Csokis-almás, the superior combination of apple and chocolate

Dear Reader,

First of all, I would like to thank you following this blog. I've reached the number of 400 readers, which is a great number if you consider that it's only a school-project blog. Nevertheless, today is my mother's birthday. I would like to thank her all the love and help that she gives me every day. Without her, this blog couldn't exist. So, happy birthday, Mom!

This week, you will get familiar with csokis-almás, which is one of my mother's specialities. This cake's main ingredients are chocolate and grained apple. Their mixture is just fabulous as the cake melts in your mouth.

Since this cake is rather complicated, I would list the ingredients separately, as it's easy to lost track.

Let's begin with:
7 oz of margarine (20 dkg margarin)
11 oz of flour (30 dkg liszt)
1 egg (tojás)
2 tablespoons of sugar ( evőkanál cukor)
1 baking soda (sütőpor)
                                      This will give you enough dough for two layers.

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Knead all the ingredients together and let them rest for half an hour. It should look like this








Divide the dough into two equal halves. Roll the fist piece of dough until it's about 1/8 inch (3mm). Repeat the same action after putting the filling on the first layer of dough.

Lay the first layer in a baking pan in which you had put greaseproof paper before.

Now, it's filling-time! :)
You'll need:
5 grained apples (alma)
7 oz of sugar (20 dkg cukor)
4 yolks (tojássárgája)
1 tablespoon of bitter cocoa-powder ( keserű kakaópor)
5 oz of grained walnuts (15 dkg dió)
1/2 of a pocket of baking soda ( sütőpor)
1 vanillasugar ( vaníliás cukor)
the foam of 4 egg-whites (tojásfehérje)

Mix everything together. Then add the foam. Pay attention not to break it.
Mix it with wide moves.

Now, put the mixture on the first layer into the baking pan.

Then put the second layer of dough on the mixture just like this:







Before baking, twinge it with a fork, so that the vapour could come out.

After it is baked, glaze it with chocolate.

You'll need:
3 tablespoons of bitter cocoa powder (kakaópor)
1 oz of sugar (3 dkg cukor)
5 tablespoons of water (víz)
2 oz of butter (5 dkg vaj)

Cook the sugar and the water on a slow fire, with continous stirring. Then add the cocoa powder. When it boiled, leave it cook for another 3-4 minutes. Taking it off from the fire, mix it with butter. Leave it to cool but stir it sometimes. Then glaze the cake.

And last but not least, enjoy it!

Oh, I've almost forgotten, Happy Easter!

See you next week! :)

Gőzönfőtt gombóc or look for the plum inside ;)

This weeks dessert is not the simplest that you've ever made but could be the tastiest. It takes time to prepare, yet in the end you'll be satisfied with your work. Today we're going to make gőzönfőtt gombóc. It is  a sweet that doesn't need baking but cooking. Or to be more specific, it is cooked by steam. Interesting, isn't it?

So, let's the work start. We'll need:

3 dkg (1 oz) of yeast (élesztő) which we run up in 1 tablespoon of sugar (evőkanál cukor) and in 1 deciliter milk (tej)
3 deciliter of milk (tej)
0,5 deciliter of vegetable oil (olaj)
60 dkg (1,32 lb) of fluor (liszt)







Mix the ingredients then let them knead for an hour.
Roll out the dough. It
should be 1 cm (0,39  inch) thick.









Cut the rolled out dough into squares, as seen below.

At the center of every square, put plum jam or a plum that you've sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar before.

I've used plum jam.























Form dumplings by sticking the corners of the dough crosswise.

At the end, you'll have cute dumplings like these.

Then boil water in a fairly big pot. If you don't have a strainer, then using gauze would be okay, too. With gauze cover the pot tightly, like this:

When the water is boiling, place the dumpling on the gauze. When you have placed the dumplings, cover them with a big bowl.

The bowl has to cover the pot really tightly.

Leave the bowl on the dumplings for 10 minutes. It's really important not to move it. After 10 minutes, they would look like this. Put them on a tray. 

Now, melt some butter. And mix grained walnuts with sugar. 

Grease the dumpling with the melted butter then sprinkle them with the sugared walnut. 

 

And now, you can enjoy your work!

Túrógombóc or the best that could happen to cottage cheese

Hungarians do love cottage cheese. I can't think of a nation which is more in love with cottage cheese. However, it's really rare when I have it in my refrigerator. But when I have some, I make túrógombóc. They are cottage cheese dumplings served with jam or sour cream.

We'll need:

10 dkg of semolina (4 oz) (búzadara)
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar (kristálycukor)
3 eggs (3 tojás)
0,5 kg curd cheese (2,20 lb) (tehéntúró)
1 vanilla sugar (vanílás cukor)


Additional:
8 dkg of breadcrumbs (3 oz) (zsemlemorzsa)
1 deciliter of vegetable oil


And now let the work begin!

Beat foam from the egg white.
Add the egg yolks, the vanilla sugar, the granulated sugar, and the semolina to the curd cheese.

Mix it together with your hands.




Then add the egg foam. Pay attentin not to break the foam when you add it to the mixture.




It should be look like this.

Leave it rest for half a half or an hour.

With your hands, make little dumplings.

Cook them for 12-15 minutes until they go up to the surface.
















Then get them out and roll them in breadcrumbs that you had seared before in vegetable oil.

Here is the final form, before you serve it with sour milk and sprinke it with sugar.

You can also it them with jam.

Enjoy your meal!

Linzer flowers

It's spring, finally! The nature awakens and blooms at this time of the year. Flowers appear at the meadows, in the gardens and even on the street. But what if you live in the city? Well, my dear reader, you can bring flowers into your kitchen if you make the following recipe.

This time we'll make Linzer flowers. They are little biscuits shaped like a flower stuck together with jam.

What we'll need are:
50 dkg of flour (1,10 lb) (liszt)
2 eggs (tojás)
20 dkg powdered sugar (7 oz) (porcukor)
20 dkg margarine (7oz) (margarin)
1 packet of baking powder (sütőpor)
1 packet of vanilla sugar (vaníliacukor)

 Knead the ingredients together with your hands ...

... until you got a loaf-shaped dough as seen below.

Hint the dough with flour and hint the surface where you want to roll out the dough.

Roll the dough until it is about 1/4 inch (0,5 cm) thick.

Now with a cookie cutter cut out the flowers. It's not a problem, if you don't have a flower-shaped cookie cutter, just use what you have at home. Don't leave too much space between the "cuts".

The flower needs to have a hole in the center. For this, you may use your special cookie cutter. But if you don't have one, use the tip of a marker, it 'll do the work.

Pay attention to make the same amount of flowers with and without holes. If you made 20 flowers without holes, make 20 flowers with holes. If you end up with leftover pieces of dough, knead it again and repeat the action.
Then place the flowers on a margarined oven pan.

Bake it 8 minutes. The flowers have to be golden yellow.









Leave the baked flowers to chill. If they are cool, glaze the "unholy" flower with your favorite jam. I used peach jam. One teaspoon of jam is enough. Then place the hollow flower on it gently.

If you are ready with the sticking, hint the flowers with powdered sugar.

Enjoy! :)