Here is the promised third Czech Christmas Cookie. You can find a similar recipe in the December issue of Sauveur magazine, although they call it an Austrian cookie, which raised my blood pressure. Luckily there are bloggers out there who will correct these mistakes.

Anyway, these cookies have a deep walnut flavor, buttery richness, and are amazingly tender. That is what makes them my favorite. Beware – you can  eat an awful lot of these before you know it. They’re that good.

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Vanilla Crescent Cookies – Vanilkové rohlíčky

Ingredients

Makes about 60 cookies.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 stick of butter

Method

• In a food processor, grind the walnuts until they form a crumbly paste.
• In a large bowl (of a stand mixer if you have one), combine the ground walnuts and the other ingredients. With the paddle attachment, or with your fingers, blend until a smooth dough comes together.
• Form the dough into a ball, then shape it into a disc and put it into the fridge for 30 min to rest.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F/190° C.
• Cut the dough into ½” strips, roll them into a rough log shape and then cut those into ½” slices.
• Roll the small slices and then curl them to make a crescent shape.
• Place them on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown.
• Let them cool and dust with powdered sugar to serve. Enjoy.

There are a few differences between the Christmas season in Central Europe and how most families celebrate in the USA. The major one would be that the presents are brought by the baby Jesus, and not by Santa.  During the dark Orwellian times, the fashion from the Soviet Union was to bring in “Ded Maroz” (Father Frost), which was the comrades’ version of Santa. It did not work for many reasons, one being that December 6 in Central Europe is Saint Nicholas day, when kids eat themselves sick on candies brought by Saint Nick. For kids it was very hard to understand why would a man in red suit and beard coma back at Christmas and bring toys. Why he wouldn’t he drop off the candies and toys all at once? We needed another character.  So the concept of baby Jesus survived.

One thing we did after St. Nicholas (Mikulas) day was to start baking Christmas cookies. My mum used to make 4 batches of 6-7 different types of cookies. Emperor’s Crumbs will bring you my top three, starting with “Bear Paws” today. It has always been the tradition that everyone pitches in to make the cookies; while filling the molds with bear paw dough,  my brothers and I had to sing. This way my mum was sure that we were not eating the dough (which is pretty good, maybe even better than the cookies!).

Here is our family recipe and a video tutorial as well. The video stars my mum, who has been making these cookies for more than 60 years now. Some of the molds we used have been in our family for almost 200 years.

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Bear Paws – Medvedie Tlapky

This is a rich, soft dough that can be handled quite a bit without getting tough – so it’s perfect for working with kids (also, no raw eggs to worry about if someone happens to nibble the dough). While we are lucky enough to have vintage molds, we got equally good results from a brand new cookie pan like this one. Traditionally, these cookies are allowed to sit and soften for a week or more before they’re considered ready to eat, but we’ve never had a problem gobbling them up as soon as they’re cool enough to touch.
Ingredients

Makes one good batch for a big family and more.

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 1 cup +2 tbs softened butter, in small pieces

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350° F/190° C. If your cookie molds are unseasoned or not non-stick, lightly oil them.
• In a food processor, grind the walnuts until they form a crumbly paste.
• In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
• With the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or with your fingers, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until a smooth dough comes together.
• Form the dough into a ball and gently knead it a few times.
• Pinch off a small quantity of dough and press a thin layer into your cookie mold. It should just cover the bottom and sides of the mold.
• If you are using individual molds, place  them on a baking sheet; bake for 8-10 minutes, watching carefully that the edges of the cookies don’t burn.
• Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before gently sliding them out of the forms.

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Emperors Crumbs

Original recipe tripled, reduced eggs. We have been able to find semolina without any trouble here, both packaged (Bob’s Red Mill is one brand) and in the bulk bins. We love the bulk bins these days!
Ingredients

Makes 5-6 portions

• 2¼ cup/300 g semolina
• 3 cups/750 ml milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 eggs, separated
• pinch salt
• 1½ cups/300 g sugar
• zest from 1 lemon
• 50 g butter for sauteing
• powdered sugar, compote or jam or all three as topping

Method

• Mix together the semolina, flour and milk. Let it sit for an hour or so to let the semolina absorb the milk.
• Mix the egg yolks together with sugar and stir it into the milk mixture.
• Whip the egg whites and a pinch of salt into firm peaks and fold it into the milk/egg mixture.
• Melt the butter and add the batter. Stir the batter with a spatula or wooden spoon until it starts to form little clumps – crumbs. Depending on the size of the pan this can take up to 30 minutes.
• Serve hot with powdered sugar or with jam, or with compote or drizzle with some syrup.

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Roasted red pepper and tomato soup

We usually blend the soup base until it’s quite smooth, and then add some chopped cucumber for a little texture; I love putting in bite-sized pieces of fresh mozzarella, too. Sometimes we go crazy and add little crispy-fried slices of zucchini. Put your own spin on it and add some chili or spices to suit your mood!

Ingredients

Makes a meal for two, first course for four

• 2 pounds tomatoes
• 1 head garlic
• 1 red bell pepper
• 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• pepper to taste

To serve (optional)

• chopped cucumber
• fresh mozzarella
  • Cut off the base of the garlic.
  • Put the vegetables and the garlic into a roasting pan and broil on high heat (450° F/230° C), turning the pepper and tomatoes every 5 minutes. The skin will begin to blacken.
  • When the tomatoes are soft, remove them from the roasting pan and remove and discard their skins.
  • When bell pepper is charred on all sides, remove the pan from the oven. Cover the pepper with a paper towel and let it sit for 2 minutes. While the pepper is cooling, peel the garlic.
  • Slip the skin off the pepper and discard; roughly chop the flesh.
  • Core the tomatoes and put the tomatoes, pepper and garlic into a food processor (you could also use an immersion blender). Process them for 30 seconds; the mixture will still be a little chunky.
  • Add the salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. Process for 30 more seconds or until smooth.
  • Cover and refrigerate the soup for at least 2 hours.
  • For serving, add diced cucumber and chunks of mozzarella for a more substantial soup.

Method

Gulyás in Hungarian means shepherd or cowboy – somebody who tends cattle. And that’s where the name for the food comes from: while gulyás were off far away from their homes they made food from the available ingredients. For these trips they brought things that kept well: bacon, herbs and spices. In the beginning they ate it with bread and there were no potatoes or fancy stuff involved. The real revolution in cooking gulyás started in the nineteenth century when it found its way to home kitchens and restaurants. That’s when the potatoes, paprika and other things started to be used. In all cases, the gulyás is a thick soup or thin stew made of onions, peppers, tomatoes and spice with added meat, potatoes or other ingredients depending on the region or the person who makes it.

Where do people make mistakes? There are plenty of Hungarian “gulyás-like” dishes which are not gulyás like:

Tokány – tokány is a meaty dish. The onions are steamed and not sautéed, and the meat is cut into strips. It has a thick consistency.

Pörkölt – most mistaken for gulyás. The basis for pörkolt is very gulyás-like, but while gulyás has a thick soup- almost stew-like consistency, pörkölt has a thick, true stew consistency. The basis is just onions, peppers, tomatoes, cubes of meat, spices and a little bit of liquid. It is poured over dumplings (nokedli) or eaten with bread.

Paprikás –is almost like pörkölt, but is prepared a bit differently. Some regions do not differentiate and they make only one kind of paprikás,  the famous chicken paprikas.

Czech Hungarian Guláš – this fake gulyás is a part of Czech cuisine. Basically, it is simplified pörkölt eaten with knedlíky (steamed bread), a Czech speciality. With a good local beer, it is a tasty Czech classic, but it is not Hungarian gulyás. I wonder why they don’t call it Czech goulash?

Czech/Slovak Szegedínsky Guláš – this is a weird meal. It is a pork stew with sauerkraut and sour cream. It is also eaten with knedlíky. I have to say I rather like it. The oddity is that it has nothing to do with gulyás or with the Hungarian city of Szeged.

Gulyás Leves – clear beef soup with root vegetables.

Gulyás, together with Hungarian fish soup (Halászlé), is the barbecue of the Hungarian people. Imagine a burger. You can make in a pan at home, but what a difference when you grill it on a barbecue! Similarly, gulyás is traditionally made in a huge pot over an open fire. Often families will organize a cookout, where everyone hangs around playing soccer, arguing over politics, drinking beer and waiting for the gulyás to be ready. It’s not at all uncommon in the summer months to see groups of people climbing into trains at the Budapest stations, carrying a gulyás pot and three-legged stand to go somewhere in the countryside for a picnic. If you decide to serve gulyás, make gulyás and not something else. It is like asking for a hamburger in a Hungarian fast-food stand and receiving an unidentifiable object and lettuce on a bun. (Which is also a classic here, but that’s a story for another post.)

Here is a recipe and a video on how to cook gulyás, featuring a gulyás master, a.k.a. my dad. Enjoy.