Recipe of the week: Golden dumplings (Aranygaluska)

Raised pies are popular dessert bases all over Europe, and the culture of loaves, scones, rolls and sweet dumplings flourished in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The flagship of the dessert revolution was the aranygaluska (golden dumplings), which is unmatched all over the world. It truly gilds your days and meals 😉

The aranygaluska is probably the Hungarian dessert with the most beautiful name. According to hvg.hu, it is frequently referred to as the queen of raised pies, batters, while some people even go as far as calling it a Hungaricum.

However, its glory is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that is has become a “canteen dessert” in schools. Naturally, those are simpler versions, since it wouldn’t be worth the fuss-making real golden dumplings every two weeks. Because one thing is for sure: it’s a complicated dessert which takes a few hours to prepare.

Photo: www.cookta.hu/www.facebook.com/ZsofiaHamoriPhotography

But the result is worth the energy, it could even stand as a second course after a hearty soup. At least this is how Hungarians serve it most of the times. To be honest, the name is a bit tricky because it has nothing to do with dumplings since aranygaluska centimeter with raised batter.

The base of delicious golden dumplings is the light raised batter, which you boost with butter, ground walnuts and raisins (if you prefer). Then, you complete it by pouring over vanilla custard or wine custard.

Naturally, you can serve it however you want to. Some people make it with caramel or chocolate sauce, replace the walnuts with poppy seeds or ground hazelnuts, while others serve it with cinnamon and homemade jam. But the traditional version calls for ground walnuts, raisins and vanilla custard.

The following recipe is from nosalty.hu, and we chose it because it is said to be a full-proof recipe from a gastro-expert grandma 🙂

Ingredients:

For the batter

• 500 grams of flour
• 20 grams of yeast
• 70 grams of butter
• 3 dl of milk
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon of butter (to grease the baking tin)

For the topping

• 300 grams of ground walnut
• 150 grams of sugar
• 100 grams of butter

For the custard

• 7 dl of milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 vanilla stick
• 60 grams of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of flour

Photo: www.cookta.hu/www.facebook.com/ZsofiaHamoriPhotography

Directions:

Sieve the flour into a bowl. Add the yeast to the lukewarm milk along with the sugar and let the mixture raise. Melt the butter and add it to the flour along with the egg yolks and the raised yeast. Persistently mix and knead the batter with your hands until it becomes blebby. Sprinkle some flour on the top, cover it and let it raise to double the size.

After the dough has raised, roll it out to a thickness of approximately one centimetre and cut out circles with a round dough-knife. Grease a cake tin, melt the 100 grams of butter, and mix the sugar and ground walnuts. Dip the round dumplings in the melted butter, then in the sugary walnut mixture and place them in the cake tin. Carefully bake them at 180-200° Celsius.

While the dumplings are baking, make the vanilla custard. Add the vanilla seeds to the milk, and bring it to a boil. Then, take it off the heat. In another pan, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and flour. Slowly start adding the vanilla milk to the egg mixture and cook it on low heat until it reaches a custard consistency (not too thick, still liquidy).

After the dumplings have baked, let them cool for a bit. Then, tear them into smaller pieces and serve them with the vanilla custard.

Enjoy your meal!

Featured image: www.nosalty.hu

Source: Daily News Hungary