WOW! Three Hungarian desserts in CNN’s world top 50

CNN Travel listed the top 50 desserts of the world, three of which are Hungarian ones. They did not rank the pastries but wrote a short introduction about them.

In the list, there are some well-known products like the brownie or the doughnut; both are linked to the USA. According to 19th-century-sources,

doughnuts became popular in the 19th century first in Hungary,

but Germans and French also claim that they are the dessert’s homeland. The Middle-East is represented in the list by the famous baklava while the French and the Germans with their chocolate mousse and black forest cake.

Regarding the Hungarian desserts, CNN writes that the Eszterhazy cake is one of the most delicious remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “A century after the empire fell its creamy legacy can still be found in pastry shop windows from Vienna to Sarajevo” – they write.

For this elegant cake, thin rounds of almond meringue are piled high between stripes of chocolate buttercream, then topped with a marbled spiderweb of chocolate and vanilla fondant. A melting texture and rich sweetness make this old-fashioned cake a perennial

favourite in sweets-loving Budapest,

but it’s just as easy to find in Vienna, the grand city that once led the empire. It remains deeply influenced by a shared culinary tradition – they conclude.

About the kifli, they write that while the rest of the world eats jam, central Europe enjoys the rich flavour of lekvár, a chunky preserve that retains all the tartness of the region’s ripe apricots and plums.

Tradtitional Hungarian Christmas dishes: hókifli (right) and bejgli (left).

The hearty fruit preserve is the delicious prize inside these crescent pastries. A soft, flaky dough is shaped into a plump half-moon that barely contains the sweet filling, then topped with a light blanket of powdered sugar. Not that kifli are limited to fruit preserves. The sweets, which are especially beloved at holiday times, are often stuffed with sweetened walnuts or poppy seeds.

Finally, CNN picked Rigó Jancsi, the famous Hungarian fluffy chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with apricot jam and airy chocolate mousse in this classic treat.

Rigó Jancsi

Topped with a whisper-thin layer of chocolate glaze then cut into tidy cubes of chocolate, the Rigó Jancsi stands out even in the notably crowded field of fabulous Hungarian desserts.

Beloved for a silky texture and rich flavour, the seductive cake was named for a love story that caught the world’s attention with racy images and juicy details. Rigó Jancsi was a Romani violinist who won the heart of the (married) Princesse de Caraman-Chimay of Belgium, and the two made international headlines when they ran off together in 1896.

If you want to read about the most famous Hungarian desserts, click HERE. THIS is your article if you want to learn about the most instagrammable sweets and desserts in Budapest. Finally, we recommend THIS article if you are interested in the traditional Hungarian Christmas desserts.

Source: CNN, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu