Cseresznyés rétes
Strudels made with filo pastry and any kind of fruits are my dad’s speciality. His strudels are so crispy, tasty and luscious that there is rarely a piece left for tomorrow.
Today – Hungarian Cherry Strudel – in my kids’ opinion maybe the best one.
Depending on the country you live in, you should be able to buy the filo pastry in any bigger super market. So, you will need
500gr of filo pastry
300gr of pitted sour cherries
3tbs of brown sugar
1tbs of semolina
200gr of butter – melted
2 eggs
4dl of flour
2dl of brown sugar
2dl of yogurt
1dl of cold pressed oil
1sashet of baking powder (12gr)
Drain sour cherries and give the juice diluted with some water to your kids to drink it. Mix the cherries with 3tbs of sugar and 1tbs of semolina.
In a medium bowl mix the eggs, flour, sugar, yogurt, oil and baking powder.
Line the baking tray with baking paper, slightly brushed with oil. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
My advice is to count how many sheets of filo pastry you have and divide them into 4, just to get the idea how many strudels you will get. You will need 4 sheets for each strudel.
Place the first layer, grease it with butter, and then spread a very thin layer of an egg mixture. Repeat the process with the remaining 3 sheets. Now spoon the cherry filling in the middle leaving about a 5cm boarder of filo around. Fold the pastry over and roll towards the other end. Place it one the baking sheet.
When you’re done with rolling the strudels, brush them with remaining butter and bake them in the preheated oven for about 30minutes until the filo turns golden brown.
Let them cool for a while before you cut and serve. Dust them with icing sugar or you can serve them hot or cold with custard cream.
Enjoy your freshly baked Hungarian cherry strudel with your loved ones and I wish you no worries for the rest of the day 🙂
This apricot and marzipan pie is one of my family’s favourite pies. We can hardly wait apricots to appear on the market, so that we could bake a huge pie. As we are big family, baking the pie in a small round dish is never enough. So this time, here are the quantities for the tray 28x38cm – not that huge 🙂
300gr of flour
250gr of butter
200gr of brown sugar
4 eggs
1tsp of baking powder
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
100ml of milk
1kg of apricots
100ml of apricot jam
For the crumble:
160gr of marzipan
100gr of butter
100gr of brown sugar
1tsp of cinnamon
150gr of flour
Few drops of almond essence
50gr of almond flakes on the top
To make the pastry whisk the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar or vanilla extract. Add one egg at a time. Mix flour with baking powder and add it to the mixture. Stir in milk. Pour the mixture on the tray lined with baking paper.
Arrange the apricot halves on top and sprinkle with slightly warmed apricot jam.
Make the crumble by combining all the ingredients with hand, making crumbs with your fingers. Sprinkle the crumble over the apricots, and put the almond flakes on top all over the pie.
Bake in the preheated oven on 180°C for 45min or until is golden brown.
Now, one more thing, do not forget to share your apricot and marzipan pie with your loved ones.
Read more about apricots – how good they are 🙂
Almond flake cookies is another recipe from my “dad’s home bakery”. The first time he made them for us we all loved them because they are so crunchy. Now he makes them with roasted hazelnuts as well, so you can easily replace the almond with any kind of nut.
Beat 115gr of butter and 130gr of brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract and a few drops of almond extract and 1 tsp. of cinnamon. Add 80ml of water and gradually add 325gr of self-rising flour and beat until is combined. Stir in 90 gr of slightly roasted almond flakes.
Roll the cookie dough into a log (5cm diameter), wrap in a plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. The dough can be frozen overnight or longer. Take it out and cut with a sharp knife (2-3mm thick slices). Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and bake them for 12-13 minutes in preheated oven at 180°C.
Pour a glass of milk for your kids and cup of coffee for yourself and enjoy those tasty almond flake cookies as a crunchy afternoon snack 🙂
My grannie use to have a neighbour called Maria. Each spring, when then first young carrots appeared, she made us lovely rolls as my sister adored them.
Aunty Maria is no longer with us, but we still make her rolls every spring.
It is so quick and easy, no sugar added, crunchy and juicy at the same time.
250 gr grated carrots Vanilla essence
250 gr butter Apricot or plum jam
300 gr flour Icing sugar
You see, only a few ingredients. Mix the carrots with room temperature butter and vanilla essence. Add flour (you can easily make an gluten free option- choose the flour that you like).
Roll out the dough with on rolling pin until 5 mm thick. Cut round shapes using a glass or a cookie cutter. On one side put a teaspoon of jam and just fold it in half. Press the edges with a fork. Place them on the baking paper. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes, until slightly brown. When cool, roll them in icing sugar.
I like to leave them without the sugar, as the jam is sweet enough, it’s up to you. However, enjoy Aunt Maria’s carrot rolls and have a nice day 🙂
Chocolate hazelnut sandwich cookies are traditionally called “paratroopers”, a cookie of my childhood, that literally melts in your mouth. Well, my dad loves baking and eating cookies, so here is his way of doing it.
Whisk 4 egg whites until firm. Add the 150gr of icing sugar and continue to whisk for a few minutes. If you want you can add some lemon juice or drop of lemon essential oil. Fold in 150gr of finely grounded roasted hazelnuts and a 1 tbsp of breadcrumbs.
Use two teaspoons to spoon the mixture onto trays covered with nonstick baking paper. Put in the preheated oven at 120°C. When they get brownish, lower the heat to 50°C and leave them to dry for an hour.
In the meantime make the filling. Mix 50gr of butter with 50gr of icing sugar. Add one whole egg and 50gr of melted dark chocolate.
Now stick the cooled cookies together with the chocolate filling.
Mind you, this is a traditional recipe, the original chocolate hazelnut sandwich cookies were made with raw eggs. In case you are not comfortable with it, use two egg yolks instead of a whole egg for the filling, and make sure to precook them.