wka is a Polish pastry made by sandwiching a thick layer of cream between thin sheets of laminated puff pastry, dusting it with powdered sugar and cutting it into squares. The composition of the cream varies: for example, it may be custard, a cream combined with butter, or a two-tier filling that also layers whipped cream. The pastry is also called napoleonka, but how the two names correspond to the types of cream varies by region and shop.<\/p>\n

For example, the cultural institution Culture.pl explains that the name krem\u00f3wka is used in Ma\u0142opolska in southern Poland, while in Wroc\u0142aw krem\u00f3wka and napoleonka are sold as separate products. In the product guide of Trojanka, a pastry shop in the Masovian Voivodeship, the krem\u00f3wka has two tiers of custard-like cream and whipped cream, while the napoleonka has a single layer of custard-like cream. Both are dusted with powdered sugar on top. Even where the two names appear side by side in Wroc\u0142aw, the fillings are not necessarily the same as Trojanka’s; the way the two names are distinguished differs by region and shop.<\/p>\n

Sandwiching cream between flat-baked pastry<\/h2>\n

A flour dough and butter are rolled out and folded, with chilling in between, to create thin layers. When the pastry is baked as a large sheet, it is pricked with a fork or pressed down with a baking tray on top so that it does not rise too high. Thin, light pastry, baked well to drive off moisture, is placed below and above the cream. Since uneven pastry is hard to stack, it is important to bake it evenly until crisp and toasty.<\/p>\n

The custard is made by heating milk, egg yolks, sugar, starch and other ingredients while stirring until thickened, then flavored with vanilla. Covering the surface while it cools helps prevent a dry skin from forming. When whipped cream is also added, a dense, yellowish custard layer sits next to an airy white layer of whipped cream. Cutting the top pastry into individual portions in advance means the pastry can later be divided without pressing down hard.<\/p>\n

Melting butter into hot cream, or combining it after whipping<\/h2>\n

How the butter is added also changes the texture. In the recipe by the cook Dorota, butter is melted into a hot cream cooked with milk, egg yolks, potato starch and wheat flour. Gelatin is used in the whipped cream on top, but a note adds that it can be left out if thick British double cream is used.<\/p>\n

By contrast, in the recipe that the pastry chef Micha\u0142 Doroszkiewicz publishes on Debic, custard that has been cooked and cooled is combined with butter beaten to incorporate air. Both methods add milk fat, but melting the butter with heat or adding the custard to whipped butter changes how much air the cream holds and how it feels in the mouth. In both cases, the cream is chilled after combining until it is firm enough to cut.<\/p>\n

\n\"An\n
An example of pastry custard (2014). This cream is made by heating milk, egg yolks, sugar, starch and other ingredients, and it is also used as a krem\u00f3wka filling. Photo: SKopp \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>. Image obtained from the distributing source. We have not altered or cropped the content for this article.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Napoleon and Naples theories behind the name napoleonka<\/h2>\n

The great dictionary of the Polish Academy of Sciences explains that the name napoleonka comes from Emperor Napoleon I. The National Centre for Culture, on the other hand, also raises the possibility that the French napolitain<\/em>, \u201cof Naples,\u201d changed into \u201cof Napoleon.\u201d Both are theories explaining the origin of the pastry’s name.<\/p>\n

The masculine form napoleonek, which the Centre cites from the \u201cWarsaw Dictionary,\u201d is a pastry with cream or confiture sandwiched between three sheets of dough. The name has not referred only to the pastry with two sheets of dough that it describes today. It is also said that in prewar Warsaw, a pastry shop of the same name facing the former Napoleon Square popularized this pastry.<\/p>\n

The krem\u00f3wka the pope remembered eating after his final school exams<\/h2>\n

On June 16, 1999, in his hometown of Wadowice, John Paul II traced his memories of the town as he responded to the crowd. The record of his remarks published by the Vatican preserves a scene in which his recollections move on to a bookshop and to the home of his friend Jurek Kluger, and in which he says that there was a pastry shop and that he went to eat krem\u00f3wka after his final school exams.<\/p>\n

Through this recollection of his youth with old friends, the town’s krem\u00f3wka became known as a pastry associated with the pope.<\/p>\n

The former shop named in the town’s tourist materials was opened by Karol Hagenhuber in 1936 and closed in 1945. The memory of that old shop lives on in today’s town, where current pastry shops feature the slice associated with the pope.<\/p>\n

\n\"Krem\u00f3wka\n
A pastry presented as Wadowice’s \u201cpapal krem\u00f3wka\u201d (September 4, 2021). A thick layer of cream sits between the sheets of pastry. Photo: Silar \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. We have not altered or cropped the content.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

From the pope’s recollection to a town specialty<\/h2>\n

After the pope’s recollection, more customers bought krem\u00f3wka at the town’s pastry shops, and some began calling it the \u201cpapal krem\u00f3wka.\u201d A local newspaper reported this change at the shop counters on June 18, 1999. The pastry he once ate after his final school exams became a Wadowice specialty that pilgrims also choose.<\/p>\n

Some current producers in Wadowice have made it their signature product since 1999. Its history as a town specialty tied to memories of the pope should be considered separately from the pastry and cream recipes (ingredient proportions and methods) that today’s makers choose.<\/p>\n

\n\"Krem\u00f3wka\n
A \u201cpapal krem\u00f3wka\u201d served on the market square in Wadowice (July 12, 2020). A plate before a tourist eats it. Photo: Franek Vetulani \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Version with the background retouched by the photographer. Image obtained from the distributing source. We have not altered or cropped the content for this article.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

\u2022 Trojanka<\/strong>: A pastry shop in the Masovian Voivodeship. The shop’s catalog lists krem\u00f3wka and napoleonka with different cream compositions.\n\u2022 Napoleon I: French emperor (1769\u20131821). He appears in one theory about the origin of the pastry’s name.\n\u2022 Naples: A city in southern Italy. The French word napolitain describes things that come from this city.\n\u2022 Wadowice: A town in southern Poland. The birthplace of John Paul II.\n\u2022 John Paul II: A Polish-born pope. Reigned 1978\u20132005.\n\u2022 Napoleonka: A name used in Poland for the pastry made with puff pastry and cream.\n\u2022 Custard: A cream made by heating milk, eggs, sugar and other ingredients. For krem\u00f3wka, starch is also added so that the cream is thick enough to cut when chilled.\n\u2022 Laminated puff pastry: A pastry dough with thin layers, made through a process of layering flour dough and fat, then rolling and folding it.\n\u2022 Dorota: Author of the baking website Moje Wypieki. She publishes a method for krem\u00f3wka with two tiers of cream.\n\u2022 Micha\u0142 Doroszkiewicz: A Polish pastry chef who published a method for this pastry on Debic.\n\u2022 Double cream: A term used in Britain for cream with a high milk fat content.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n

  1. \u2022 The pope’s 1999 remarks were his own recollections of his youth, not a declaration recognizing who invented the pastry. We have also not found any source treating Hagenhuber’s former shop and today’s shops as the same business or as a continuous line sharing a secret recipe.<\/p><\/li>

  2. \u2022 There is no one-to-one correspondence between region names and creams that applies nationwide. Trojanka’s labeling is a current sales example from that shop and is not used as evidence for the recipes of shops in Wroc\u0142aw or elsewhere.<\/p><\/li>

  3. \u2022 Culture.pl, \u201cSpeak Like a Local: Popular Polish Regionalisms\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Contrasts krem\u00f3wka in Ma\u0142opolska with the two names sold as separate products in Wroc\u0142aw.<\/p><\/li>

  4. \u2022 Cukiernia Trojanka, \u201cCiasta\u201d<\/a> \u2014 From the same producer, krem\u00f3wka is custard-like cream + whipped cream, and napoleonka is custard-like cream only. In the current product guide, both are dusted with powdered sugar. The shop’s location was confirmed at the end of the company’s catalog.\n\u2022 The shop’s product catalog, p20 (PDF p19)<\/a> \u2014 Same cream composition. The catalog describes a coffee-flavored topping on the krem\u00f3wka, which differs from the current product guide, so it is not used for the description of the top in the main text.\n\u2022 Dorota \/ Moje Wypieki, \u201cKrem\u00f3wka\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Two tiers of cream, cutting the top layer first, butter in hot custard, notes on gelatin and double cream.\n\u2022 Micha\u0142 Doroszkiewicz \/ Debic, \u201cKrem\u00f3wka\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Laminating and flat baking, chilled custard and whipped butter, finishing the cream.\n\u2022 Wadowice tourist information, \u201c100 lat temu wszystko si\u0119 zacz\u0119\u0142o\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The former pastry shop of Karol Hagenhuber, opened in 1936 and closed in 1945; the 1999 recollection; and today’s shops.\n\u2022 Newspaper of June 18, 1999, held by the Pomorska Biblioteka Cyfrowa, \u201cWadowice \/ Papieskie krem\u00f3wki\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Accounts of sales of 30 and 140 pieces right after the visit, and a proposal to rename it as the pope’s pastry. The specific sales figures are left out of the main text and summarized as a shift in how the pastry was received.\n\u2022 Polish Academy of Sciences great dictionary, \u201ckrem\u00f3wka (ciastko)\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Definition of the pastry and a note on the regional names napoleonka\/krem\u00f3wka.\n\u2022 Cukiernia Wadowice, \u201cO firmie\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A current producer’s business since 1999 and its own in-house recipe.<\/p><\/li>

  5. \u2022 Vatican, \u201cWadowice 16 czerwca 1999,\u201d record of the pope’s remarks<\/a> \u2014 The scene in which he traces the town’s streets, a bookshop and an old friend’s house, and speaks of krem\u00f3wka after his final school exams.<\/p><\/li>

  6. \n

    Narodowe Centrum Kultury, NAPOLEONKA<\/a> \u2014 The possible change from napolitain, the three-sheet type in the Warsaw dictionary, and the distinction between the account of popularization by a prewar shop of the same name and the naming theories. A dictionary and historical introduction from a public cultural institution. The original Warsaw dictionary and the shop’s original records were not examined directly. The Naples origin theory is not treated as settled<\/p>\n<\/li>

  7. \n

    Wielki s\u0142ownik j\u0119zyka polskiego PAN, napoleonka (ciastko)<\/a> \u2014 Etymology explained from the personal name Napoleon I; the name for the same pastry varies by region. An etymological theory from the Academy of Sciences dictionary. It is not merged with the National Centre for Culture’s alternative possibility into a single settled conclusion<\/p>\n<\/li>

  8. Editorial note (Japanese re-edit)<\/h3><\/li>

  9. The Napoleon and Naples theories explain the origin of the name; they are not records showing that the pastry was invented as the emperor’s favorite or on his orders. Likewise, the story that a pastry shop facing the former Napoleon Square popularized the pastry does not show that this shop was the first to give it the name.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Krem\u00f3wka is a Polish pastry with cream sandwiched between sheets of puff pastry. The top is dusted with powdered sugar, and the pastry is cut into square individual portions. Seen from the side, a thick layer of pale cream appears between thin, browned sheets of pastry. The filling varies: some versions use custard, some combine it with butter, and some also add a layer of whipped cream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7362,"menu_order":161,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Krem\u00f3wka","subtitle":"A Polish cream pastry held between two sheets of puff pastry","topics":"Pastry baked into thin sheets\uff0fChilling a cream of milk and eggs\uff0fA slice tied to Wadowice","country":"Poland","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["cream","butter"],"texture":["crisp","smooth"],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[168],"class_list":["post-8390","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"auto","sweetlore_related_articles":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t