Vanillekipferl/Austrian Almond Cookies

Vanillekipferl, my today's post is from Austria. This cookies are originate from Vienna in Austria and a speciality of the Bavarian town of Nördlingen. Traditionally, they are made at Christmas, thought these cookies are very well known in most of the European countries.Though these cookies are Christmas special, they can be enjoyed anytime of the year and are often for sale in Viennese coffee shops. They are said to have been created in the shape of the Turkish crescent moon symbolizing, the celebration of the victory of the Hungarian army over the Turkish in one of the many wars between the nations.These Crescent shaped almond cookies are baked in Germany and its very common in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia as a part of the typical Christmas baking.

Fonott Kalács/Hungarian Egg Twist Bread/Hungarian Easter Sweet Bread

Easter is celebrated all around the world on April 16 of this year. Easter menu have loaded of fantastic breads especially in most of the European countries, though its a religious festival, many cuisines have their own Easter breads. Easter, as many festival holidays in Hungary is very much associated with food and freshly baked breads.Easter breads is definitely one of the delicacies on this holiday menu. The traditional Hungarian Easter bread is Egg Twist aka Fonot Kalács which is a yeasted sweet bread made either with raisins, chocolate chips or else without these two ingredients. Usually baked with three braids, this sweet bread is very spongy and delicious as much as like French Brioche. Almost like Challah bread, this bread have their important place in Easter lunch or dinner table as an accompaniment to serve along with the main dish.

           

Dobos Torte/Dobostorta/Hungarian Layered Cake

Dobos torte or Dobosh is a Hungarian sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel. Wiki says that ' This layered pastry is named after its inventor, Hungarian confectioner József C. Dobos, who aimed to create a cake that would last longer than other pastries in an age when cooling techniques were limited'. The round sides of the cake are coated with ground hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts, or silvered almonds, and the caramel topping helps to prevent drying out.The name is also sometimes spelled Dobos-torta or Dobostorta. Dobosh or Dobos torte was first introduced at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885; King Franz Joseph I and Queen Elisabeth were among the first to taste it. The cake soon became popular throughout Europe, both for its durability through shipping and for its unique appearance. With its flat, shiny, caramel top, it was simple but elegant.

Lángos - Hungarian Flat Bread

Wikipedia says that Lángos, is a Hungarian food speciality, a deep fried flat bread also a street food is simply made of a dough with flour, yeast, salt and water. It is also traditionally made in Vojvodina, Serbia, where it was introduced by the local Hungarians. Lángos is a dough made of water or milk and flour, with a dash of sugar and salt and fried in oil. Adding sour cream, yoghurt or mashed potatoes to the dough is optional, in the latter case it is called potato lángos.It is eaten fresh and warm, topped with sour cream and grated cheese,ham, or sausages, or most frequently, without toppings, just rubbed with garlic or garlic butter, or doused with garlic water. Other ingredients and accompaniments can be mushroom, quark cheese, eggplant, cabbage, kefir, omelet, and a confectioner's sugar or jam. 

Palacsinta/Hungarian Crepes/Hungarian Pancakes ~~~Hungarian Cuisine

Hungarian cuisine, this cuisine belongs to Hungary, and to its primary ethnic group The Magyars.Hungarian dishes are cooked with meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits,fresh bread, dairy products and cheese.Hungarians love to enjoy their meat in stews, casseroles, as steaks. The mixing of different meats and vegetables in their dish is a traditional feature of this cuisine.Soups,desserts, pastries and the famous pancakes are the other important dishes of this Hungarian cuisine.I have been looking for a simple recipe from this cuisine for this month's long blogging marathon as we are cooking from around the world with country name starts with alphabets, since today"s alphabet is 'H',i picked immediately the Hungarian cuisine. While going through the google master, i got hooked immediately to their Palacsinta, the famous Hungarian pancakes or crepes. These crepes are almost as like French crepes.However most of the Central European pancakes are thin pancakes similar to the French crêpe. The main difference between the French and this Hungarian version of this dish is that the mixture for this crepes can be used straight away unlike that of the French crepes which is suggested to be left at rest for several hours. Palacsinta are made by creating a runny dough from eggs, flour, milk, and salt and frying it in a pan with butter or oil. Unlike thicker types of pancakes, palascinta are usually served with different types of fillings and eaten for lunch or dinner.One among the  well known crepes of this Hungarian cuisine is the Gundel pancake (Gundel palacsinta), made with ground walnuts, raisin, candied orange peel, cinnamon, and rum filling, served flambéed in dark chocolate sauce made with egg yolks, heavy cream, and cocoa.

Eggless Hungarian Kipfels/Eggless Kiffles

Kipfels or Kiffles are Hungarian sweet rolls often prepared for family gatherings especially for birthday, anniversary, wedding or simply for a get together as snack.Usually these addictive pastry style rolls goes for rich dough. Kipfels are traditionally prepared with lards, loads of eggs, butter and cream. Kipfels looks almost like crescent shaped and they are not large. Eventhough Kipfles goes for very rich dough, they also goes for fillings prepared with either nuts, cream cheese,cinnamon or else fruit fillings like prunes, apricots. When its comes to make this super rich Hungarian kipfels are eggless, its seriously a real challenge for us. But still i tried my hands to make this eggs,butter, cream loaded kipfels as completely eggless eventhough i went for butter and cream cheese. Trust me these kipfels are dangerously addictive.