Túrósbukta - cottage cheese buns

Long time since I baked the last yeast based goodie, so I decided today is the day when I should bake some.
No better choice for a fresh start than the cottage cheese buns. We just looove them!
As a bonus I found a new way to fold them at "Bucataresele vesele"... This provokes action!

I didn't use the recipe from "Bucataresele vesele" this time for many reasons, mainly because I wasn't sure how the dough with 3 eggs will look like, so I stick to my well working yeast dough. Next, when I have some inclination for experimenting I will try.

Ingredients
600 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
350 ml milk (maybe less is enough, you can try starting with 320, but with my Costco bread flour I have to add the 350 ml)
3 humpy tbps sugar 
1.5 tsp dry yeast 
1 egg
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
60 g melted butter or 50 ml oil 
1/2 tsp cardamom, optional

Filling

500 g cottage cheese (in US you'll need to place the cottage cheese in a gauze and squeeze the liquid out of it as much as you can you'll get a too runny filling to work with)
100 g sugar

2-3 egg yolks
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
3 tbsp grits
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg for brushing

Warm up the milk a little bit, sprinkle the yeast to the top, spread a good pinch of sugar on the yeast and sprinkle some flour. Let it trot for 10 minutes.

Start mixing in the remaining sugar, dash of vanilla extract, salt, egg, lemon zest and flour. Work the dough together for about 10 minutes with a food processor or with hands.

Melt the butter, and last mix it in the dough. When the dough is elastic, leave it for 60+ minutes to grow to about double.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract, and add it to the cottage cheese. Mix in the grits, and let it sit covered in the fridge until the dough is ready.
When the dough had risen nicely, cut it into two parts, and let it sit for 15 more minutes.
Heat up the oven to 400 F, 200 C and line two large trays with parchment paper.
Cut each half into 8 equal parts, and form the buns either in the traditional way (squares folded like an envelope) or in roses.

For the traditional shapes roll out the dough into squares, place a humpy tbsp filling in the middle and fold up the corners, pinch them together tightly, and place the buns on a tray lined with parchment paper.
For the roses, roll out the dough into circles and follow the image instructions from  "Bucataresele vesele". Again, place the buns on the tray, and let them sit covered for 5 minutes. Meanwhile whip the egg lightly with some water for the egg wash.
Brush the buns with the egg and bake them on the middle shelve for 17 minutes.
Let them cool on a rack covered with a kitchen towel for 10-15 minutes, and they are ready to enjoy!
Bon appétit!

Coconut wreath

It is just a month or so and we will be busy coloring eggs, baking cookies and cooking/baking large hams to eat with friends and family while getting soaked in water, or perfume, on Easter Monday.
With Easter knocking on the door, I was thinking to try Easter wreath varieties well in advance, so I can experiment, and others have time to experiment as well.
This recipe is almost a nobrainer, destined to be a success due to the "pulla" (cardamom bread) dough, flavorful brown sugar and coconut. OK, waistline damage alert for today, but sigh...

Ingredients
1/2 portion pulla dough

Filling
~4 tbsp coconut flour (finely grated coconut)
~4 tbsp brown sugar
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon zest
25 g butter (quarter stick), melted

1 egg and 1-2 tbsp water, for the egg wash

Prepare the dough, let it rest as it is given in the dough recipe.
Preheat the oven to 225 C or 430F.
Roll out the dough to about 30 cm x 60 cm long.
Spread a thin layer of melted butter on the dough, sprinkle with the coconut and the brown sugar evenly, so that the coconut and sugar soaks in the butter. This will make sure your filling is not going to fall out when you cut the slices. Grate the lemon zest evenly on top of the filling and sprinkle with the lemon juice.
Roll it up along the longer edge evenly, pull towards the ends if needed while rolling. Cut ~2 cm thick slices, not thicker though or it will grow out of hands.
Pull them towards the sides, one to the left, the other to the right, laying them evenly on top of each other.

                       


This is how it looked at the end, and this is how I actually planned to bake it. To my biggest disappointment however, my large tray wasn't clean, and laziness kicked in, ending in making a round wreath by curling up my braid on the smaller tray.
You should just place it on a baking tray (need a larger one)
Brush the top with the egg wash all over the sides and the top, and sprinkle lightly with brown sugar (or for an even more sophisticated look with pearl sugar).
This is how mine actually ended up, looking not so bad either, but next time I'm gonna make the straight version, too.
The taste was delicious, with the brown sugar and coconut taste blended with the cardamom.., and it will definitely be one of the family's favorite filling.
Bake in the preheated oven on the middle shelf for 18-2ö minutes. Let is cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting it in slices and serving.


Happy baking and Easter preparations :).

M'semen

Two days after the operation and I was already "starving" for some tidbits. Not sweet, as you might have guessed I'm not the biggest fun of sweet stuff, except the ones with yeast and just a little sugar :).
So, for 8th March I asked hubby to make lángos instead of buying me flowers. Recipe coming soon, promise. We had them with sour cream with LOT of garlic.. Yummm...
Today however, four days after the operation, I just couldn't hold myself back from some cooking/baking.
We had székely káposzta for dinner (another versatile Transylvanian goodie worth cooking, I'll try to write down a recipe for it soon), but after dinner I still wanted something fried, something like lángos, but different. "Sweet".
I decided to go for some m'semen with honey.
I'm not a frequent cooker of Arabic meals, but the m'semen stole my hart long, long time ago.
In Finland I made it differently, without yeast, mainly because I didn't find the right semolina flour, but also because that's the traditional one. However I have to say the ones with yeast are much, much lighter, and better.

Well, here not finding something is luckily not an issue, with so many nations living together you'll find basically everything, and I had my semolina waiting in the storage for a while..
And here it goes, the lovely layered m'semen with honey, and it's my absolute favorite accompanied by strong mint tea with honey (not so sweet as they serve it in the Arabic kitchen) and pine seeds. Watch the video for easier instructions and good music.

Ingredients (makes 10 m'semen)
2 cups flour (bread flour)
2 cups semolina flour
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
~ 2 cups lukewarm water, you'll need a bit less than the full 2 cups, add it slowly

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup oil

In a larger bowl mix the dry ingredients, and start adding the water until the dough clings together but it still feels sticky. Should be a soft, light dough.
Knead it for 5-10 minutes, knead it well together in a smooth dough. You'll feel how it softens under your fingers while the flour absorbs the water.
Let ir rise for 30 minutes, it will grow to ~double size.

Melt 1/3 cup butter, add 1/3 cup oil.
Roll a bit the dough and pull 10, about same size, balls apart. Flatten and fold to make the layers.
Use the melted butter-oil mix to oil the table, and, with oily hands, start flattening the balls until they are so thin that they start to ravel.

Then fold them from the sides towards the middle in three (or four), to make a streak. Fold both ends towards the middle, and then fold the half streak in two (basically fold in 3 again, starting from the two ends). Flatten it a bit and you'll get nice squares. Between each folding oil your hands or even the dough. It is advisable to have oily layers (don't add to much though or you'll find it difficult to fold) as they will separate nicely the dough layers and they will look gorgeous.

With oily hands start flattening the squares until you get squares of a size of a small plate.

Heat a pan, sprinkle with the butter/oil mix leftover and start frying the m'semen like you fry palacsinta (crepes). The pan should be hot enough to make the m'semen grow nicely, however not too hot to burn too fast. I adjusted my heater to somewhere between half and 2/3rd capacity.

They need very short frying, maybe about 1 min/side, or less.

Enjoy while still warm/fresh with honey, maple syrup and mint tea.
Hubby, who has even less of a sweet tooth than I do, had them as is.

Korvapuusti - earslap - cinnamon buns

Yesterday  I made "korvapuusti" for the ladies' night, a friend's special request :).
Mot a mot translation of korvapuusti is earslap, however it is much more pleasant :D.
We had so much fun with the name, looking for the similarities between the Hungarian and the Finnish language.
A friend (trying to repeat the name to remember) called them kurvapusti :D, (kurva=bitch in Hungarian), so we couldn't stop playn' with the languages and further "translate" puusti to puszi (=kiss in Hungarian), and giggled like crazy thinking how she will go home in the middle of the night and tell hubby she brought him some kurvapuszi (bitch's kiss) in her pocket.
Soo, as you see our languages are really related, we could right away find some meaningful interpretation of korvapuusti in Hungarian.

Now back to the recipe, korvapuusti is not difficult to prepare, however as all yeast based goodies takes some time to rise.

Ingredients (makes ~16 BIG buns, roll it thinner and make a smaller roll with smaller buns and you'll get the double amount)
500 ml milk (2 cups)
2 tsp (2 bags) dry yeast
1 egg
200 ml sugar (a bit less than 2 cups)
150 g butter (a bit less then 1 1/2 stick)
1 tbsp minced cardamom seed
1 tsp salt
~900-1000 g (~2.2 lb) all purpose (bread) flour, 1300-1500 ml (5-6 cups)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean (optional)

Filling
50 g sugar (3 large tbsp, 4 smaller tbsp)
50 g butter (1/2 stick)
2 large tbsp cinnamon (for kids maybe more sugar and less cinnamon, as with too much cinnamon can become spicy).
if you made small buns and ran out of butter you'll have to use a bit more butter & sugar-cinnamon mix

Brushing
1 egg
1-2 tbsp water
pearl sugar (can be replaced with nubbly brown sugar)

Warm up 1 dl milk to ~hand warm, let the yeast to trot for couple of minutes.
Add to the rest of the milk, whisk in sugar, egg, salt and cardamom.
Stir in slowly the flour until you get a dough that starts not to stick anymore neither to the walls of the bowl nor your hands.
Melt the butter, knead it in the dough, and continue kneading until you get a smooth dough. Add more flour if needed until the dough does not stick to your fingers.
As usual, you should "work" some air in the dough, to be light.
Let it rise for 45-60 minutes, to about double size (if your room is cold, let it rise as long as it needs, it really makes a difference).
Divide the dough into 2-3 portions, easier to work with. Knead each part again to "get rid of" the air bubbles from the dough. Let is rise again for about 15 minutes.
On a silicon mat roll out the dough in a rectangle, about 0.5 cm thick (thinner for smaller rolls).
Melt the butter, spread on the dough just enough to have it covered well, sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon mix on top until the butter doesn't soak any more in.
Roll it up in a roll, and let it stay for 15 more minutes.

Now cut it in trapezoids, turn the pieces with the thinner side up, press the middle down with your finger, and let it stay for another 15 minutes.
Brush them with the water-egg mix, sprinkle pearl sugar on top, and place them in trays covered with parchment paper.
In a preheated oven, at 225 C (435 F), bake them for 15-17 minutes until light golden-brown.
Serve fresh, slightly warm are best.
They are a perfect snack for cold winter days, we took them with us to the ski slopes with a thermos of hot chocolate, and in the forest for our hikes..

Donut dough

As this dough is used in more than one type of donut type, I thought I'd rather put it up separately in a post and link it whenever needed.

Ingedients
500 g all purpose flour (bread, high gluten flour)
pinch of salt
~300 ml whole milk (depends on the flour, needs some experience to adjust the right amount)
40 g fresh yeast, or 1.5 tsp dry yeast (I had 4 tsp, but that's for the double amount, sorry)
50 g icing sugar
60 g butter, melted
3 egg yolks
1 - 1.5 tbsp rum aroma
1 grated lemon peel (finely grated)

1.5 litres oil for frying
Frying pan with a lid

Serving (all optional)
~100 g icing sugar
raspberry jam
apricot jam
whatever is you favorite jam :)

First in a small, but broader, bowl put about 100 ml hand warm milk and crumble the yeast to trot, with about half of the sugar. It takes only couple of minutes, the surface should be covered with lovely bubbles. If it's not, just throw the whole thing away and start again, your yeast must be "dead".
In the remaining milk add the sugar, the egg yolks, rum and lemon peel, mix it to help the sugar disolve.
Add the liquid mix to the flour, work it well together in a very soft dough and adjust the amount of milk and flour if needed, until you get a dough that clings together and detaches from the walls of the bowl. Last mix in the butter.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let is rise for 30-60 min, depends on the temperature in the house, the dough should grow to at least 2-2.5 times bigger than the original size.

Szalagos fánk - Hungarian donuts

From time to time is nice to enjoy things created by others, especially by hubby. The "szalagos fánk" is his specialty, I would never dare to compare my fánk to his creations..
He promised, and made, us fánk for new year. Though he claims these were not his best, perfect, "fánk" (because not all of them had the one finger-thick "szalag"), I would mention in a side note that he is too perfectionist :). They all had lovely holes and spongy texture inside.
First the naming story.. Fánk means donut (ok, kinda..), and "szalagos" means ribbon-ed, because of the white ribbon (stripe like thingy) that runs around the middle. If you don't have the ribbon the fánk might still taste great, but if you are unlucky it can easily fall into the "szalonnás" category :), which means lardy, and I guess the name "lardy donut" is already suggestive enough that it can't be good..The inside remains sticky, a raw-ish..
The "szalagos fánk" is a typical "farsang" - carnival dessert, (held in February by Hungarians all over inside and outside the borders of Hungary), but is a treat enjoyed all year round.
Has a huge blemish though: makes your trousers grow small verrry quickly if enjoyed too often.
Yeah, you know, all the good things in life are either unhealthy, or lewd, or make you fat.
Ok, enough of stories, to the business..

Ingredients
500 g all purpose flour (more like bread, high gluten flour, we use King Arthur's all purpose flour)
pinch of salt
~300 ml whole milk (depends on the flour, needs some experience to adjust the right amount)
40 g fresh yeast, or 1.5 tsp dry yeast
50 g icing sugar
60 g butter, melted
3 egg yolks
1 - 1.5 tbsp rum aroma
1 grated lemon peel (finely grated)

1.5 liters oil for frying (the fánk should not reach the bottom)
Frying pan with a lid

Serving (all optional)
~100 g icing sugar
raspberry jam
apricot jam
whatever is you favorite jam :)

First in a small, but broader, bowl put about 100 ml hand warm milk and crumble the yeast to trot, with about half of the sugar. It takes only a couple of minutes, the surface should be covered with lovely bubbles. If it's not, just throw the whole thing away and start again, your yeast must be "dead".
Add the remaining milk add the sugar, the egg yolks, rum and lemon peel, mix it to help the sugar dissolve.
Add the flour to the liquid mix, work it well together in a very soft dough and adjust the amount of milk and flour if needed, until you get a dough that clings together and detaches from the walls of the bowl, but is still soft to touch. Last mix in the butter.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let is rise for 30-60 min, depends on the temperature in the house, the dough should grow to at least 2-2.5 times bigger than the original size.
Dump the dough on a floured table, roll it out to about 0.5 cm, and cut them with a ~6 - 7 cm diameter cutter (or sharper glass).
Place them on a separate floured sheet and let them rise for another 15 minutes, covered with a cloth. They should again rise to about double size..

Meanwhile heat up the oil. It should be quite warm, but not too warm to burn the fánk too quickly 'cause it won't have time to grow the "ribbon". It is approximately on the half - to - two thirds scale of your burner, but this is something you will need to experiment with.. :(
When the oil is hot, and the raw fánk rested for 15 min, place them in the hot oil UPSIDE DOWN (the upper part of the fánk, which is more dry, goes in the hot oil) and put the lid on while you fry this side. Sometimes works better without the lid, but that's something you will have to see again for yourself..
Don't put more then 3-4 fánk at ones in the pan, it is more difficult to cope with the short frying time..
It takes only ~40 sec to fry one side.
When the side in the oil looks golden/light brown, remove the lid, turn the fánk in the oil, and fry the other side as well, this time without the lid. This is the time when, if everything went well, the fánk starts growing its ribbon.. It is such a rewarding sight. :)
Place the ready fánk on plates covered with kitchen paper to absorb excess oil, and when they cooled a bit sprinkle them with icing sugar.
Serve while warm. Enjoy!

PS. If you had enough of frying and still have dough leftover, no panic, put it in the fridge, before cutting it into circles though. Next day just let it warm up a bit, roll it out, cut the fánk circles and let it rest for 15 minutes and fry.

Aranygaluska - golden wallnut dumplings

Nah, finally one of the things our family likes the most, yeast based goodies.
I'm cheating a bit with my aranygaluska recipe, traditionally a yeast based, spongy, walnuty Hungarian cake, and here are the reasons...
First of all, I fell in love with the cardamom in the Finnish "pulla" dough, so I add cardamom in my Hungarian aranygaluska, which is very untypical. You can omit it, if you want something more original..
Second, my kids don't like walnuts in cakes, so I replace it with almonds. You can stick to the walnuts.. (Or, if you are allergic to nuts, you can omit both the almonds and walnuts, and just triple the cinnamon portion for stronger taste.)
Third, I add a bit of cinnamon.. Just 'cause I like it :).

Ingredients
25 g icing sugar
250 g all purpose flour 
25 g butter
20 g fresh yeast or 1 tsp dry yeast 
pinch of salt
1 egg
120 ml whole milk
1/2 tsp minced cardamom (optional)
1 lemon peel grated (small lemon, if you have a large one half will be enough)

For rolling
100 g ground almonds or walnuts
70 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, flat (optional)
100 g butter

Vanilla cream
500 ml whole milk
1 vanilla bean (seeds)
4 egg yolks (if you like it less"eggy" you can add 3) 
70 g sugar
1 tsp flour 
rum aroma

Let the yeast rise for couple of minutes in the hand-warm milk with a large pinch of sugar.
Add the pinch of salt to the flour and crumble with the butter. Add the remaining sugar, egg, yeast and the remaining milk, and work them nicely together in a soft dough.
Let it rise for 30 min.
Pinch from the dough balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter, roll them into the melted butter and then in the sugar/almond/cinnamon mix.
Place them evenly in a buttered and floured 26 cm cake form (not too tight, they will grow still..) and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
In many Hungarian recipes the dough portion is double and there are several layers of dough-balls placed on top of each other. I prefer it this way, and rather bake two portions if needed, as I find the final result more fluffy and light.
Before putting them in the oven, sprinkle on top of the dough-balls some additional butter and almond-sugar mixture.

In a 170C (350 F) preheated oven bake them for 30-35 minutes, on the top rack of the oven.
Serve still warm with the cold vanilla cream.

If you prepare your own vanilla cream, while the dough balls are rising in the baking form you can make the cream.
Whisk the flour evenly in 200 ml milk, bring them to slowly boil and cook until it thickens a bit, ~5 min, stirring constantly. Add the remaining milk and bring to boil, for additional 3 min.
Mix well the egg yolks with the icing sugar, and pour it into the boiling milk, and let it thicken for additional ~3 min but DON'T boil it anymore or the egg will cook and it will have a terrible eggy taste, again stirring continuously.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Serve with the aranygaluska.