Let me see… I quite like the sweet – we can agree with that. In Hungary we do have a lot of sweets. Not as much chocolate (unfortunately) but pastries. I could introduce them to U, but….. i will not. I have a better stuff.

One. The best. I can guarantee that u can not find it anywhere else. And to make it….. was lots of fun. Thanks to my Daddy!

The real name is: ‘KÜRTŐS KALÁCS‘. Originally coming from our neighborhood, Transylvania. The word “kürtő” means chimney and “kalács” is a typical hungarian brioche type of cake made with lots of butter.

So, the project did not seem easy because it needs a special machine to move the dough close to the heat continuously. Anyway, i gave a try without any special equipment just in my old, sh8t oven which hardly goes up to 200 degrees….but  whatever! I had faith :)

Well, the result was a real treat… even if it could not keep its shape and shrank to a pile of kaka…. hehehe. But tasted really nice. Was using a big metal can to twist around the dough but because u need to use a lots of butter (brushing and sprinkle with lots of sugar) the dough was starting to melt down on the side of the can…. nothing i could do for it. Was better to pull the tin out so the thick inside part could cook evenly as well. Still took more than one our. Pfffffffffffffffff….  BUT… i was desperate. So i called my father who is the best handy man ever to figure out some kind of cheap solution or variation for this machine. Cause i knew i was going to home with Alfie. And he did it. He did it, cause for my Father there is no “mission impossible”. Well done. Now i just needed to pick up the perfect receipe.

flour 750g

eggs 2

butter 200g

milk 250ml

fresh yeast 30g

sugar 200g

vanilla pod

lemon zest

salt

Using all your ingredients making a fluffy dough (similar to doughnut), leave it to prove to double size. After roll it to a 5mm thick sheet and cut little ‘snakes’ out of it – after brushing your wooden rolling pin with plenty of butter u can start to twist the long strips all around the wood. Press it down a bit, dont let it break. Now again a ‘liter of melted butter’ to cover the surface and u can hint with ‘a kilo of sugar’. In this part u can be creative and mix the sugar with anything u fancy – cinnamon, walnut etc.etc…) just gonna cover the whole cake with a crunchy caramel layer.Here we go, now we can jump on the fire and check the special machine…

I had two rolled out chimney cake. The first we baked really close to the fire, so basically the dough had no time to bake evenly cause the caramel developed to quickly and started to burn. After this we knew, we need to put the rolling pin one layer up (my father is a genius, he knew it before) more far from the heat to give space and time to the dough to bake properly while the sugar is caramelizing slowly slowly.

The whole ‘ceremony’ took like 10 minutes: done! To be honest… didnt take much more longer to finish the chimney cakes. Of course the best when its fresh and still warm – but can keep for a couple of days. Outside is crunchy, inside is beautifully layered soft brioche and the butter kept your strings separated, so u can easily roll it down while u are eating… try it warm with a big glass of icy milk!!! My pleasure…

xxx