Along with those of his great-aunts, Katicza and Agota Gyurkovics (pictured above),  he has a few recipes by a magnificent woman Countess Marica Ordody, whose godfather was Kossuth Ferencz (son of Kossuth Lajos) and some from his mother Valeria. We will post some of these recipes. The very first one I wanted to try my grandma’s recipe for Linzer bars. I love linzer and my dad always asked my mum to make linzer like his mum used to make. So I was curious about two things.

1. How does my grandmother’s  linzer taste, obviously.

2. Would my dad recognize the taste and would he mention that “this is like my mother used to make it” or is he just cruel to my mum and he wants to make her something that does not exist.

Grandma

The test won in the 1st case but lost in the 2nd. I loved this Hungarian linzer. It is very easy to make and tastes great! After feeding crumbs to my dad (it is a small recipe… not too much left) he did not instantly recognize it as a miracle from the past though. When I told him that it is my grandmother’s recipe he said… oh yeah that’s right…that’s how my mum used to make it. So, some success but I was expecting more. After this I had a third question: why did’t he show the recipe to my mum, because if she knew it is so easy she would have been delighted.

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Linzer Bars/Cake/Cookies

This is a small recipe so do not make it as your main dish.

Ingredients

Makes 4-5 portions.

• 1 stick/113 grams butter
• 1¼ cup/240 grams sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2.2 ounces/60 grams crushed almonds
• 3/4 cup + 2tbs/100 grams flour
• small jar of you favorite jam (I used cherry)
• a few blanched almonds for decoration

Method

• Work the flour, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and crushed almonds into a dough.
• Roll them 1/2 inch/2 cm thick into your desired shape: it can be one big square, one big circle or small circles. This might be a bit tricky with the rolling pin because the dough is very fragile and may fall apart. I used my fingers and pressed it into shape. Reserve a little bit of dough to make shapes on the top of the linzer. I made a lattice. Or tried to  — as I mentioned, the dough was very fragile.
• Spread the jam over it, and add a dough design if you choose. Place blanched almonds on top for decoration.
• The recipe says you should bake them in a very hot oven. So I tried 350 F (180 C). I baked them for 25 minutes, but I think 30 minutes or a higher temperature might work better. The dough under the jam was slightly undercooked.
• When the sides and the lattice are getting golden, take out the linzer and let it cool.
• Do not touch! Let it cool completely. And enjoy.

It’s Carnival season around these parts – before Lent the shops are decorated, kids’ costumes are on the racks, and doughnuts – sišky, fánk, or vdolky, depending on where you are – seem to be frying up everywhere you turn. I’m not complaining, or maybe I am, because it’s hard to get enough exercise in the winter to work off those deep-fried treats; anyway, a warm sugary puff is a pretty delicious way to beat the snowbound blues.

While I was researching recipes, I found most of them call for filling the doughnuts with jam after you fry them, using a piping tool. That was definitely more trouble than I’m willing to go to these days, but I remembered seeing a method for filling doughnuts before frying. It was an unlikely source – a Martha Stewart recipe for Hanukkah sufganiyot – but it was effective.

A couple of the doughnuts puffed up around the seal, but none of them leaked any of their fillings of jam or nougat (like Nutella). Success!

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Filled doughnuts

Ingredients

Makes about 12 doughnuts

• 1 cup/240 ml milk
• 2 oz/28 grams butter
• 3½ –3¾ cups/400-420 grams flour
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 1/3 cup/60 grams sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, separated
• ½ cup jam and/or nougat (or even frosting) for the filling
• Additional sugar to roll the doughnuts in

Method

• Heat the milk and butter together in a small pan until just below boiling. Set aside and allow to cool to lukewarm.
• In a large bowl, stir together 3½ cups flour, yeast, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt. When milk mixture has cooled, add it to the dry ingredients along with the egg yolks (reserving the whites for later). Mix to form a soft dough, then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and still a bit sticky, adding more flour a tablespoon at a time if it’s very sticky. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place to rise for 2 hours or until doubled (or in the fridge overnight).
• When dough has doubled, turn it out onto a lightly-floured surface and roll out to about 1/8″ (0.5 cm) thin. Using a 2″/7 cm round cookie cutter, cut out circles; you can re-roll the scraps until you use up all the dough; you should get about 24 circles.
• Brush a circle with the reserved egg whites, then place about a teaspoon of filling in the center of the circle. Top with another of the dough circles, and pinch along the edge to seal. Repeat until all the circles have been used.
• Cover the doughnuts with a cloth and leave for 20-30 minutes or just until puffed.
• In the meantime, heat about 2 cups/0.5 liter of vegetable oil in a large pan. When a scrap of dough sizzles when you drop it in, the oil is hot enough.
• Fry the doughnuts in batches, being careful not to overcrowd them. Cook each doughnut for about 3 minutes or until golden brown, then turn and cook another 3 minutes.
• Place the cooked doughnuts on a layer of paper towels to cool for a minute or two; while they are still warm, roll them in granulated sugar and serve.

If you visit Central Europe, you are almost certain to come across one of the few symbols from the socialist era that remains beloved today: the Little Mole, known variously as Krtek, Krtko, Kisvakond, Krecik or die Maulwurf. Our kids love to watch Little Mole cartoons on YouTube, and since the vast majority of them are short, sweet, and dialogue-free, they’re OK with me too. (There are a few peculiar exceptions that I generally don’t show the children.) The mole and his friends have fully embraced capitalism and now are emblazoned on t-shirts, toys, games and books, and are part of the wave of fashionable nostalgia that hit this region a few years ago.

While he is popular all around the Central Europe, the Little Mole shows his Czech origins from time to time. For his friend the frog’s birthday, he bakes koláče, a typically Czech pastry that can be filled with jam (as seen here), poppyseed filling, sweetened cheese or nuts.

Koláče aren’t reserved for festive occasions, they’re a substantial snack with tea or coffee, or an indulgent breakfast. They are also called frgale, which certainly sounds fancy; they can be dressed up by making patterns with different types of filling, which looks especially elegant if you make one big koláče.

Here’s a recipe and a couple of different filling variations, to be mixed and matched as you like.

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Koláče/Czech pastries

I’ve listed the fillings separately, since they’re useful for other types of pastry.

Ingredients

Makes 8 koláče

• 1 cup/20 ml milk
• 2 oz/50 grams butter
• 3½ cups/500 grams flour
• 1/3 cup + 1 Tbs/80 grams sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 1 egg + 1 yolk

1 or more filling, in next recipe

Method

• Heat the milk and butter in a small pan until almost boiling. Remove from heat and allow to cool to lukewarm.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
• Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together. Add one egg and mix until a sticky dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl until it is fairly clean, cover it with plastic and leave the dough to rise for 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
• When the dough has doubled in bulk, divide it into 8 equal portions (each should weigh about 4 oz or 100 grams) and roll into balls. Cover them with a cloth and leave them to rest while you make the filling, see recipes below.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/190 C. Whisk the egg yolk with about a tsp of water to make an egg wash
• Gently flatten each ball to make a circle about 3½” across (9 cm)and form a well in the center. Spoon about 2 Tbs of filling into the well.
• Brush the exposed dough with the egg wash, and bake on a greased (or even better, parchment-paper lined) baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Sweet fillings for pastry

Each of these recipes will fill at least 8 koláče. If you have filling left over, you could use it to make turnovers with frozen puff pastry dough, or fill any other type of pastry that suits your fancy.

Ingredients for poppyseed filling

• 1 cup + 2 Tbs/150 grams poppy seeds
• ¼ cup/ 60 ml milk
• ¼ cup/ 25 grams sugar

Method

• Grind the poppyseeds in a spice or coffee grinder until they form a paste.
• Mix with the milk and sugar in a small pan and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes.

Ingredients for sweet cheese filling

• 9 oz/250 grams soft cheese, such as turó/tvaroh or ricotta
• ½ cup/ 50 grams sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest of one lemon
• 1 Tbs butter, softened
• 1 egg

Method

• Cream the butter and cheese together with the sugar. Beat in the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla.

Ingredients for walnut filling

• 7 oz/200 grams ground walnuts
• 1 cup + 2 Tbs/120 grams sugar
• 2/3 cup/150 ml milk
• zest of one lemon

Method

• Mix all ingredients together in a small pan and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.