Walnut Meringue Pie

go to Zserbo.com for the recipe and detail instructions for this delicious pie.

I am obsessed with this pie, particularly the pastry. It is light and fluffy.  When walnuts were in season, I was making it every weekend.

As you can compared with the recipe link provided above, I have tweaked the recipe to what I have in the pantry and since then I have been making it based on my tweaked version.

Fanta slice { Fanta szelet }

Yup, Fanta as in the orange soda.  As strange as this sound, it does work. This should be sit in the fridge at least overnight for best taste.


Fanta Slice { Fanta Szelet }

Chocolate sponge cake layer :-
3 eggs , medium-sized, separated
3 heap Tbsp sugar
3 heap Tbsp plain flour
1 level Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 level Tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt 

Cream layer :-
200ml whipping cream
250g cottage cheese, room temperature
1 zest of lemon
100g powdered sugar, or to taste
1 Tbsp gelatine powder  
  
Orange layer :-
1 can x 333 ml Fanta brand orange soda
40g pudding powder
1 tsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp powdered sugar , or to taste.

Processes :-

Chocolate sponge cake (can be made in advance, freeze and thaw a day before serving)

1) Pre-heat oven at 180˙c.

2) Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. set it aside.

3) In separate bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until creamy. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and and mix gently until will combined.

4) Take 1/3 of the stiff egg white and add into chocolate batter to loosen it a little. Then fold in carefully the remaining stiffen egg white until well combine.

5) Great baking pan (  18x20cm ) and lined with baking paper . Pour in the cake batter . Bake for 12 mins or until the skewer comes out clean.

6) Let it cooled fully.

7) Once cake is cooled, start preparing the room temperature cottage cheese. Use a hand blender to blender the cottage cheese to get rid of lumps. Add a little of the whipping cream to help loosen the cottage cheese a bit.

8) Once cottage cheese is smooth, set it aside. In another bowl, start whipping the cream until half stiff. Then add in powdered sugar, cottage cheese and lemon zest until well combined.

9) Add in the preped gelatine* . Mix well . pour it over the cooled cake. Level the cream.


10) For the orange layer, take about 100ml of the soda and mix with the pudding powder.  Let it sit.
Meanwhile, heat up the remaining orange soda with lemon juice and sugar. When this is hot enough. pour in the earlier pudding-orange mixture, stir constantly until it thickens , just like making instant pudding. Once orange pudding is thick enough, set it aside to cool a little before pouring it over the cream layer. Level it out.

11) Let the assemble cake sit in the fridge over night before serving.

Hungary's Annual National Cake 2016

photo : https://www.facebook.com/gregory.iron.photography/

Every August 20th, Hungary introduces two new winning National cakes (one non-sugar option) on the occasion of her founding day by Saint Stephen. You can read more about the winners on Daily News Hungary.

photo : cukrasz.net

Each year we make a point to try the winning cake on the actual day of the introduction. The pumpkin seed cake white chocolate ganache (named “Green Gold of Őrség”) was unique. I liked the pumpkin seed flavour in the cake as well as in the crispy praline. The white chocolate ganache compliments the cake and raspberry jelly beautifully. I will buy this again definitely!

re at: http://dailynewshungary.com/cake-hungary-2016/

Saint Stephen

Read more at: http://dailynewshungary.com/cake-hungary-2016/

Hungarian Fairy Cake { Tündérsüti }

Hungarian Fairy Cake { Tündérsüti }
recipe via Tundi Konyha

Ingredients

For the dough
200gm Plain flour
80gm Powdered or Confectioner's sugar
100gm Butter, room temperature
2 Egg yolks
1 tsp Baking powder
1 pkt vanilla sugar
pinch of salt

For the filling
1 packet "puncs" / strawberry pudding powder
200ml Cold Milk
4 Tbsp sugar
180gm Sour cream, room temperature (normally 20% fat, but I only had 12%)
2 Egg whits
Rum extract, to taste
small drop of red food colouring

Powdered sugar for dusting

Method
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°. Prep cake tin (17.5x23.5cm) by greasing and flouring it. Set aside.

2) Make the dough by mixing  mixing flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and pinch of salt. Then add in butter by gently pinch butter into flour mixture until crumbly. Create a well in the centre of the bowl, pour in the egg yolks and gently knead into becoming a soft dough.

3) Divide dough into 6:4 portions. Roll out the bigger dough to the size of the bottom of baking dish. Place in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the fridge to let the dough rest. The smaller portion of dough, wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge too.

4) While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. In a sauce pan , pour in cold milk, then slowly mix in the pudding powder and powdered sugar. Cook the pudding on stove top until thickens.

5) When pudding has thickens, carefully mix in the sour cream. This process will easily split the mixture. What I did was, take a little of the hot pudding, and add into the sour cream and then pour the whole sour cream mixture into the  hot pudding and quickly whisk it to avoid splitting. Then put in the rum and red food colouring, mix well. Set aside

6) In a bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. The slowly fold into pudding mixture.

7) Take out the baking dish from the fridge, pour the filling over the dough base. Finally roll out the smaller portion dough, cut into strips and lay a criss cross pattern on top (see pic from recipe link above).

8) Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins. until pudding is firm nad pastry is golden brown.

Hungarian poppy seeds / walnuts rolls { Bejgli II }

Two thumbs up for this recipe! which by the way , will replace the one archived here before.  What I like about this version is the fluffy bread texture as you see below.

With the exorbitant price of walnuts, I've opted to only make the poppy seeds fillings. That being said, both fillings are equally good. For us and especially my mother-in-law, she prefers the poppy seeds type.

The recipe linked below makes 6 rolls; but the quantity I stated below have been adjusted to only 2 rolls. In fact, I could have made into 3 shorter rolls instead of 2 long ones.

Bejgli
source : Receptneked

makes 2 rolls

Ingredients
For the dough
130ml sour cream (20% fat)
83g goose fat
1 medium-size egg
2 Tbsp sugar
pinch salt
30gm fresh yeast
400gm flour

For the filling

200gm ground Poppy seeds
100gm Honey
100gm water
vanilla extract
bunch of raisins, soaked and drained
1 zest of lemon
2 Tbsp of apricot jam
sugar, to taste


For glazing
1 egg, seperated

Preparation
For the dough
1) In a bowl, mix together sour cream, goose fat, egg, sugar and salt.
2) In another bowl, put in the flour and crumble in the yeast. Then create a well in the centre, and pour in the sour cream mixture (1). Mix until all ingredients are combine.
3) On a floured surface, pour out the flour mixture and knead until you get a smooth dough.
4) Let the dough rest in covered bowl , in room temperature for 1 hour.

For the filling
1) Heat water until hot. Combine it with honey and mix well.
2) In a bowl, put the ground poppy seeds, lemon zest, apricot jam, vanilla extract , soaked and drain raisins. The pour in the honey-water mixture. Combine well. Check for sweetness, if needed add sugar to taste. I needed to add sugar in consideration of my MIL taste buds.
3) Divide filling into 2 portions. Set aside until assembly.

To finish
1) 30 mins. into proofing the dough, start pre-heating the oven at 180°c
2) Once dough is fully proof, pour out on floured work surface, and punch out the air from the dough.
3) Divide dough into 2 equal size.
4) Take the first dough, roll out into a rectangle shape. Size according to your preference.
5) Spread a portion of the filling onto the dough , leaving some space on the sides to prevent leakage.
6) Roll up the dough just like Swiss roll, but not too tight to leave room for the dough to grow and not burst.
7) Repeat the same for the next roll. Glaze each roll with only egg yolk. Then let it dry for about 15 mins. After 15 mins. glaze with egg white.  Use a knife or fork to prick the roll all the way to let out the steam during baking.
8) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 mins. until golden brown.

Serving
It is better to let the roll sit for a day or two to enhance the taste even more. Just wrap the rolls in cling film and keep in a cool place.

Hungarian Stuffed Pepper { Töltött Paprika }

Considering this is my first attempt at the Hungarian classic stuffed pepper, I'm happy with the results. As usual, to cook this is simpler than I imagined. I did not follow an exact recipe but followed this helpful video.

++ Additions of celery roots.

Chicken soup with Hungarian Semolina Dumplings { Grizgombócleves}

As I was scrolling my news feed the other day, I came across Jamie Oliver's recipe of Jewish Penicillin . It was served with matzo balls. I love the idea but without the matzo crackers (to make the matzo balls) I needed a substitute for matzo. My search lead me to the Hungarian semolina dumplings, which I have eaten at my MIL's place. I thought what a perfect substitute as I will put one more Hungarian recipe under my belt!

Chicken soup with Hungarian semolina dumplings
dumpling recipe via Hami Hami

For soup :-
1 medium onion, peeled
1 knob of ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
6 pepper corns
1 dried bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
oil, for sauteing
3 chicken legs, de-boned, keep the bone
3 carrots, peeled and chopped half
2 parsley root, peeled and chopped half
1/4 celery root, peeled
3/4 cup of frozen green peas
salt, to taste
water

for sprinkling
parsley leaves, chop finely
spring onion, leaves only chopped

For semolina dumplings
1 egg
4 Tbsp semolina flour
salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
parsley leaves, chopped finely

Method
To make soup
1) Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in pot, saute whole onion, knob of ginger, cinnamon stick, whole garlic cloves, pepper corn, dried bay leaves and bones of chicken legs.Once browned a little, add all vegetables and about 2 tsp salt. add water enough to cover the vegetables and a little more.

2) Bring the water to a boil and put in the chicken leg meat, cook the meat for 20-25 mins until cooked. remove meat from soup and set aside let it cool and later keep in the fridge. Turn down the heat to simmer the soup for about 2 hours. remove the onion, and root vegetables except for celery root. set aside.
continue to simmer soup for another 1 hour. Cube the root vegetables, and put it back to the soup add the frozen peas. Bring it to a boil again check for seasoning. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with chopped parsley and spring onion leaves. It is ready to be served with semolina dumplings and chicken meat.

To make dumplings (start during the last hour of simmering the soup)
3) Prepare the batter for semolina dumplings. In a bowl, beat in the egg, add in the semolina flour, season with salt and parsley leaves, mix it well. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
After 30 mins., bring a small of pot of water to boil, season the boiling water with some salt. Take out the dumpling batter, use 2 spoons to quenelle the batter into dumplings. Drop dumplings one-by-one into boiling water gently. Turn it a few times. The dumplings are reading when they float to the top and the semolina is no longer hard. Set it aside until soup is ready to be served.

Hungarian Steamed Buns { Gőzgombóc }

Going forward, I'll switch to this Hungarian steamed buns recipe when making Chinese steamed buns. Unlike my previous chinese recipes, this produced buns which were so light and fluffy! It has to be said that they are best eaten hot out of the steamer. If you do have left over, then re-steam for short few minutes to soften it again.

Gőzgombóc

serves : 6 pcs.

You must go to the source for a detailed pictorial at Aprosef

Ingredients :-

Dumpling

250gm Flour

15gm yeast

20gm sugar

1 gm salt

1/2 egg yolk

1/2 egg (size “m”)

125ml Milk (2.8%)

10gm butter

1 lemon zest

Stuffing

60gm plum jam, thick divided into 6

To serve with

egg custard

ground poppy seeds

Preparation :-

1. Mix all ingredients for dumplings, knead until a smooth round shape. Place shaped dough in a greased bowl. Grease also the top of dough. Coer with cling film. Let it rest at warm place for 60 mins. Or until size doubled.
2. Once dough doubled in size, roll out and divide into 6 smaller balls. Use you hand flatten it a bit and wrapped in the portioned jam. Take note the jam should be stuffed in centre to avoid leakage. Close dough by pinching it. Shape into nice round.
3. Set aside the stuffed dough. Cover with cling film. Meanwhile set the steamer and when water is boiling. Steam dough on high heat for 15 mins.
4. Serve with custard and sprinkle with ground poppy seeds.

Hungarian Crepe { Palacsinta }

Hungarian Crepe {Palacsinta}
serves : 12 crepes

Ingredients
125gm plain flour
2 eggs
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
250ml milk, cold
40gm butter, melted
vegetable oil, for greasing

Preparation

1) In a bowl, place flour, eggs, vanilla sugar and salt. Add in the milk gradually, mix until you get a smooth batter. Finally add in the melted butter (not hot) and mix well. Let it rest in the fridge for minimum of 30 minutes.

2) Once batter has rested, heat round non-stick frying pan with a little oil. Take a ladle and spoon approx a ladle of batter onto frying pan. Adjust the quantity of batter according to the size of frying pan. When the edge of the crepe starts to crisp, flip over and let it heat for few seconds and the crepe is ready. Repeat process until you finish the batter.

Hungarian Sour Cherry Cake { Meggyes Lepeny }

When you freeze lots of sour cherries during the summer season, you get to make this simple yet delicious cake through out the year! Okay, the frozen sour cherries that I used to make this cake was given by my MIL though :D  As appreciation I made her this cake when she visited last weekend.

In my archive I already have a similar cake, but I find this version more to my liking as I prefer crumbly texture as opposed to the tighter crumb version. Therefore, this will be my go-to sour cherry cake recipe from this day forward.

Hungarian sour cherry cake {Meggyes Lepeny}
via About.com

Ingredients

450gm pitted sour cherries (left whole), fresh or frozen

170gm unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch salt

1/4 cup bread crumbs

Vanilla sugar

Preparation :-

1. Heat oven to 190°c / Gas 4. Butter a 10x6-inch rectangular tart pan, or a 9-inch square or a 9-inch round cake pan and dust with bread crumbs.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and half the granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and continue creaming until well incorporated. Add the flour and salt, mixing well.
3. With clean, grease-free beaters, whip egg whites with remaining granulated sugar until stiff. Gently fold whites into cake batter.
4. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Top with cherries, stem side down. Bake 30 minutes. The batter will partially bubble up and cover the fruit. Cool in pan. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar. Cut into squares or wedges and serve.

Hortobágyi Pancake { Hortobágyi Palacsinta }

The other day I taste for the first time Hortobágyi palacsinta. It was melt in the mouth pancake and filling, drizzled with velvety sauce. The next day I've decided to recreate it in my own kitchen. I've got to say, it wasn't far from what I remember!

Hortobágyi pancake
serves 4 pax
Video tutorial by Miele cooking school http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8_maUoWEc
Crepe/ Pancake via No salty

Ingredients

Filling (Chicken paprikash/stew)

Vegetable oil, for cooking
5 pcs of chicken thigh meat, bone-in, cleaned
1 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
4-5 tsp smoked paprika, to taste
1 tomato, diced
1 Hungarian wax pepper
salt, to taste

water, just enough to cover meat

To thicken
100ml sour cream, room temeprature
1 Tbsp flour


Crepe/pancakes
2 large eggs, room temerature
125gm flour
a pinch of salt
250ml cold milk, room temperature
40g butter, melted
oil for cooking

Method


For stew :-

1)  Heat oil in sauce pan, sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add in diced tomato, diced paprika and smoked paprika. Stir it a bit and put in the chicken thigh meat and salt to taste. Pour in enough water to cover meat, not too much as the meat will release some juices as well. Put on the cover and cook for 30 mins.

2) Once chicken is fully cooked and tomatoes and paprika have cooked down. Remove chicken thigh meat from the sauce, and by using a strainer remove the bits and pieces of onions,tomatoes etc from the sauce. Put the sauce back on the heat. We need to thicken the sauce by mixing together soul cream and flour, mix well before pouring into the chicken stew sauce. Bring it to boil for few minutes. Once thicken the sauce is ready.

For crepe/pancakes
1) In mixing bowl, crack in the eggs, mix in the salt. Then gradually add in flour and milk , alternately until the mixture is well combine, no lumps. Finally pour in the melted butter. Let the batter rest in fridge for at least 30 mins.
2) Take out batter from fridge after 30 mins. Mix it a little. Heat a flat pan over medium heat with some oil. Brush away excess oil. Use a ladle, pour the pancake batter onto the hot pan and swirl it around the pan to get a thin and even batter around the pan. Cook the pancake until just colour, not too much as the pancake should be soft with just a little bite to it. Cook until the batter is finish.

Assembling :-

1) Warm up the chicken meat and sauce by using microwave or stove.
Place chicken pieces onto pancake. Not too much. Wrap it. up and pour sauce over the pan cake, and serve immediately!

Gerbeaud Walnut slice { Zserbó }

Yay, Another Hungarian classic cross-off my "to-bake" list! Like many things, something that seemed daunting was actually manageable and I would go as far as saying easy! Of course, I'm not saying I did a perfect job. I was a bit dry and crumbly. To suit my taste and my family's, this recipe still needs tweaking, but it is a very good base to work on.

Gerbeaud Walnut Slice ( Zserbó)
source : http://citromhab.blogspot.hu/2014/03/zserbotorta.html
step by step tutorial : http://aprosef.hu/gerbeaud


Ingredients
250g Flour
100g butter, room temperature
50g sugar + 1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 egg yolk
50ml Milk
10g fresh yeast (**I had no fresh; so, sub. with instant. Will lessen the quantity on next bake)
salt, a pinch

Filling
150g Ground walnuts
100g sugar (reduced to 70g)
1 sachet vanilla sugar
 200g apricot jam
+++ Lemon zest
Note :- I'll add some milk next time to the dry filling**

Chocolate icing
100g chocolate (used 1x60g bar)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (not olive oil!)
+++ Rum

Ground walnuts to garnish

Method :-

1) Get ready the filling by mixing together ground walnuts, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest +**.Set aside.
2) Start dough by bring milk to luke warm, add in instant yeast and a little sugar. Let it sit for 10 mins. until yeast mixture starts to foam/come alive.
3) Once yeast mixture is reading. In mixing bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt. Then work in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs. Then add in the egg yolk and yeast mixture. Combine well and start to knead until smooth. Let it rest in a covered bowl for an hour.
4) 30 mins. into the dough resting time, start pre-heating the oven at 180°c.
5) Once dough full rest, divide it into 4. Start rolling out the 1 dough ball, enough to cover a 18cm round cake tin. Lay the rolled out dough into the the cake tin. Spread the apricot jam evenly and then sprinkle the walnut filling (1). Repeat this process for 3 layers and cover it with final rolled out dough. Pierce the layers with a knife all the way through to let any steam out when baking.
6) Bake for 30-35 mins. until golden brown.
7) Once the cake is cooled, start making the chocolate icing by melting chocolate by using double boiler or microwave (max 1min) and add in vegetable oil to loosen. Spread all over the cake and let it set in room temperature.


Note:-
It is best to let the cake sit over night to let the flavour melts together.

Hungarian Fried Bread Lángos recipe

Yes! I finally decided not to be lazy anymore and venture into making lángos at home. It is not difficult at all! Just like making pizza, except it is fried. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be buying ready-made ones from my Sunday market. However, if you need to feed or serve a hugh crowd doing it at home, will be more economical.

Lángos
Via visitbudapest.travel

300 g all-purpose flour, sifted
7 g dried (instant) yeast
250 ml water (*** I used luke warm)
1/2 teaspoon salt
sunflower oil (for frying)
toppings: sour cream, grated cheese, garlic

Method
1) Dissolve instant yeast in luke warm water. Set aside for 10 mins or until yeast has been activated (froth / foaming)

2) In a bowl, sift together flour and salt. Add in the activated yeast water. Mix together by using your hand or wooden spoon. The dough is very sticky! Just mix it until the dough is smooth and not stick to bowl.

3) Let the dough rest , covered, for 30-40 mins. or until the size of dough doubled.

4) Stretch out the dough onto a floured surface, into square shape. Cut rounds by using a round cutter of 10cm or any desired size. Stretch the round doughs a little , thinning the centre. Let it rest for 30 mins.

5) After 30 mins. Heat oil in deep fryer. Fry until golden brown.

6) Serve hot with the suggested toppings.

Updated : Oct 18, 2015

I've come across another easy fried dough recipe  ; which is fluffier and faster
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/county-fair-fried-dough-recipe

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, in 1/2" cubes

3/4 cup lukewarm water

  Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2) Work in the cold butter, using a pastry blender, your fingers, or a mixer.

3) Stir in the warm water to make a soft dough. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

4) Divide the dough into eight pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll into a thin 5" round, about 3/8" thick.

5) Heat about 3/8" vegetable oil to 375°F in an electric frying pan, or in a pan over a burner. If you're using a 10" diameter pan, this is 2 cups of vegetable oil. If you're not using an electric frying pan, use a candy thermometer to take the temperature of the oil; or guesstimate it by seeing if the first piece of dough fries nicely in the time specified.

6) Pick up one dough disk, and carefully lower it into the pan. Let it cook for 60 seconds (it'll puff up on top and become light brown on the bottom), then flip it over and cook until light brown on the other side, about 60 seconds. You don't want to cook these too dark; they'll become overly crisp.

7) Remove from the oil and set on a paper towel-lined baking sheet. Place in a 200°F oven to keep warm while you make the remaining fried doughs.

8) Serve warm, with maple syrup or cider syrup; confectioners' sugar, or cinnamon sugar; or the topping of your choice — some folks enjoy a savory version, with marinara sauce and cheese.

Yield: 8 servings.

Spaetzle { Nokedli }

Spaetzle (Nokedli)
via for detail instructions check aprosef

For 1 serving (*I've doubled the recipe and it was good for 3-4 pax)

Ingredients

100gm Plain flour
1 large egg
60ml water
salt, to taste
a pot of boiling water

Method :-
1) Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, don't forget to season water with salt.

2) In a bowl , place the flour, and the crack the egg in the middle. Add a little water, and with a wooden spoon combine by pushing the flour towards the egg. Add water as you go until a not too runny consistency.

3) When water boiling, place spaetzle maker over the pot (see link for instructions) and push the mixture over the hot water.

4) You should be doing in batches, and remove dumplings which have floated.

5) Rinse with cold water to get rid of some starch, drain and serve.

Salty shortbread

Salty Shortbread 

Source : No salty
Time : kneading + freeze 30 mins. + bake 20 mins. + rest 1 hour


Ingredients

For dough
200gm butter, melted - warm not hot!
100ml whipping cream
375gm plain flour
2 egg yolks
8gm salt

For Toppings
1 egg yolk, for egg wash
seeds of choice (sesame, poppy, sunflower) or
grated cheese

Method
1) In a bowl, combine salt and plain flour and set aside.
2) In another bowl, mix warm melted butter with whipping cream and egg yolks. Add in the flour/salt into wet mixture. Knead until just come together. Do not over knead!
3) Roll out dough to about 0.5 to 1cm thickness, depending on your liking. Place on a sheet and let it set in freezer for 30 mins.
4) When dough has been rested for 10 mins. Start pre-heating the oven at 200°c.
5) Remove dough from freezer after 30 mins. and let it defrost a little. Cut dough into desired shapes and sizes. Glaze with egg yolk, sprinkle with your choice of topping(s).
6) Bake in pre-heated oven for about 20 mins. or until golden brown and crispy.
7) Let it rest for at least 1 hour before serving.

Deep-fried Hungarian Lángos dough Burger!!!

Poppy seed bread pudding {Mákos Guba}

Okay, I know this looks strange..haha. If you like poppy seed desserts you will like this.
After many years living in Hungary, strangely I haven't tried Mákos Guba before this. Perhaps because I am still getting use to poppy seeds. Slowly, I got used to it, but only in poppy seeds pie! Well, I think it is time to  add another dessert which feature this ingredient into my limited experience.

Poppy seeds bread pudding {Mákos Guba}
adapted from I like Baking

Ingredients for 6 servings:

6 pcs stale crescent rolls (you could also use sweet bread, baguette)

450 ml milk

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped (or sub. with vanilla sugar)

40 g unsalted butter

75 g ground poppy seed (I used much more for 3 pax)

75 g castor sugar (or to taste)

4 tbsp honey

1 finely grated lemon rind

1 pinch of ground clove (sub. with ground cinnamon)

Method (for pictorial, check out the link provided!)
1) Pre-heat oven at 180°c. Lightly grease baking pan (26x17cm)
2) Slice up  the rolls/bread and set aside.
3) Add vanilla seeds, honey and butter into milk and bring it to boil.
4) Pour boiled milk over the rolls/bread prep. earlier.
5) Mix together poppy seeds, lemon zest, ground cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle all over rolls/bread. Mix well. Be careful not to mush up the bread.
6) Pour the mixture onto the greased baking dish, prep earlier and let it bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 mins. or until the edges of bread are crispy.
7) Serve warm. To serve, you could sprinkle with icing sugar and drizzle over some custard.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}

Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/franciasalata

Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Ischler Cookies

For this Christmas, I've written Ischler cookies in my baking list, thinking that I would use the recipe featured here before but then I came across this one from The Eccentric Cook . Hers look absolutely scrumptious, so I thought "why not give it a try?".
These turned out crumbly and nutty, just the way I (or we) like it! Since these cookies are better the longer you keep them, you could bake them few days before serving. Just keep in an air-tight container and store in a cool place.

Ischler Cookies
makes about 15 cookie sandwiches (or depending on the cutter you used)
source : http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.hu/2012/12/ischler-cookies.html

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós Kifli}

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós kifli} 
http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/mezeskalacs-kifli


Ingredients for 6 people
125 g of flour
50g ground hazelnuts or any ground nuts
50 g of  powdered sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk pinch of salt

For coating
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125 g of powdered sugar

Method
1. Toast nuts in heated pan and grind finely. Mix the flour, sugar and ground cinnamon.
 2. Combine well, soften butter with pinch of salt and egg yolk . Add in dry ingredients to form a smooth dough. Wrapped dough in cling film and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. After dough rests in refridgerator for 1-2 hours, start pre-heating oven at 160 ° C.
4. Let dough sit for 5-10 mins. in room temperature after taken out from the refrigerator before working on it.
5. Shape dough into croissants shape, place on baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10-15 mins.
6. Coating cookies by tossing in sugar-spice mixture when it is still hot.