need simple Hungarian pastry idea/recipe

[simdelish]

My son is doing a presentation for Geography class on Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Czech Repub. Along with costumes, glassware and jewelry he is bringing in, he would like me to make him a pastry from one of those countries to share with his class.

Instead of my searching books and the net aimlessly, I figured my fellow eG'ers could help suggest something for me to make. (Andiesenji, you inspired me to post this, after reading your comments on the breakfast pastry thread.) It doesn't necessarily have to be kid-friendly, as the idea is to educate/broaden their palates. (But I can't imagine any kid not liking a pastry!) I think it should be fairly traditional/common, not too obscure. Any ideas?

Much appreciated!

[tejon]

The only sweets I remember having in Hungary and Poland were sweet soups (cherry and raspberry, both delicious on a hot summer day) and Pavlovas in Poland.

[andiesenji]

I'll ask my housekeeper when she gets home from school. She is from Hungary, (Csorna), which has (from close ties to Austria) many pastries similar to the ones seen in Austria, but usually a bit less elaborate.

Lucky you, puff pastry plays a big part and is available frozen in most markets!

[ludja]

A nut slice would be very typical (and delicious) for either Hungary (and Austria). Usually a dough pressed into a large pan (like a cookie sheet), then a layer of ground walnuts flavored with sugar and lemon juice, and then a meringue layer or sugar glaze baked on top. Cut into small squares.

If it sounds like something you would like to make I'll post a recipe.

Another nice recipe is for a walnut cookie, with a walnut butter cream spread between two cookies.

Interested to hear what andiesenji and others come back with as well!

Edited February 17, 2005 by ludja (log)

[andiesenji]

Anka, my housekeeper, says that you roll puff pastry out so it is 1/4 inch thick, cut with a sharp knife into strips 2 inch by 4 inch

melt honey in a dish and brush one layer with honey, sprinkle with finely ground walnuts

add second layer and spread with apricot jam (also warm so it spreads easy)

add third layer and brush with honey and sprinkle with more nuts.

Bake like it says on the package (per Anka's instructions) until it puffs and just begins to show color.

Cool, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and pipe on some whipped cream just before serving.

(Anka says for kids the stuff in the can is good - she means the "real" whipping cream in the pressurized can.)

She has a recipe for a sort of cookie/cake called sherbo, it is made in layers and cut - the way she is explaining it, it sounds sort of like baklava but she has to translate it into English and we have to figure out the measurements.

How soon do you need the recipe?

[Pan]

Strudel (retes) is very Hungarian, but I have no idea how complicated it is to make. The simplest dessert I can think of is gestenypure (chestnut puree), but that's not a pastry.

[ludja]

Anka, my housekeeper, says that you roll puff pastry out so it is 1/4 inch thick, cut with a sharp knife into strips 2 inch by 4 inch

melt honey in a dish and brush one layer with honey, sprinkle with finely ground walnuts

add second layer and spread with apricot jam (also warm so it spreads easy)

add third layer and brush with honey and sprinkle with more nuts.

Bake like it says on the package (per Anka's instructions) until it puffs and just begins to show color. 

Cool, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and pipe on some whipped cream just before serving.

(Anka says for kids the stuff in the can is good - she means the "real" whipping cream in the pressurized can.)

She has a recipe for a sort of cookie/cake called sherbo, it is made in layers and cut - the way she is explaining it, it sounds sort of like baklava but she has to translate it into English and we have to figure out the measurements. 

How soon do you need the recipe?

←

These both sound delicious-- nuts and apricots and whipped cream are certainly flavors of Hungary.

Edited February 17, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Matsu]

My son is doing a presentation for Geography class on Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Czech Repub.  Along with costumes, glassware and jewelry he is bringing in, he would like me to make him a pastry from one of those countries to share with his class.

It doesn't necessarily have to be kid-friendly, as the idea is to educate/broaden their palates.  (

←

Actually, the croissant originated in Hungary, although most people think it's from France. An invading army tried to launch a surprise attach at night from underground tunnels(thinking no one would hear them at that ungodly hour). The bakers and pastry chefs (who were already up and hard at work) heard the commotion, alerted the townspeople, and saved the city of Budapest. They were given the honor of making a special pastry in the form of a crescent (from the emblem on the Ottoman flag).

Edited February 17, 2005 by Matsu (log)

[andiesenji]

Anka makes strudel but it takes a very deft hand (I can't do it) to stretch that pastry out to the required thinness. A few months ago she and some of her friends from school made the dough and stretched it on the big kitchen bench. They made potato/ham strudel, cherry/nut strudel and prune/apricot strudel - it took almost all day.

She corrected me on the cake/cookie thing - it is apparently spelled Zserbo but pronounced sherboo, or something like that.

[ludja]

...

Another nice recipe is for a walnut cookie, with a walnut butter cream spread between two cookies.

←

I remembered that Lang published this recipe in Saveur a few years ago. They are really good! Hungarian Walnut Buttercream-Filled Cookies

[takomabaker]

My Lithuanian grandmother used to make me cheese blintzes with either apple sauce or sour cream as a topping. I don't have her exact recipe (unfortunately, because she passed away just a little over a year ago), but I think it was a pretty traditional recipe.

[andiesenji]

Here is Anka Hargitay's recipe for

Zserbo cookie/cake

Zserbo

Flour, 2 cups regular, 2 cups pastry or cake flour (or use all White Lily southern type flour)

XXX sugar, 1 level cup.

Butter, 5 tablespoons unsalted

2 large eggs, beaten until frothy

honey, warmed and strained, 1/4 cup

sour cream, 1/4 cup.

Place first 3 ingredients in bowl of food processor. Pulse until it looks like coarse bread crumbs.

Mix together eggs, honey and sour cream and add to mixture in processor.

Pulse just until dough forms a ball.

Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Line cookie sheets with bakers parchment.

Divide the chilled dough into 4 parts.

Roll each part into a square about 1/8 inch thick and place on cookie sheet.

If you don't have room in your oven to bake them all at once, keep dough chilled while you do the first two, then make the next two.

Set aside to cool.

Filling

2 cups XXX sugar

3/4 cup superfine sugar

1/4 cup cake flour

1 cup half and half

1 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place XXX sugar, superfine sugar and the flour in a bowl over simmering water (or a double boiler)

Add the half and half a little at a time, stirring constantly until it gets thick like pudding then stir in the melted butter and beat until creamy.

Measure out 1/3 of the filling and spread on the bottom layer cookie.

Add another cookie and spread 1/3 of the filling on it

Repeat again with the final portion of filling

Top with the last cookie.

Cut into 2 inch squares and sprinkle with XXX sugar or XXX sugar mixed with cocoa powder.

Anka says, "A little whipped cream on the top doesn't hurt."

[andiesenji]

A footnote about the White Lily flour. Anka loves this flour. She says back home they could not always get good flour.

Her brother worked at a hotel and sometimes could buy a little pastry flour for special baking. The White Lily is very like the extra fine pastry flour she remembers.

[simdelish]

Thank you! What excellent and delicious-sounding suggestions! And I even learned a bit of history (thanx Matsu!). That's why I always love doing these extra food-related things for all my kids over the years. I always learn lots of new things, try out new tastes, and add to my repetoire! (Hmmmm, I am remembering the year my Argentinian neighbor taught me how to make the BEST empanadas, and another year when I reproduced an entire Japanese tea ceremony for the class...thanks to a Japanese exchange student that was staying with us...) And of course, my kids are so proud, and all their friends always know me for having the best food, and introducing them to new things.

ludja -- thnks for the Hung. Walnut cookies, they look really simple and yummy. I would love to have you post or pm me the recipe for Nut Slice also. (One never has too many recipes! Knowing me, I might end up doing a platter of several things, so I don't have to decide/eliminate. )

I did think of blintzes too, but wasn't sure the origins were on target. I haven't made them in eons... maybe this weekend, just for the fam.

Thank you, Andie-- all I can say is wow! not one, but 2 authentic recipes, and one still hot from the source, just translated...and what a great name, sounds like some Eastern European actor... like... "Boris Zswebo? Borr-rees ZSAIR-BO...I dink dat sounz zsright!" (now I'm beginning to sound like ChefPeon! )

Btw, is there a name for the puff paste thingies? Fortunately, puff paste doesn't faze me a bit; I make it several times a week for work.

(I also thought of streudel, but knew I couldn't tackle it and do it justice. We made it once in school and I still have the recipe, but haven't made it since. It IS amazing to see how the dough stretches 3, 5, 7, 8 feet, paper thin, across the table, with hopefully no holes I wish I were more skilled at it... wouldn't that be a kick to do/demonstrate it right there in front of the kids???!!!)

Oh yes, I love white lily flour too... it is a beautiful winter wheat flour that is ground very fine and light... i won't make biscuits without it. I am on the East Coast so it is readily available (I think WL is made in Knoxville, TN). My grandmother taught me to use it!

This is great guys, thank you! eG never lets you down! I will post what/how things go.

edited to add:

p.s. Andie, I know I will see when actually making them, but I'd like to have an idea how big the four zserbo squares are... 8x8? 12x12? I need to know whether to double the batch or not.

and please, tell Anka "thank you!"

Edited February 18, 2005 by simdelish (log)

[andiesenji]

Thank you!  What excellent and delicious-sounding suggestions!  And I even learned a bit of history (thanx Matsu!).  That's why I always love doing these extra food-related things for all my kids over the years.  I always learn lots of new things, try out new tastes, and add to my repetoire!  (Hmmmm, I am remembering the year my Argentinian neighbor taught me how to make the BEST empanadas, and another year when I reproduced an entire Japanese tea ceremony for the class...thanks to a Japanese exchange student that was staying with us...) And of course, my kids are so proud, and all their friends always know me for having the best food, and introducing them to new things.

ludja -- thnks for the Hung. Walnut cookies, they look really simple and yummy.  I would love to have you post or pm me the recipe for Nut Slice also. (One never has too many recipes!  Knowing me, I might end up doing a platter of several things, so I don't have to decide/eliminate.  )

I did think of blintzes too, but wasn't sure the origins were on target.  I haven't made them in eons... maybe this weekend, just for the fam.

Thank you, Andie-- all I can say is wow! not one, but 2 authentic recipes, and one still hot from the source, just translated...and what a great name, sounds like some Eastern European actor... like... "Boris Zswebo?  Borr-rees ZSAIR-BO...I dink dat sounz zsright!"  (now I'm beginning to sound like ChefPeon!  )

    Btw, is there a name for the puff paste thingies?  Fortunately, puff paste doesn't faze me a bit; I make it several times a week for work. 

(I also thought of streudel, but knew I couldn't tackle it and do it justice.  We made it once in school and I still have the recipe, but haven't made it since.  It IS amazing to see how the dough stretches 3, 5, 7, 8 feet, paper thin, across the table, with hopefully no holes   I wish I were more skilled at it... wouldn't that be a kick to do/demonstrate it right there in front of the kids???!!!)

Oh yes, I love white lily flour too... it is a beautiful winter wheat flour that is ground very fine and light... i won't make biscuits without it.  I am on the East Coast so it is readily available (I think WL is made in Knoxville, TN).  My grandmother taught me to use it!

This is great guys, thank you!  eG never lets you down!  I will post what/how things go.

edited to add:

p.s. Andie, I know I will see when actually making them, but I'd like to have an idea how big the four zserbo squares are... 8x8?  12x12?  I need to know whether to double the batch or not.

and please, tell Anka "thank you!" 

←

This is another case where the dough may act differently in different climates. Here, in the desert when it is dry, they do not roll out as easily.

When it is raining (like today) they would roll more easily and stretch to 10 x 10 inches.

The point is not to get them too thin, they should have some substance.

I would suggest you make a test batch first, just make the pastries, Anka makes them and brushes them with warm honey and sprinkles with cinnamon (sometimes with chocolate sprinkles) and doesn't layer them. The traditional way is to make the layered thing but she likes to bake them and use them in different ways.

Anka calls the puff pastry thing Wien Torta (in the style of Vienna) Czorna is fairly close to the Austrian border and as I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a lot of cross culture.

The Hungarian pastry chefs that worked for my mom made similar things and after all these years I can't remember what they called them but most things like this were referred to as torten.

They also make something identical to kolachy which are usually considered a Czech pastry, but Anka makes little ones that are two-bite size and simply delicious, especially the ones with cheese and fruit combined. She calls them kolaken. (my phonetic spelling).

I dry a lot of fruit, make a lot of preserves - I documented my apricot preserve making in the microwave last July - and Anka loves to use these in the pastries she makes.

[ludja]

...

ludja -- thnks for the Hung. Walnut cookies, they look really simple and yummy.  I would love to have you post or pm me the recipe for Nut Slice also. (One never has too many recipes!  Knowing me, I might end up doing a platter of several things, so I don't have to decide/eliminate.  )

←

Adapted from Viennese Cooking by O. and A. Hess:

Nuss Stangerl (Walnut Sticks)

Dough:

1 1/3 cups flour

6 Tbs butter

2 egg yolks

2 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs milk

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup water

2/3 lb walnuts ground

1 Tbs milk

1 Tbs butter

Icing:

2 egg whites

1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Mix sugar, yolks and milk together; then work in softened butter and then flour. Work with hands or a big wooden spoon until it forms a dough. Roll out to form a thin dough and press into a cookie sheet with sides at least ~ 3/4 inch. (I can't recall how sticky the dough is; may need to partially roll out and then finish pressing into pan; dough should be thin, ~ 1/4 inch thick).

For filling boil sugar and water until if forms a thread (230-235 deg F). Add ground walnuts, milk and butter. Spread filling over dough in an even layer.

For icing beat egg whites with sugar and lemon juice until thick enough to coat a spoon. Add more sugar if it seems too thin. Spread this icing over the walnut filling.

This part is a little tricky; you should use a sharp knife and may need to wet it with cold water in between. Pre-cut the pastry into small, ~ 1 inch squares in the pan. Bake at 325 deg F until meringue is slightly golden and dough is cooked. Carefully remove pieces and cool.

So, this *is* from "Viennese Cooking" but there is so much overlap between Austrian and Hungarian baking. The part of Austria where my family comes from borders on Hungary and the use of walnuts in desserts is very popular on both sides of the border.

edited to add: These keep well for at least a week in a sealed container. (easy to make ahead of time)

Edited February 18, 2005 by ludja (log)

[simdelish]

thank you all for your recipes and suggestions. "Our" project isn't due until Friday the 25th, so I have this week to try things out (and sample a few! )