Hungarian Crepe / Palacsinta

Since discovering this recipe from No Salty, a Hungarian food and recipes site, I have already made it twice. These are not as thin as crepe but the texture for me is spot on, a bit chewy , just the way I like it!

Palacsinta
https://www.nosalty.hu/recept/edes-palacsinta-alapteszta

Ingredients (at room temperatureÖ
makes : 12 crepes
3 eggs
4 Tbsp sugar (I used only 3)
1 sachet vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
12 Tbsp of flour
480ml milk
50ml cooking milk


Just follow the video included in the link above for instructions.

Butter cookies with meringue and apricot jam / Non-Plus Ultra

Some people call this poor-man's macaron..haha. Many consider this a retro cookies, it really deserves more love! I will be making these again the coming Christmases and when we have guests over. It is so easy and tasted good! Check out the link to see how it should look because meringue and presentation need some improvement.

Non-plus Ultra
credit : https://receptneked.hu/edes-sutemenyek/non-plus-ultra-5/?fbclid=IwAR33-i2lvAso08m96HPIg5g5Zk-l-RHo6gBE8_q8czJ0UD0jiYLy0ACM6Jo

video tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p16wD_haYuA

• 
  
• Ingredients
• Cookie dough :-
• 200gm All-purpose Flour
• 2Tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 200gm butter, room temperature
• 2 egg yolks

• Meringue :-
• 2 egg-white 
• a pinch of salt
• 200gm powdered sugar (I find that less sugar works too)
• 1tsp lemon juice

• Filling :
• 2-3 Tbsp jam of your choice, a more tart jam will work better to counter the sweetness of meringue

Method :-

1) In a bowl, put in the flour, powdered and vanilla sugar. Mix well. Next , crumble in the butter, use fingers to work butter in until crumbly texture. Then put in the egg yolks and knead the mixture until it becomes a dough. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

2) Pre-heat oven at 160`c. 

3) After 30 mins , take dough out from fridge, roll dough out , thickness about 0,5cm . Use round cookie cutter to cut into shape and place on a lined baking dish.

4) Make meringue by beating egg white with a pinch of salt. Beat for 1 mins to get the egg white frothy. Then add about 50gm of sugar, start beating again, after another min. add lemon juice and another 50gm of sugar. Beat and add sugar gradually until you reach shinny and thick consistency. not too runny. Pipe meringue onto cookie and bake in the pre.heated oven for 10-15 mins until nice colour.

5) Let it cooled before filling with jam. It better to make these a day before serving.

Or to make ahead of time, keep cookies in air-tight container without filling. Keep in the pantry. Fill with jam before serving.

Beef shank with game sauce { Vadas marhaszelet }

https://cookpad.com/hu/receptek/1924563-vadas-marhaszelet?fbclid=IwAR3JqsEYBBJZvgL6jK3e3Y6NLA-7x3L2EPaccH9bnWDHfVOUxjHtioKALxk

Hungarian Fried Bread { Lángos II }

Over the years I have tried to recreate the nation's favourite street food at home, with so-so but acceptable (to me) results. See https://cookingeasttowest.blogspot.com/2015/11/hungarian-fried-dough-langos.html and https://cookingeasttowest.blogspot.com/2016/05/native-american-fried-bread.html

Am glad I found this following recipe which is easy and comes with video instructions.

Hungarian Fried Bread { Lángos II }
via https://www.nosalty.hu/recept/igazi-strandos-langos
Makes 4 regular-size / 7 mini-size

300gm Bread flour
10ml lukewarm milk
150ml water
25g fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp icing sugar

Topping suggestions
3 cloves of garlic, mince
200ml sour cream
200gm cheese

Method :-
1) In a cup, add lukewarm milk, fresh yeast and icing sugar for 10 mins. to activate the yeast.
2) In a bowl, sift in bread flour and salt, make a well, add in the proof yeast and about 150ml of water. Mix it well and let it rest for an hour at a warm place covered with kitchen cloth.
3) Heat up vegetable oil to deep fry. Tear a ball off the dough, stretch it (see video in link given) and fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot , top with topping of choice.

Hungarian style fried Hake < Sült hekk >

https://cookpad.com/hu/receptek/1926385-sult-hekk

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: cukraszat.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.

Holiday Baking : A dessert named "Lonci"

We first tasted this "cake" at my sister-in-law, and my husband loves it. So, he asked for the recipe from his sister. Nobody knows why the name "Lonci". We tried searching online with no result. For me, the looks is exactly like a Gerbeau slice, except for the fillings, of course.  I would say that the filling is too mild and the chocolate taste takes over. However, I do like the result of the pastry and this method of making butter cream intrigues me. Perhaps I'll test out the pastry and buttercream separately in other bakes in the future.

Lonci (Creamy Gerbeau Slice)

Ingredients

For pastry

400gm flour

1/2 sachet baking powder

120gm shortening (used goose fat)

120gm sugar (reduced to taste)

1 egg

sour cream , as needed (less than a cup)

For filling

200gm butter, softened

250gm powdered sugar (reduced according to my taste)

500ml milk

2 Tbsp sugar

4 heap Tbsp flour

flavourings :-

Rum

cocoa

1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 sachet vanilla sugarFor cocoa glazing

4 Tbsp water

8 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

120gm butter

Method

For Pastry

1. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl except for sour cream. Add sour cream gradually and knead until you have a smooth dough
2. Divide dough into 3. Roll each dough out into a rectagular sheet and blind bake each sheet until golden brown in a meadium heat oven
3. 
   

For filling

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy set aside.
2. Cook milk, sugar and flour in sauce pan until it thickens. Place the thicken mixture onto cold water to cool. Stir the mixture continuously until cooled.
3. Mix together buttercream (1) and milk mixture (2) . Divide this into 2 portions.
4. One portion flavour with cocoa and rum ; while another portion add in vanilla extract or a sachet of vanilla sugar

For cocoa glazing

1. Bring water and sugar into a boil and mix in cocoa powder. Remove from heat and add in butter and mix until well combine

Assembly

1. Place 1 sheet of baked pastry onto serving dish, spread with all of cocoa flavour filling. Then place seconc sheet of baked pastry over it. Next spread vanilla flavoured filling over the pastry and place final baked pastry sheet on top.
2. Finish off by pouring cocoa glazing while glazing is still warm . Let cake rest for at least a day before serving.

Holiday baking : Ischler cookies

Ischler cookies , a repeat from 2012.

Holiday Baking : Buttermilk scones { kefires pogácsa }

Savoury scones are popular during family gatherings and parties over here. I'm glad that I finally tried my hand at making Hungarian scones which has more process than the English one.

Buttermilk Scones
Makes : 40 pcs mini-scones
via Arany Tepsi

Ingredients
50gm Flour
1 tsp salt
25ml milk
15gm yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 small egg yolk
125gm margarine
75ml kefir (buttermilk)

For glazing
1 egg yolk

Preparation :-
1) Heat up milk in sauce pan until warm NOT hot. Once milk warm to touch, switch off the heat and pour our milk in a jar, put in the sugar and crumbled yeast. Let this mixture sit for 10 mins. to a activate the yeast.
2) Once yeast has been activated, place flour in a mixing bowl, sprinkle in the salt. Cut in the margarine, mix it until crumbly texture. Then make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast, egg yolk and kefir. Knead until just everything come together, do not over work it.
3) Place dough on a slightly bigger tray as the dough will grow as it rest. Let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
4) 30 mins. into resting time, start pre-heating the oven at 180°c.
5) After 1 hour, halved the dough and place the other half back in the fridge. Roll out dough on floured surface until 1.5cm thickness. Score the top of the dough in a criss-cross patent. Use a round cutter, cut out dough, place on lined baking tin. Give some space between each cut dough. Glaze with egg yolk.
6) Repeat rolling and cutting process again until dough is finish.
7) Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 mins.

Holiday Baking : 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.

Cottage cheese spread { Körözött }

Körözöt is something that my FIL whipped up whenever we return to visit on weekends. He has kindly written down the recipe recently as below. Now I can make them at home !

 
Cottage cheese spread 

Simply mix together the ingredients :-

100-150gm Cottage cheese (I think Ricotta cheese should be fine ,too)
165ml sour cream
3-4 Tbsp butter, room temperature
1-2 tsp sweet / spicy paprika powder
pinch of cumin, ground or whole
salt & pepper, to taste

At this point, you've already made a basic Körözöt ; however, my FIL makes it special by adding ...

Hungarian green pepper, chopped finely
1-2 hard boiled egg(s)
1-2 tsp mustard
Onion, finely chopped , to taste
cold cuts, chopped finely

Garnish with dill , parsley or paprika powder. I think a drizzle of olive oil would be nice, too :)

Note that sour cream and butter (or margerine) are crucial in this recipe ; while the rest of the additions can be to your taste.

Hungarian Stuff Pepper

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 is not as thin as the French ones; but it is still very light. I love them with ground walnuts, cinnamon and sweetened with sugar. My husband prefers them with custard and jam but you can fill them with any sweet/savoury combo. It will work .

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.

Pancake Hortobágy style { 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 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 : citromhab
step by step tutorial : aprosef

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 dough { Lángos }

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 powde 

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.