Here is the recipe of the traditional Hungarian Christmas pastry: bejgli

In Hungary, no Christmas is complete without “bejgli”, a traditional and festive pastry. Read below the recipe from Chef Balázs Szabó, the chef of the Hungarian Embassy in Washington. The text was shared on the official Facebook page of the embassy.

For the dough: 500 g flour, 50 g pork fat, 150 g butter, 5 g salt, 12 g fresh yeast, 3 egg yolks, 100 g milk, 70 g powdered sugar

Poppy seed filling: 600 g poppy seeds, 250 g sugar, 150 g honey, grated peel and juice of 2 lemons, 150 g water, peel and juice of 1 orange, 20 g vanilla sugar, 3 g ground cinnamon

Walnuts filling: 500g ground walnuts, 100g ground home-made biscuits /or bread crumbs/, 150g honey, grated rind and juice of 1 lemon, grated rind and juice of 2 oranges, 150g water, 1 stick of vanilla with the seeds removed and the peel, 6g ground cinnamon

Preparation: Measure all the dough ingredients into a bowl or food processor bowl, except for the salt, and mix on low speed or by hand. When it comes together but is not yet homogeneous, add the salt, then mix until ready and smooth. It is important that both the butter and the fat are cold. When ready, divide the resulting amount into 4 equal parts, roll them into balls and leave them to rest in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. It can be stretched after 1 hour.

Preparation of the filling: With the exception of walnuts and/or poppy seeds, measure the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Stir, cool / leave at room temperature / then divide into 4 equal parts and use.

In the shape of a rectangle, spread the finished cooled filling evenly with a spatula, fold in the right and left sides by 2 cm and roll it forward from you. First, brush it with egg yolk, let it dry, brush it with egg white, then bake it in a preheated oven at 170 Celsius degrees (338 F) for 35-40 minutes. It is worth pricking with a fork before baking so that the gases escape freely from the filling.

Enjoy!

HERE you may find the embassy’s post.

Source: facebook.com/HunEmbassy.Washington