HUNGARIAN EASTER TRADITION - ANGELS’ WINGS FRIED COOKIES!

FROM OUR TRUE HUNGARIAN HERITAGE

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HUNGARIAN EASTER TRADITION

ANGELS’ WINGS FRIED COOKIES

Hungarian Csöröge (Angels' Wings) are those wonderful light as air, crispy, fried dough cookies traditionally prepared for Weddings. Beautifully piled high in pyramid style on cut crystal platters, they are lovely to behold and even most delightful to indulge.  A popular dessert for Sunday dinner and served with coffee after a meal of Beef Gulyas or Chicken Paprikas. It tends to leave powdery traces of sugar on your upper lip, your chin and your nose. The secret is now out!

Angel wings are traditional in several other European cuisines and have been incorporated into other regional cuisines (such as the United States) by immigrant populations. They are most commonly eaten in the period just before Lent, often during Carnival and on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent – not to be confused with "Fat Tuesday" (Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. There is a tradition in some countries for husbands to give them to their wives on Friday the 13th in order to avoid bad luck.

Forgács Fánk or Csöröge

Ingredients:

10 large egg yolks

4-5 cups sifted flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 oz cognac brandy (or rum)

Directions: In a large mixing bowl, cream egg yolks until thick and lemon coloured. Add all ingredients except flour and beat a little more until well blended. Add flour gradually; beat to a smooth batter then as you add rest of the flour you begin to knead with your hands until dough is smooth as silk, soft and very elastic. Add more flour as needed.

Separate dough into balls and let rest on your noodle board (covered with a bowl). Roll out very thin on a slightly floured pastry board. Cut with zigzag pizza wheel into one inch wide diagonal strips. Take one long strip at a time, cut a slit and take one corner and loop it through the slip to form a flying angel. (See diagram below).

When the oil is hot, place about 10 pieces of dough into the deep fryer or pan at a time. Turn Csöröge after ½-1 minute and fry on other side until light golden (about 1/2 min). Remove onto tray lined with paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

ANGELS’ WINGS FRIED COOKIES

(Smaller recipe)

Forgács Fánk or Csöröge

Here’s another variation on the theme. This one has sour cream in it. Try them both.

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream

4 large egg yolks

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

2¼ cups flour

1 oz cognac brandy (or rum)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ cup icing sugar (for dusting)

1 pkg vanilla sugar

Oil/shortening (for frying)

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Form into a soft dough. Roll out and cut as directed in previous recipe (See Diagram- above). Fry quickly in hot Crisco shortening until light brown. Dust with vanilla icing sugar.

Chef’s Hint: All donut recipes should contain 1 shot of rum - it gives it a pleasant taste and during frying - the dough will absorb less oil. (I would suggest 1 shot for the cook - this will give her a bit of courage for the task!)

For more of these amazing recipes - 
visit our lovely website Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes

 

Blessings

 

Clara Margaret Czegeny

Dream Machine Publications

Paris, Ontario, Canada

The "Hot Hungarian Chef"

KUGLOF - IS IT TRULY HUNGARIAN?

KUGLOF - IS IT TRULY HUNGARIAN?

Gugelhupf or Kugelhupf From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia German cake called "Gugelhupf" Czech version called "Bábovka" with cocoa filling. A Gugelhupf or Kugelhupf is a southern German, Austrian, Swiss and Alsatian term for a type of cake. In the Czech Republic it is called bábovka, in Poland it is called babka, in Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, it is called kuglof. It has the general shape of a torus, like a donut. As with the Jewish dish kugel, the name 'gugelhupf' is related to the Middle High German word Kugel meaning "ball" or "globe".

A common Gugelhupf consists of a soft yeast dough and contains raisins, almonds and Kirschwasser cherry brandy. Some also contain candied fruits and nuts. It is baked in a special circular pan, originally made of enamelled pottery, now also used for making Bundt cakes. It is usually eaten for breakfast or a coffee break.

It was the sweet chosen to represent Austria in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006.

One of the lovely ladies who purchased our cookbook wondered if there were kuglof recipes in our book. 

Although we have a few coffee cake recipes, we tried to only classic hungarian favourites. We have the Aranygaluska (which translated means Golden Dumplings - they are not dumplings, but because the yeast sweet dough is torn into sections into the buttered pan - hence the name Galuksa)

I had to re-route her to Kuglof Heaven. http://kuglof.lap.hu/

There's probably 500 or more recipes of every kind of Kuglof on the planet. And oddly enough - the website is from Hungary.

Enjoy

Clara (Hot Hungarian Chef)

Visit our website for more recipes and information about Clara & Helen Czegeny

Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes TM

Clara's Sister Anne Lindsay writes in the book's congratulations.... "Clara and my dear mother Helen co-authored these treasured Hungarian family recipes. It must have been an amazing task - God bless you both! Great Job!"

You will thoroughly enjoy this Rhapsody of recipes as you walk through the culture and savour the flavours of Hungary! 

PS
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Clara and her mother Helen, co-authored these amazing treasured Hungarian family recipes.
So, whether you crave Chicken Paprikas or Almas Retes, this authentic, beloved, cherished and Hungarian Heritage Recipe collection includes a vast array of national favourites, from appetizers through desserts. Learn about, create, and taste the flavours and culinary traditions of Hungary - from Cabbage Rolls to Poppy seed and Walnut Rolls and the famous regal Dobos Torte. It must have been an amazing task - God bless you both! Great Job!

To Gulyás or not to Goulash'

While writing the preamble to my Hungarian Pork Gulyás Soup recipe in our ever popular Hungarian Cookbook - called; Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes, I realized that the very name GOULASH conjures up all kinds of ideas, memories, cooking vessels, ingredients - maybe even the kitchen sink. (one can never be too sure)

So - after a long discussion with my 83 year Hungarian Mother, we decided to be a bit more explicit in our description so as to not only to entertain and entice cooks, but to inform and educate chefs and encourage them to give this classic Hungarian Dish an honest school try.

Here it is in all it's paprikás glory!
Goulash Soup (Gulyás) is a classic and traditional Hungarian soup. It is one of the five most popular meat dishes on the North American cooking scene. Although goulash/gulyás turns up on many German and Austrian menus and cookbooks, gulyás actually originated in Hungary and later spread beyond its borders, first to the Austrian Empire, Germany, and the Balkans, and finally around the world!

Hungarian gulyás traces its roots back to nomadic Magyar herdsmen in the ninth century. Shepherds cut meat into cubes and slowly stewed them in a heavy iron kettle over an open fire until the liquid evaporated. The meat was then spread out dry in the sun; an early convenience food; became totally portable as they followed their flocks across the vast expanse of Hungary's Great Plain. Water reconstituted the meat and by heating and adding some vegetables in a pot over a fire: the stew was ready. The consistency depended on the amount of liquid added. If more, the dish was called gulyás soup; if less, it was simply goulash/gulyás meat. In both cases it was eaten with spoons dipped into the communal cooking pot.


Hungarian Gulyas, as we know it today, did not develop until the beginning of the 19thC with the widespread cultivation of peppers in Hungary and the use of paprika as a popular spice. Originally it was considered peasant food, eaten primarily by country folk, farmers, shepherds, cowboys, and swineherds. With the rise of Hungarian nationalism in the second half of the 19thC, paprika-seasoned gulyás moved from the campsites and farmhouses to the tables of middle-class and wealthy city dwellers, to the menus of fashionable restaurants, and eventually across the globe.

Goulash/gulyás is now the Hungarian dish most widely known abroad. However, in many parts of the world, dishes called "goulash" bear little resemblance to the gulyás that originated in Hungary and is eaten there today. In Hungary, gulyás is a meat dish halfway between a soup and a stew, made with small cubes of meat (usually beef), no more than 3/4-inch in size, and flavoured with bacon or lard, onions, and paprika. Gulyás is traditionally served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon.

Put a little Paprika in your Life

Clara

http://www.helenshungarianrecipes.com/


Clara's Sister Anne Lindsay congratulatory cookbook note says..."Clara and my mother Helen co-authored these amazing treasured Hungarian family recipes.

So, whether you crave Chicken Paprikas or Almas Retes, this authentic, beloved, cherished and Hungarian Heritage Recipe collection includes a vast array of national favourites, from appetizers through desserts. Learn about, create, and taste the flavours and culinary traditions of Hungary - from Cabbage Rolls to Poppy seed and Walnut Rolls and the famous regal Dobos Torte. It must have been an amazing task - God bless you both! Great Job!