25 Days of Cookies: Day 25
Merry Christmas, everyone!!! On this 25th day of the 25 Days of Cookies, I bring you a Hungarian specialty – Beigli. This recipe is a walnut roll from some of our dearest family friends, the Madarasz family. Every year the Madarasz family throws a fantastic Christmas party (except this year because #covid) and this beigli is always featured. Agnes was kind enough to give me her recipe – with very simplified instructions that I SO appreciate. Pretty much everything Agnes makes is fantastic, but this is my absolute FAVORITE. While this recipe takes a LOT of time and you really have to pay attention to the instructions, it is SO worth it.
Mrs. Madarasz’s Hungarian Beigli
a traditional Hungarian walnut roll that is just perfect for the holidays!
Ingredients
Dough
- 7 cups all purpose flour
- 3½ sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup luke-warm milk
- 1 package dry yeast
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1 pinch salt
Walnut Filling
- 6 cups ground walnuts
- 4 cups sugar to taste
- ½ stick butter
- 2 cups milk more or less
- ½ jar apricot jam
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- juice from ½ lemon
- vanilla to taste
- cinnamon to taste
- imitation or real rum to taste
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Cook the ground walnuts with the other spices and ingredients in a saucepan and add enough milk to make a thick paste – do not make the filling runny or it will leak out of the dough later. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring constantly and carefully to avoid burning. Set aside to cool.
- Dissolve yeast with a little sure in the lukewarm milk for the dough and let it bloom. In a bowl, combine the flour with butter pieces and crumble them together. Add caster sugar, salt, egg and activated yeast mixture and knead it until you get a soft and smooth (but not wet) dough. You can add sour cream before you knead the mixture and if it is too soft and runny, add more flour to make it firmer. Once the dough is smooth, divide into 4 equal parts and roll into balls. Cover balls with cling wrap and let rest in the fridge for a couple of hours. Once the dough has rested in the fridge, use a rolling pin to create a rectangle of dough out of each ball by rolling it on a flat surface. It is hard to make thin and even – try rolling it between sheets of wax paper or dusting the rolling pin with flour to not stick. The rectangle of rolled dough should be roughly the size of a cookie sheet.
- Spread the filling evenly on top of the dough – it must be cooled at this step. From one end, start rolling it up, folding the edge. If you use wax paper when rolling the dough out, it should peel off easily once you start folding. Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the rolls on top with 3 or 4 rolls per sheet. Poke holes on the top with a fork to let steam escape.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Prepare an egg wash for the rolls by separating 2 eggs. Whisk the egg yolks and gently brush the tops of each of the rolls. Put the rolls aside until the yolk dries and let the dough rise a little bit. Next, brush the rolls with the whisked egg whites and let dry a little or put the rolls in the oven to bake.
- Bake rolls about 40 minutes – the tops will become nice and golden brown and the toothpick will come out clean when tested – the time may differ depending on your oven.
